Throwback Thursday - The Tiger's Back
Furuya Sensei posted this to his Daily Message on December 5, 2003
Quite a few years ago, one student approached me and said that he wanted to begin Zen sitting so I sent him to the nearby Zen temple telling him to go there and ask to join their Zen sitting group. A few days later, in practice, he didn't say anything, so I asked how he liked joining their group.
He said, "I didn't like it at all. When I said I was interested in Zen sitting, the priest was very nice. But when I told him that I also studied Aikido, he frowned and said that Aikido was no good and that I should quit. I was very angry and insulted at his words, so I just left and never joined them.
I told my student that this is very odd behavior and that I will go to the temple and ask the same question and see what happens. I knew that there was a new priest there, but I didn't have the chance to meet him yet.
I went and met the new priest and also told him, "I want to join your Zen study group and I practice Aikido in the nearby dojo.” He said exactly the same thing, "Aikido is no good, you better quit and just do Zen sitting!” I smiled at him and said, "Ok, I will go back and quit Aikido at once.” "No, no!" the priest cried out, "don't quit! I was just kidding you. Usually, when I meet martial artists, they are very arrogant, so I just wanted to test your mind! I apologize!"
After we introduced each other, we began to laugh. It is such a small world. This new priest was also formerly an Aikido teacher. He was first called to the Boston area to teach Aikido on the recommendation of Nobuyoshi Tamura Sensei of France at the Macrobiotic Institute in those days. But after a while when this young priest returned to Japan on personal business, he met a Zen priest and quickly entered a temple where he stayed for several years in training. In order to replace him, Tamura Sensei recommended the wonderful, more highly qualified Mitsunari Kanai Sensei. I met Kanai Sensei in 1968 while I was going to school in Cambridge. Such a small world.
In Zen, often such dialogues take place. It is always easy to get offended if we hold too much pride within ourselves or are too rigid in our thinking. Usually, priests are just challenging each other’s practice or level of training. Someone once said that asking a Zen master a question is like jumping on a sleeping tiger's back. Easy to get on, but hard to escape after!
Watch Volume 1 of Furuya Sensei's The Art of Aikido video series