“We all are men, in our own natures frail, and capable of our flesh; few are angels.”
― William Shakespeare, Henry VIII
A warrior’s flaws are what makes them great. Someone once told me, “There are only two perfect people in this world: the devil and liars.” The Japanese believe in the aesthetic of wabi-sabi (侘寂) or that beauty comes from being “imperfect, impermanent and incomplete.” We see this idea of wabi-sabi in Hagi-yaki (萩焼 ) tea bowls whose beauty dates back to the 17th century. These bowls are famous for their translucent glaze and somewhat humble form. Hagi-yaki tea bowls are the epitome of beauty and would be “perfect” if it were not for a purposeful chip on the foot of the bowl. The chip was placed there by its maker so as to mar its beauty and taint its perfection and it was supposed to balance out the bowl’s beauty and signify the humbleness of man or rather that it was made by an imperfect human being. Probably one of the hardest things to accept in martial arts training is that nobody, not even the teacher, is perfect. Perfection is a disease that is at the root of so many difficulties in training. Some give up because they can’t be perfect. Others struggle against the standard of being perfect. Most times, our need to be externally perfect is driven by internal feelings of not being good enough. One of the great things about Aikido is the flow of the movement. The only way to flow is to go with the flow and the only way to go with the flow is to be in harmony with the imperfect. It’s the same in life. Our beauty, like the tea bowls, lies in our flaws. Human beings are fallible and thus we make mistakes. Budo training is the process of polishing one’s imperfections, but not to remove them but to allow the flaw to bring out one’s true beauty. Warriors accept their flaws and use their flaws to realize their true beauty and humanity.
Today’s goal: Don’t be so hard on yourself. Nobody has it all figured out.