The martial art that we are practicing is called "Iaido" and not "Iaijutsu. "Do" in English is equivalent to the Way, and thus there are certain elements that make Iaido different from Iaijutsu.
The most important virtue of "Budo" is "Jin" (humaneness, benevolence, kindness - the ideograph shows man connecting heaven and earth), which also can be translated as human compassion, i.e., thinking of others and getting along with each other. If a group of Iaido practitioners don't get along with each other, that group will be a "weak" organization; however, the better a group gets along with each other, the stronger it will be.
One aspect of Japanese Budo that people from other nations have to keep in mind is respect for others. When doing Iaido, one's "senpai" (senior) is always one's senpai, no matter if one gets a higer dan than one's senpai due to certain circumstances, i.e., if one's senpai gets an injury and can't practice for a while/
Respect other people's position is of the utmost importance. This means respecting not only your own sensei, but all the other members of your dojo - letting personal differences negatively affect the unity of your dojo or group will result in a weaker organization, which will ultimately lead to less people doing Iaido. Getting along with one and other is a way of ensuring that Iaido will be practiced by more and more people, and will be passed on to future generations.
That way one can be assured of repaying one's sensei's kindness and the kindness of all the people in the pat who dedicated their lives to Iaido.
Ref:
http://users.telenet.be/wadokan/IAIDO%20TERMS.pdf. 12 March 2010
