地獄は壁一重
Jigokuhakabehitoe
The line between good and evil is as thin as a razor's edge
The martial art’s sole purpose is the eradication of evil. In Japanese folklore, it is thought that the Tengu (天狗) or “mischievous supernatural beings” brought the martial arts to the world. As the legend goes, while on an excursion to view the cherry blossom bloom, Minamoto no Yoshitsune as a child revealed to a Yamabushi or “mountain ascetic” that he was the orphaned child of Minamoto no Yoshitomo, the defeated leader of the Genji clan. The Yamabushi in turn revealed that he was the Kurama-tengu or “The goblin of Kurama.” From that point, supposedly, the Tengu taught Yoshitsune swordsmanship and the martial ways to avenge his father’s death. Using these skills, Yoshitsune would later become one of Japan’s greatest warriors. There is this idea in mythology that humans didn’t know how to wage war or systematically kill one another until supernatural beings like Tengu, Lucifer or Prometheus showed them how. Since that dawning, humans have been trying to return back to the heijoshin (平常心) or the “peaceful mind.” The heijoshin is the state that we were born with before we “learned” to be disturbed by the ways of the world. One interesting thought experiment about the martial arts is that the Tengu gave it to humans to destroy themselves but they somehow, over generations, used it to develop themselves and find their way back to the heijoshin and not only that but they also now use it for bapponsokugen (抜本塞源 ) or “the eradication of evil.” The evil that we are eradicating is the fear and negativity that exists inside each of us. It is said that the line between good and evil is razor thin and it is true. It is so easy to succumb to the fear and negativity of evil. However, the greatness of human beings is that they have free will and can choose the Way of the martial arts which is rooted in righteousness and compassion or the path of evil which is based upon fear and suffering. Furuya Sensei would often say, “The Way is hard.” On so many levels that is true as we are given the hard choice to choose at every moment whether we are going to be good or evil.
Today’s goal: Choose to be a good and decent human being.