“No matter if the enemy has thousands of men, there is fulfillment in simply standing them off and being determined to cut them all down, starting from one end.” - Hagakure
The best martial artists never lose hope. Hope is defined as “an optimistic state of mind that is based on an expectation of positive outcomes.” However, hope is more than just an optimistic state, it is a feeling. Writer and musician Andy Crouch said, “Human beings can live for 40 days without food, four days without water and four minutes without air. But we cannot live for four seconds without hope.” Hope is this feeling or spark that we have inside of us that when we feel it, it drives us. One way to look at hope is that its like this power inside of us which gives us life and thus it is our touki (闘氣) or “fighting spirit.” Conversely, when we lose that feeling, we lose hope. When we reach our level of hopelessness then our minds will fall, our bodies will give up and our opponents will be able to defeat us. Interestingly, one way to say hopeless in Japanese is kainashi (甲斐なし) but when you breakdown the kanji, it means “lack of beautiful armor.” If hope is like armor, then we can cultivate it. Every martial artist’s armor has three layers of defense: body, technique, and mind. The first layer is tairyokuzukuri (体力作り) which means “to develop of physical strength and stamina.” In order for our opponents to break our fitness or our bodies, we either simply need to be out of shape or they need to push us beyond the limits of our preparation. The next level is jutsu (術) or “technical” where we develop technical ability, strength, and stamina. Typically, we think that a strong defense is built around strong technique. It is commonly thought that the better our technique, the better our defenses will be, and this is not presumably wrong, but once our fitness goes, then technical failure is not far off. The final and most important level is tsuyoikokoro (強い心) which means to have a “strong mind” but translates as “having a strong heart.” To have “heart” in a martial sense means that someone is able to be resilient and keep fighting forward in the face of difficult or overwhelming circumstances. Every day in class, we are supposed to be challenging each other on a physical, technical, and mental level. In swordsmanship, this is referred to as kiarasoi (氣争い) or to press one’s opponent to failure “in the spirit of mutual combat.” The theory is that with every spirited attack that we overcome, our bodies become stronger, our technique will improve, and our minds will become more resilient. In other words, our armor improves and with it our hope or belief in ourselves grows. In the spirit of mutual combat doesn’t mean to train with malice or to be a jerk about it. Mutual means together - we make each other better. Furuya Sensei used to say, “Push them to their level and then one step further.” We train hard and our opponents push us so that when adversity does strike, our armor is strong and that’s perhaps why Archilochus said, “We don't rise to the level of our expectations, we fall to the level of our training.” To train is to cultivate hope and, in this sense, belief in the feeling that we are worthy enough to challenge any adversity. No matter who we are, every person has a breaking point. Understanding this, the best martial artists train themselves so that although they may fall or falter, they never lose hope.
Today’s goal: “Hope is being able to see that there is light despite all of the darkness.” - Desmond Tutu