A warrior’s true inner strength lies in restraint. The amount of restraint we have is equal to the amount of character we have developed in our training. In martial arts training it is often mistakenly thought to be solely about the acquisition of physical skill and strength. However, this is true only in the beginning. The actual path of training lies in the development of one’s character. Therefore, Voltaire explained it best when he said, “With great power comes great responsibility.” Thus, with the acquisition of strength and ability comes the responsibility of restraint which is the ability control one’s self. When confronted, it is easy to lose one’s temperament and do things which we regret later. Training teaches us to have restraint by building up our tolerances so that we may have restraint when it matters most – life and death situations. Years ago, the Lays potato chips ad slogan was, “Betcha, can’t eat just one!” This ad campaign is based upon something called hedonic hunger or our desire for pleasure or positive incentive. Eating like hurting others are desires that originate in mind and our overindulgence shows our true weakness. Because the desire to seek pleasure or satisfaction are constructs of our minds, they can be trained and thus the goal of training is to develop one’s character. In Japanese, one word for restraint is “yokushi” and interestingly, yokushi can also mean “checkmate.” With these understandings, we can surmise that restraint is the key to winning. We can destroy or hurt others, but that just shows our lack of restraint and is the window into our weakness. We can also show kindness, compassion, forgiveness and the ability to put the welfare of others before our own and that shows the level of restraint we’ve developed in training. Furuya Sensei once wrote, “Strength is nothing without serenity and nobility of character.” Strength then needs to be balanced out and that is why it comes with great responsibility. Demonstrating restraint is more difficult than defeating the strongest foe and that is why a warrior’s true inner strength lies in restraint.
Today’s goal: Do your best to show restraint in even the littlest of things because they all add up.