Throwback Thursday - The Student's Life Is Very Special
Furuya Sensei posted this to his Daily Message on September 10, 2004.
To sweat and work so hard on the mats, to try to live a simple life of self-reflection, to think of the higher things of Life and try and follow O'Sensei's teachings really goes against all that we find popular and attractive in the world today.
Most people will not admit it, but we like to fight, we like to compete with others. We like to win! Actually, we like violence - there is an attraction of power and ugly grotesqueness here that, as much as we hate to admit it, we love it and are fascinated by it. This is why there is so much violence in the world. And when and where there is no violence, we invent it in games, movies, and tv, and in our interrelations with others.
We love money and things and possessions and getting one better on others. We like to outshine others and show them up. We want fame and respect and recognition and constant proof and affirmation that we are better than others.
We don't get this in Aikido practice, or at least, in pure practice, although some today are even trying to change Aikido so that these pleasures are provided in full force. Some use Aikido as a vehicle for fame and power and we think that it is an easy way to make a fast buck. We use rank and position to show off to others and prove that we are better than everyone else.
But for the most part, all of the worldly "ideals" do not come easily in Aikido. In fact, Aikido rather shuns the modern worldly values, or at least the current world view of "me, me, me," for something “higher" or "transcendent" or "good" like harmony, peace, and on and on. How unfulfilling! How boring!
An Aikido student's life, because they pursue these higher values by sweat and hard work - as boring as they may seem to others - is very, very special. It is not an easy Path and it is not a popular one and seems to contradict or, at least, go against the grain of popular motivations today. This Life is not easy and because it is not easy - it is very special and very good.