“The Way is hard.” - Unknown
The Way (道) is a personal belief system which dictates how we live our lives. Furuya Sensei used to always say, “The Way is hard.” To be completely honest, this is the first year that I ever truly believe him. Before, I was young and stupid and things came to me easily. Now that I am older, I feel like I have to work so much harder to work, stay in shape and if I even look at ice cream, I gain weight. The old adage, “Youth is wasted on the young” seems truly apropos. Following “the Way” is personal and no two people have the same journey. Each person’s journey is fraught with ups and downs and everyone has something that they need to work on. Each journey is similar only in that we are the only person who cares about our journey and the work that it requires is our own. If we say to ourselves, “this is who I am” then we have to follow those beliefs otherwise why apply those rules to ourselves in the first place? Beliefs dictate actions and actions demonstrate our character. In this sense, the Way is straight forward. If we say we don’t litter, we don’t throw trash on the floor. But, it’s usually the simplest things which are the hardest because it is in our nature as human beings to look for the shortest route, easiest task or most comfortable option. The Way is about sacrifice, but sacrifice isn’t quite the right word. For something to be a sacrifice, something of worth has to be given up. So the question is, “Do I really love ice cream and is giving it up really a sacrifice?” Perhaps instead of sacrifice we say “choose” because we choose to be this way. Thus, following the Way is only hard because we have to be who we say we are. In budo, they say, “Living is hard, dying is easy” because living our Way requires work, regardless of the Way we choose. Martial artists choose to follow the Way even if it does seems harder because the only true goal of a martial artist is to be better than they were yesterday.
Today’s goal: Think about who you say you are inside and see if it matches the person you are on the outside.
Watch this video of Edmund Vance Cooke’s poem, “How Did You Die?”