“Cry in the dojo, laugh on the battlefield.” – Japanese proverb

A real warrior cries. Yesterday, I watched the 1958 version of the 47 ronin story called the Loyal 47 Ronin (Chushingura). One of the things which struck me the most was how many times Oishi, the supposedly strong samurai commander, showed emotion and even cried. This is in stark contrast to the hero in the west who is usually the “strong silent type” and never shows any emotion other than passionate anger. In Japanese culture, a warrior strives to create balance in the moment. We see this balance in the aphorism, “Cry in the dojo, laugh on the battlefield.” One interpretation is that the suffering of harsh training is balanced out with crying and the killing on the battlefield is balanced out with laughing. Furuya Sensei referred to the warrior balance as “The elegant apricot flower and the strong plum blossom. To focus too much on war makes us rough and crude while the emphasis on too much beauty makes us weak. Both ideals must be harmonized together.” Crying enables the warrior, who must kill, to show their humanity. We often think that “living” means to enjoy and be happy. As we can see with Sensei’s assertion, joy and happiness are but one side of humanity. True humanity is a balance of happiness and sadness, good and bad and war and beauty. Thus, when we create this balance of true humanity it enables us to be present in the moment and truly live. Today, we are faced with many different challenges and it is easy for us to suppress the pain, frustration, or discomfort. In suppressing our feelings, we are denying our sense of humanity. Warriors of old weren’t killing machines who feel no emotion. On the contrary, they knew that the key to becoming a strong warrior was in their humanity. Therefore, to create true humanity within ourselves, we need to strike a balance in all things in our lives and that is why real warriors cry.

Today’s goal: When something happens, notice if you are suppressing your emotions. Are you suppressing your humanity?