“We don’t rise to the level of our expectations, we fall to the level of our training.” Archilochus
In olden times, the Japanese believed that the margin between life and death was very close and thus a person could lose their life very easily. Fighting was a common way of life for the samurai who regularly fought battles, duels or were regularly besieged by the trials and tribulations of everyday life. Understanding this margin, a warrior had to be ready at all times. Readiness requires training. Archilochus believed that one’s success was a function of how much that person developed themselves. Like Archilochus, Furuya Sensei strongly believed in training and he would often say, “The Way is in training.” To be effective in all martial arts requires seido (精度) or “precision.” Despite the absence of having to defend one’s life every day, precision is still necessary because the techniques that are being taught can be lethal and that requires responsibility and responsibility requires precision. In Aikido, the techniques may seem “gentle” but in fact they are quite lethal. Aikido’s perceived “gentleness” comes from its philosophy of non-violence. The budo of Aikido has evolved to the understanding that to dispense violence is easy and only shows our true weakness and that to give compassion is harder but shows our true strength. Anyone can destroy and on a certain level all it takes are a few terse words. The harder path to follow is to have the strength to not destroy despite the fact that the other person is trying to harm us. To be able to have the wherewithal to choose non-violence requires precision. Without precision a person might have to resort to violence. To achieve precision requires training and not just any training. Training to reach the highest levels require us to be relentless in our pursuit. We are relentless because we know we fall only as far as we have prepared ourselves.
Today’s goal: Match your preparations to the level of your expectations.