Physical
Training Mar 2006
Budo Culture
copyright © 2006 Nicklaus Suino, all rights reserved
Excerpted from "Budo
Mind and Body: Training Secrets of the Japanese Martial Arts"
People who practice budo are members of a special group. They are
seekers after truth, people who want something more from life than a
paycheck and a nice home. Their abilities allow them to make
unique contributions to their communities and to the world.
Unfortunately, there are many misconceptions about budo, held both by
non-practitioners and by those within the ranks of martial
artists. Because of the incomplete or poor education of many of
our so-called "masters," martial artists are often seen as aggressive
people, overly concerned with fighting and winning. While these
stereotypes may often by true, they are not reflective of the ideal
martial artist.
We need regular reminders of the high standards which we must set for
ourselves. Since we set out to learn unique and dangerous skills,
we must have a code of behavior to ensure that we do not use those
skills for wrongful purposes. Such a code, bushido (literally,
"the way of the warrior"), has existed in Japan for centuries, but it
is sometimes difficult for modern Westerners to understand how the
antiquated and sometimes odd-sounding rules of this code apply to
them. In the few places where they have been written down, these
rules are enmeshed in an enormous amount of information about the
culture that gave birth to them, which can make it difficult to
understand their practical value. It is helpful to study how they
are applied and to determine their purposes if we want to know how and
why we should follow them today.
Many Western students of budo believe that a moral or social code is a
waste of time, assuming that physical practice is the only thing that
will help them make progress in their chosen art. In fact, the
non-physical qualities of good martial artists - such as sincerity,
politeness, loyalty, honor, and courage - are qualities that actually
help them succeed. Martial arts practice, like most human
endeavors, is a social act, and none of us can succeed without a great
deal of contact with other people. The rules of bushido govern
our interactions with those people, our teachers, our peers in the
dojo, competitors, and junior students whom we help. Our egos are
exposed in practice by encounters with fear and pain, and bushido helps
to provide a buffer against the conflicts this might create.
Sincerity
In martial arts, as in life, you are expected to mean what you
say. This is simple to understand when it is a matter of
expressing your intention. If you say, "I am going to practice
technique one thousand times," then everybody who heard you say it will
think less of you if you quit after six-hundred fifty
repetitions. The simple rule in such a case is: If you are not
sure you can do it, don't say anything.
In all matters in the dojo you are expected to be sincere. This
extends to the smallest action or word. When you bow to show
respect for the masters, it will an empty gesture unless you know
something about them and why they are worthy of respect. If you
are thinking about your work when you bow, the bow is insincere.
Similarly, using the word sensei has an important role in your
training. Your teacher gives you all the most important building
blocks in your martial arts career, but many students forget this after
a few years. These students begin to imagine that their ability
is entirely due to their own greatness. You should always use the
word sensei with respect and affection in your heart. This will
help you remember your relationship with your teacher in the proper
light.
You must monitor yourself to make sure that your training aims are
appropriate. Training just to earn a promotion or to impress
someone in the dojo will cause you to veer off the path. No
teacher can read your mind, but eventually your actions will
demonstrate where your heart lies. The sweat and intimacy of
training guarantee that sooner or later you will reveal your true
intentions to your teacher. Before you begin to act upon these
incorrect goals, they will have begun to develop in your mind.
The time to root them out is early, when they first appear.
Sincerity is a powerful tool in your training, because it allows you to
act without hesitation. Insincere actions and words destroy
confidence and cause hesitation; these problems are deadly to a martial
artist. Mental weaknesses translate into physical
shortcomings. Next to prolonged training, simply deciding on a
course of action and carrying it out with total commitment can improve
your skill in the dojo tremendously. I have seen this over and
over again in my students.
Sincerity means matching word and deed, but in budo it means more than
that. It means matching word and deed with state of mind, or with
the intentions of your heart. We are not often taught this,
because it is a much harder way to live, but the satisfaction of acting
with a unified mind, body, and spirit cannot be compared with any other
reward.
Courtesy
The dojo is a place where there are many chances to hurt other people,
physically and emotionally. Uncontrolled punches and thoughtless
words can both cause injury, so all students must learn caution in
these areas. Good manners smooth the rough edges of practice, and
good control of technique is nothing more than the extension of the
same principle into the physical realm. You must show regard for
your training partner at all times.
What may seem like an empty ritual is more often an important component
of training. For example, we do not allow our students to walk
between two other students who are talking or practicing
together. The physical awareness of the personal space of others
is crucial in budo, and it makes no more sense to unconsciously walk
between two training partners in the dojo than it would to carelessly
get between two people who are fighting on the street. If
crossing between them is unavoidable, we extend our right hand out and
down, which is the non-verbal Japanese equivalent of saying, "Excuse
me." By borrowing the Japanese hand gesture we are linking a rule
of common courtesy to a physical movement, which helps students to
remember it.
The rules of almost every dojo require that students who are bowing in
a line wait for the senior students to rise from the bow first.
This follows the rules of respect for rank, but also helps develop
awareness, peripheral vision, hearing, and tactile awareness. It
is a mistake to think that the training starts only after the bow is
complete. Every action in the dojo, from paying dues to free
sparring, should be a training exercise.
Wear a White Belt
Whenever you go to a new dojo to train, wear a white belt. This
shows that you have a sincere desire to learn, and that you are willing
to put aside your preconceptions. This point of etiquette is
fairly widely known, but many people ignore it, either by actually
wearing a colored belt or by failing to enter the dojo with an open
mind.
The best possible impression you can make by wearing a belt showing
your rank from another school into the dojo is that you are confident
in your rank and would be willing to participate in all of the
activities expected of people of that rank at that dojo. If these
activities include kumite or randori (free fighting), you may be
expected to spar with others of equal or greater rank. Don't be
surprised if a special sparring session is arranged just to see how
good you are.
A more likely interpretation, however, will be that you are poorly
trained, because you do not know the rule about wearing a white
belt. If your skill level does not match that of the students in
that school (and how could it, unless you have trained in exactly the
same martial art they do?), then you will also be seen as
unskilled. Any protestations you make about your training having
been different will sound like whining. You can avoid all this by
following the white-belt rule.
A closely related problem, more serious than wearing a colored belt, is
the student who enters a new dojo carrying all the baggage from his or
her past training. This student wants to learn what the new
school teaches, but does not want to put aside the ways of his last
teacher. The end result is that both sets of skills, the new and
the old, suffer in quality, and the new teacher wonders why the student
is asking for instructions but not following them.
Another similar problem can arise among students who stay in one dojo
to achieve high brown-belt or black belt ranks. They come to
think that the relatively high rank they possess means they now know
everything. They stop listening to their teachers, forgetting
that it was the teachers who gave them the tools to get as far as they
have.
In truth, every student must wear a white belt, either actually or
internally, at all times in the dojo. The act indicates a
willingness to learn, which is our purpose in studying martial arts.
This
article is an excerpt from "Budo Mind and Body" by Nicklaus
Suino. It is due to be shipped to bookstores on March 14, 2006,
and will be available from Amazon.com, Shambhala.com, and any
other purveyor of fine books.
Nicklaus Suino's website is artofjapaneseswordsmanship.com
Our
Sponsor, SDKsupplies
