Awaken the True Warrior Within You

"He is awake.The victory is his. He has conquered the world." - Buddha

"Wake up!" was something Furuya Sensei used to say to us all the time to rebuke us when we would get lazy or weren't paying attention. I used to think he was trying to get us to pay attention, but now I understand that his admonishment was for us to push ourselves to a higher level.

To be awake is to be conscious or aware of not only ourselves but our world as well. As martial artists, there is a tendency to be too shortsighted about ourselves as we believe that since we are developing ourselves that no one else matters.

Nothing could be farther from the truth. There comes a certain time in every person's training when they realize that training in the martial arts isn't about them. We call this "to be awakened."

To be awakened means that one realizes that they don't exist in a vacuum. True power lies not in destroying others but in building them up. Resisting them, roughing them up or just being a jerk shows how juvenile one's level is. Helping others, making them better and building them up is the true illustration of mastery. Are you awake?