“A falling leaf does not hate the wind.” - Zatoichi
The best martial artists blame. I know what you are thinking, “Isn’t blaming others a slippery slope and a key part of having a victim mentality?” Yes, blaming others can create a mindset of negativity and can continue the cycle of being a victim. A martial artist doesn’t blame others because they are supposed to be a learned person or a person of stature and to blame others is to give away their ownership. However, a martial artist does assign blame to a higher power and thus they blame it all on fate. The Japanese of old believed in inochi (命) or “fate.” Today, inochi means “life” but in the past it meant “fate” or “karma.” Thus, whenever something untoward happens, a Japanese person shrugs their shoulders, says, “shouganai” and moves on. Shouganai (仕様が無い) means “it can't be helped.” Once, I asked Furuya Sensei if his grandfather of samurai stock ever talked about being interned during WWII. He said the only thing his grandfather said was, “War is war. It is shoganai.” By saying, “shouganai” the Japanese aren’t giving themselves up to fate but instead they are using it to acceptance their fate and use it to their advantage. The Japanese way of looking at fate is similar to the stoic usage of amor fati or “the love of fate.” Amor fati is “an attitude in which one sees everything that happens in one's life, including suffering and loss, as good or, at the very least, necessary.” Perhaps this understanding of fate is why Miyamoto Musashi’s first principle in his Dokkodo or the supposed 21 rules he lived by was “Accept things as they are.” When we blame it on fate and no one else, we learn to not take things personally. When we don’t take things personally, we take back that aspect of our lives that we can control - our own actions and fate is merely the outcome. In Aikido, there is a huge component of leading our opponents. Peter Goldsbury Sensei on Aikiweb described leading as suikomu (吸い込む). He wrote, “The Chinese character is the second character of the compound word kokyuu (呼吸), meaning, breath. The primary meaning is to inhale, suck in, swallow up, the third meaning leading to a metaphor of putting a person in a position such that he/she has no choice but to do what you want him/her to do.” In class, I often ask the students working on a technique, “Who is in charge?” It is a trick question. Whomever I am speaking to either the uke or “the one receiving the technique” or the nage or “the one doing the technique” is suppose to answer, “I am.” They are both supposed to say that they are because every person is supposed to be in control of themselves. The nage is in control of the timing, taking the person’s balance and throwing them to name just a few. The uke is controlling themselves to not only make a good attack, but also controlling when they are allowing their balance to be broken and thus allowing themselves to be thrown. Doing Aikido in this manner, Aikido training becomes a metaphor for life: Take control of yourself (how you move) and leave the rest to fate (how the throw turns out). The best martial artist never blame anyone else, not even themselves - they only accept things as they are.
Today’s goal: Furuya Sensei once wrote, “Why do I blame the teapot for spilling which has no crime, it is all my fault for not being awake!”
Watch this video to better understand Amor Fati