身から出た錆
Remove the rust from your blade
Don’t let your weapons rust, handle them every day. Furuya Sensei used to admonish us by saying, “Touch your weapons every day.” We aren’t forced to confront the line between life and death every day, so the idea is that, as humans, we have the tendency to forget. If we neglect our bodies or our weapons for even a day then we may accidentally forgo them for much longer and thus, when we need them, they will be rusty. In college, I read a study that the average professional athlete starts to lose conditioning after 10 days of inactivity. This is incredible and those people are on average in their late twenties and in a sense, they begin to rust. Even during the Tour de France, the riders still ride on the rest days to keep their legs from getting stiff or they ride so that they don’t rust. Today, life seems to go by so fast. One day turns into a week and a week into a month and without even realizing it, a year has passed. The only way to slow this down is with mindfulness. When we handle our weapons, we are mindful and we are in the present. In order to not forget with our bodies, we must remember our training by moving our bodies. In order to not forget how our weapons feel then we must touch them every day. By picking up our weapons every day, even for a moment, we remember who we are. This memory is the mindfulness which prevents our minds and our bodies from rusting. Don’t forget how your weapons feel, touch them to prevent them from rusting. Remove the rust and don’t forget!
Today’s goal: Pick up your weapons and swing them around even if it is for just a moment.