“You aren’t rich until you have something that money can’t buy.” Unknown
It is human nature to constantly calculate things, people and experiences to decide what is most cost effective. However, what is best priced isn’t necessarily the most valuable. The other day, a student tore his uniform and I said, “Congratulations.” He looked at me quizzically and I said, “Now you have something that money can’t buy.” We can only get a uniform like that through hard work and they don’t sell it, so it must be valuable. Here is a rather morbid story which illustrates this. Zen master, Sozan was asked by his students, “What is the most valuable thing in the world?” Sozan replied, “The head of a dead cat.” All the students looked confused and one said, “Why is the head of a dead cat the most valuable thing in the world?” Sozan replied, “Because no wants it and so no one can name its price.” Budo training is a lot like the head of a dead cat in that its true value isn’t apparent. Most people can only see the tangible benefits of fighting but become disappointed when they realize that the inner journey is more important. Supposedly only 3% of today’s martial artists ever persist and achieve black belt which on average takes 5 years of dedicated effort. On paper, the time and effort versus the total cost of achieving a black belt don’t add up and thus objectively it seems like a bad investment. To make matters worse, the benefits and skills developed in training are perishable. Furuya Sensei said that training develops “spiritual capital.” Spiritual capital is the power which makes us better. We don’t get better at something overnight, but with constant and consistent effort we eventually improved. This effort is the banking of spiritual capital which one day yields dividends and we have somehow improved. How do we put a value on that? A warrior’s efforts cannot be valued but they are rich because they have something that money can’t buy.
Today’s goal: Spend your time and effort wisely and invest in things that money can’t buy.