Throwback Thursday - Finding Happiness
Furuya Sensei posted this to his Daily Message on August 14, 2005.
We think we will find happiness in freedom but most people do not know what true freedom is and therefore happiness becomes another illusion for most, only in their heads. We think that doing anything we please is freedom but we do not know where the line exists between such carte blanche activity and simple self-indulgence.
Of course, we are self-indulgent, it is a part of our Nature as human beings but it is not the key to freedom. Freedom only comes through self-knowledge acquired through our relationships with others. I have to make this qualification because, more often than not, most people, in thinking that they have found freedom, have only replaced one self-indulgent activity with another.
When I see my students all practicing hard on the mats - I feel like I don't need anything else in Life - I don't even feel like eating, I am so happy. It is the simple things in Life which mean something to us that will make us happy.
There are really no (natural) rules between one person and another, we make them up to express our ideals of what human relationships should mean to us. These should be the highest ideals nurtured through wisdom and experience. In this context, we are coming closer to the true meaning of Aikido and now we are getting closer to true happiness.