By Shinsei (Roger Sheldon). While Driving to Ticehurst on 25th March, 1994

The way we think about things, the way we express those thoughts as speech to other people and the way we express them when we write them down on paper have different qualities or levels of order and spontaneity.  Spontaneous thought is random, it is very often a disorganised realisation of ideas just as they come into the mind, one thought leading onto another.  Very often a thought triggers another line of thought, one that we pursue only to come back to the original topic, and again going off on a different tack as another thought leads us off into yet another direction.       

It is accepted that such thought processes need to be organised in order to disseminate an idea to other people.  However, I have had the realisation that the ordering of my thought processes is incredibly time consuming.  As a natural teacher, l have spent years organising words for other people, but to what avail?  I suddenly realised that I might as well simply write my thoughts down as they occur without attempting to organise them into specific articles and papers.  If there is randomness about such reflections, does it really matter?  For the most part, I write my thoughts down for my students, and spontaneity may actually help the student understand how the development of ideas leads directly to constructive and practical models.  A student may perceive too, how the interaction between him or her and me leads to the revelation of hitherto undiscovered knowledge.        

If I am writing my thoughts down for a wide audience of people who don't train with me, then the precise organisation of words does matter, for there is an accepted, orderly and grammatically correct method of writing upon a particular subject.  As I write down my thoughts now at this moment in time, with minimal consideration of the construction of the piece and by way of communicating with my students, I realise I write too, for myself and for immortality.        

A paper written by a student triggered these particular thought processes.  While it was clear that a great deal of thought and effort had gone into the construction of his paper, it nevertheless represented a 'private' thought process.  It reminded me of how refreshing it always is, to read somebody's true and often spontaneous thoughts, to understand the processes that go into the construction of schemes and ideas.  Unquestionably, I like this idea of honesty, openness and spontaneity in both my own and other peoples writing.  Such an approach would help to disseminate the inner aspects of Shinseido Shorin Ryu far more speedily than trying to order the words into formal papers.  This has never been successful simply because of the enormous amount of time required to organise my thoughts.  The Shinseido archives are full of notes and ideas waiting to be written up for student consumption.  It is clear that students will rarely receive such knowledge as things stand now.        

It does occur to me that recording spontaneous thoughts could be a little repetitive.  Perhaps like the forms in which movements are repeated as often as needed depending upon the importance of that move.  If l render my thoughts as they spontaneously occur and commit them to writing, then those topics that are oft repeated will assume greater importance to the reader as they obviously assume greater importance to me as they keep recurring in my mind.

This really is an interesting concept - that of disseminating thoughts as they occur.  Not feeling the pressure to do any more than respond to the activities of my own mind and the analysis of information coming in to that mind from other sources.  I like this concept.  It is a good way to approach the recording of Shinseido and the wholistic science that has become a part of my life.