備えあれば憂いなしなし
Sonaearebaureinashi
If you’re fully prepared, you need not worry.
A martial artist has to have faith. The other day, a prospective student called up inquiring about Aikido. We talked for a minute about scheduling and what to expect. As we were about to hang up, he said, “Joe Rogan said that Aikido is fake. Is that true?” After a few minutes of verbal Aikido, I told him you just have to have faith. He seemed crestfallen and said, “Ok.” He never showed up, so I guess he doesn’t have faith that Aikido is real or effective and that is sad. It is said that the history of combat can be traced as far back as 3500 BC and that systematized martial arts can be traced as far back as 2674 BC when Emperor Huang Ti taught his troops a fighting system called Chiou Ti. In the 5th or 6th century, supposedly, Bodhidharma refined the movements of Chinese martial arts by watching the movement of animals which became modern day Kung-fu. Aikido can trace its roots back to Prince Tejun in the 9th century. In the 12th century Shinra Saburo Yoshimitsu examined the bodies of war victims and executed criminals to study the effectiveness of martial arts techniques which he used to form Daito-ryu Aikijujitsu which eventually became modern day Aikido. Since most martial arts can be traced back to an Indian or Chinese origin, the martial arts are roughly 4694 years old. If something has been around for almost 4700 years, there has to be some merit - there has to be something to have faith in. One of Inazo Nitobe’s 7 Virtues of Bushido is shin (信) which people translate as “honesty,” but it can also mean “faith.” Other than this moment, we aren’t guaranteed anything. Thus, we have to have faith in the history of our arts, the art itself, our teachers but, most of all, in how earnestly we have trained. Everything else is up to god, buddha or the universe and thus we do not need to worry. Whatever martial art we choose, we can never be 100% certain that it will be effective for us when the time comes, but we have faith that it will. That is why a warrior must always have faith.
Today’s goal: Don’t believe the hype. Don’t just read the headline. Apply yourself and investigate things for yourself.