Teaching selflessness -- an essay, and request for ideas

[kiltedwolfman]

If only you could have them study Budo, preferable kenjutsu of one of the many koryu that are available there. This study teaches you that you must think selflessly in order to achieve any real skill and adeptness with the sword. It also teaches that self sacrifice ( not always the mortal kind but more in giving up the thing you want for the betterment of the self and accepting that what you need is often far harder to obtain but deeply more satisfying ) is an important part of growing into a total person.

Swing by any of the koryu schools and ask this same question to the Sensei there. I'm sure you will find some interesting and possibly enlightening suggestions. I say this because the martial arts world, more accurately the ones that focus on the concepts of warfare as many of the koryu do ( not all, but many ) have had the same problem you are now faced with. How do you teach someone that is so attached to thier material lives to be willing to let go of it all in pursuit of something that at the onset is totally obscure and intangible, and that only through constant hardship and training can prove it's overall value to the individual, and by extension to society as a whole?

I will likely be in Japan in March of 2012 and if you have the time and would like to, I would be happy to introduce you to a few of the teachers there that I know. I'm sure they would enjoy chatting about the problems of teaching todays youth selflessness.