The enemy of achievement is comfort

I read a sign the other day, "Comfort is the enemy of achievement." This is a quote by a businessman named Farrah Gray. In terms of budo it is spot on. On the road to greatness, the main question is, "What are we willing to sacrifice in order to get good?" Not can we, but will we forgo things like sleep, money, food, or any other thing that causes us to be a little bit uncomfortable in order to achieve our goals? Most normal people won't, but warriors are not normal people.

Warriors are people who stave off pleasure for purpose. People who "need" to sleep, eat or save the money will never push themselves to get good.  There will always be something. Over the annals of time, the greatest opponent there has ever been and who has beaten millions of warriors has been the soft, warm and comfortable bed. Don't let it beat you!

So the question is, "What will you sacrifice to get good?"

Serenity is the path.

The author, Haruki Murakami said, "When you come out of the storm, you won't be the same person who walked in. That's what this storm's all about." As Furuya Sensei used to say, "The Way is in training." The goal of training is serenity. The path to serenity is training. Training itself is serenity.

What we are trying to achieve by training in the martial arts is not the ability to destroy others but rather the ability to control ourselves so that we don't have to. We seek to be the calm in the eye of the storm.

When confronted, it is easy to lash out and use our darker more negative self to win, but after a while one realizes that the true opponent lies within. It takes a more evolved and more sophisticated person to realize where the real battle lies.

Yoda once said, "That which you seek, inside you will find." Serenity is that thing we all seek. Training is serenity. Serenity is the path. The path is serenity. "The Way is in training." Keep on training because training is the Way.

Align yourself and leave no openings

"What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us" - Ralph Waldo Emerson

Many times in life, whether we like it or not, perception is reality and budo is no different. As a warrior, we must be forever diligent and thus must be en garde at all times. We can expect to be attacked anytime we let our guard down. Therefore we cannot leave any openings.

There is a famous Japanese saying, bushi wa kuwanedo taka yoji (武士は食わねど高楊枝) which means a "A samurai, even when he has not eaten, uses a toothpick like a lord."

Most think it means that a hungry samurai chooses pride before poverty. Another way to understand it is that if one lets on that they haven't eaten and are hungry then they will be weak and thus an easier target for attack. The perception of weakness can then lead to a person being attacked.

In training, we constantly trying to ensure that our intentions match our reality. If we want people to think that we are respectful then we must act respectfully. If we want people to think that we are humble, we should then act with humility. Conversely, if we want people to think we are jerks then we should act like a jerk.

Like it or not, people "judge" us by the things that we say and do. Our job as martial artist is to make our actions and our words line up with our intentions.

Go out and get it

If you want to try and save your 2016, there are 36 days left. What did we want to get done that we never got around to doing or failed to complete? Furuya Sensei used to say, "There is no time left." Don't waste your time putting things off for 2017 that you can start doing today. There is still time left. Start today...

Start eating healthy.Go to bed early. Wake up early. Be more grateful. Quit your job. Find a new job. Start exercising. Start Aikido ;) Stop smoking. Ask that person out. Stop going out with that person. Enroll in college. Tell people what you really mean. Go to class more often. Etc, etc

In life, there are no free lunches, shortcuts or ways to cheat. If we want something, we have to go out and get it. If you want to get good at Aikido, all you have to do is come to class. It is that simple!  There are still 31 days of training left this year. Want it? Come get it!

No matter what, choose to do it

"I took an arrow in the knee" was an old Norse saying to indicate that someone had gotten married. The arrow implies that one of the biggest decisions in one's life isn't necessarily made by choice. Just after Furuya Sensei passed away, I was working with one of my older clients and was telling him about Sensei's death. I said, "Now, I have to take over the dojo." He stopped me and said, "No, you choose to take over the dojo." At the time I did not think I had a "choice" but today I understand that it is what I chose to do. We can be in control or we will be controlled.

Today, in an arguably more civilized society, we are free and thus have freedom of choice. What is choice?  Choice is the ability to decide to empower ourselves with what it is we want. This empowerment begins by saying, "I choose to..."

Regardless of the situation or circumstance we can always "choose" how we internally address what is going on - we give it context. In Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, it is called re-framing.  In Buddhism, it is called equanimity.  In budo, it is called the non-abiding mind.

Today, we don't have to do anything but we do get to choose to do whatever we want.  The choice is ours.

We make each other better

For For 20 years during the Sengoku period, Takeda Shingen and Uesugi Kenshin fought a series of hard fought battles. It was during this time that each cultivated a deep respect for one another. When Takeda Shingen died suddenly on the battlefield, Uesugi Kenshin supposedly wept and said, "I have lost my greatest rival, there will never be a greater hero."  Our adversaries can be our greatest teachers. As a training partner, it is our duty to bring out the best in our partners. We owe it to them to give them a good hard practice. That doesn't mean be a jerk. It means to push them to become better. If we are too easy they become too complacent and soft. If we are too hard they become bitter and contemptuous. Pushing them to their heights in a positive and productive way enables them to reach their true potential. It is a great honor to be a part of that process.  Be a positive force for change so that as C.S. Lewis stated, "All of hell rejoices that I am out of the fight" because I help make others better.

Embrace the struggle

We sometimes erroneously think that the Way is the end product - a place of bliss, peace or happiness. However, the place where the Way truly resides is in the places where we struggle. On good days, it is easy to follow the righteous path and anyone can do it. The days and situations that are the most difficult are when we need, utilize and come to understand the true meaning of following the Way. Therefore the Way is in the struggle. That one moment between when we don't want to but do so anyways is the real moment of the Way. Everything else leads up to that point and all others are a result of that decision. "Embrace the struggle and let it make you stronger. It won't last forever." - Tony Gaskins

Art by Sam Didier

Flashback Friday

Flashback Friday Furuya Sensei posted this to his Daily Message on November 19, 2002. His statements ring true today more than ever. We as martial artist must strive to be better.

I think that the very basis of civilization and ultimately our own survival is that we can get along with each other. As far as we have advanced in science, medicine, technology, finance, the arts and education, we still do not do this very well at all. Why do you think this is so? Why do you think that it is so hard for us to get along with each other? We don't even get along with many people we like and love sometimes! It is really quite amazing if you think about it. Even the simple ant has evolved their own social structure and monkeys do not even have all the problems we suffer from. In Aikido, we talk about harmony and blending, we probably need to go into this idea much, much more than we really do.

Sometimes, the simplest and most fundamental questions are the hardest to answer. We still must try very hard - our lives depend upon it!

What matters to you

Sozan, a Chinese Zen master, was asked by a student, "What is the most valuable thing in the world?" The master replied: "The head of a dead cat." "Why is the head of a dead cat the most valuable thing in the world?" inquired the student. Sozan replied: "Because no one can name its price." The things that matter to us, only matter to us. In the beginning, middle and end, we are under our own power and thus choose what is valuable to us. Others might not agree. That is fine because what matters to us only matters to us. Be only concerned about what it is that you do and don't worry about what others think or what they are doing.

Take control

There is a great saying from the movie Sanjuro, "The best swords are the ones that are kept in their scabbards." At the heart of all martial arts training comes the understanding that our minds are our greatest weapons and simultaneously our worst enemies. In the Japanese traditional arts, the highest level one can attain is the ability to show restraint. A master is supposed to be someone who has kokkifukurei or the ability to demonstrate their skills in decorum and etiquette but more importantly their ability to exercise self restraint at all times. Restraint can only come after years and years of training. Restraint is the ability to do the right thing at the right time which one might call seido in Japanese or precision in English. Learn to control yourself and your emotions so that other people cannot control you.  

Fear is the true enemy

At some point in time, somewhere along the Way we all must all confront ourselves.  For each person the what and when are different. This confrontation is an inner battle where we face our own fears and demons. Those things that we fear are the keys that unlock the doors to our inner most sanctum where true peace lies.

If we do not open these doors then sometimes we set off on a darker path that some Star Wars fans might call the "dark side." In this place, we turn our gaze away from our true opponent (ourselves) and we might mistakenly believe that some thing or some other person is our true enemy. It is so much easier to pin our suffering on others rather than accept responsibility and ownership of our selves.

Gandhi said, "The enemy is fear. We think it is hate, but it is really fear." Fear is the gateway to change, but we have to have the courage to face it. When we dig deeper and see what is behind the hatred or anger, it is really fear and we can then realize our own part in our suffering which is that we allow that fear to control us.

Yoda said, “Fear is the path to the dark side. Fear leads to anger. Anger leads to hate. Hate leads to suffering." One only has to look at Anakin Skywalker's evolution to see this to be true.  Anakin Skywalker is the prototypical archetype of one who gives into his fears and allows it to follow the dark side and develop into anger, hatred and suffering.

Today more than ever, martial artist must be a cut above. Don't give into the fear no matter who you support. Move past that fear and conquer your demons and find true peace for yourself. They are not the enemy; fear is. Don't give into that fear.

Just this one moment

 

Today's kakejiku or scroll hanging in the tokonoma is an ichigyo brushed with the single character toki  刻 which is commonly translated as time. An ichigyo is a single line of calligraphy that is supposed to elicit a response or provoke the viewer into a different mental state.

Warriors of old were always well read individuals who were not only well versed in the military arts but also in religion, literature, poetry, Japanese and Chinese classics and art.

Generally, most kakejiku are supposed to be profound and many times what is left out is sometimes more important than what is put in. This scroll is no different. Its meaning is not readily understandable by simply just reading the character.

The character toki 刻 left standing alone means "to chop or engrave." So an uneducated person could accidentally misinterpret that as its meaning. However when the character toki is added into the idiomatic expression jijikokkoku it means "from one moment to the next." From here we extrapolate that it is supposed to mean "moment," but that also is a little too juvenile. As we sit there and ponder the scroll's deeper meaning, what arises could be the Buddhist's perspective on impermanence and thus every moment that existed before or after this one moment is an illusion and that we can easy be deluded into thinking that those thoughts are real.

Since this scroll is more of the smaller size used in a chasitsu or tea house, we can theorize that its meaning is to make full use of this one moment for all other moments before may not have happened and all moments after may never come. All we have is this one moment - cherish it!

 

Plain and simple

The best things are almost always plain and simple. When something is good but in a plain and simple way it is referred to as jimi (地味) in Japanese. Martial artists naturally tend to shy away from things that are too ostentatious. This is because humility is a quality that all martial artists strive for. Something that has jimi is something taht is subdued with almost a plain sense to it.

When we look at the techniques, some may have a flashy quality but those aren't usually the most effective. The most effective are the ones that are usually the most simplest.

People are that way too. Look around at the people in our lives. I am sure that most of us will see that the people whom we regard the highest are the people who are just "working class" people who have a kind of simple and subdued nature to them. We all have that one friend who is either pompous or overly dramatizes things - those are usually the people who are the most complicated.

As we look at the great martial arts masters of old, we see just normal people like you and me. The difference is not in how flashy they are but that they simply put in the work to get good which led us to think of them as great.

Today, the martial arts is, on a certain level, completely different. People tend to laud those with the loudest voices or showiest techniques. This is not budo. In Budo, jimi is simply putting in the work.  We put in the work to get good - it's that plain and simple.

Step deeply into yourself

Like most, Mondays always seem so blah. I thought I'd re-post something Furuya Sensei wrote about training in hopes that it might help us get over the doldrums of Mondays.

Sensei's explanation: Museishi (無声詩)- The Unvoiced Poem - the message of our training is like a poem, the words are heard but the message lingers elsewhere silently. . . . To go deep into the art of Aikido is to go deep inside one's self.

At the heart of Aikido training exists our true selves.  This journey can be hard and arduous but it ultimately leads to joy and happiness.  The first step begins with us and looking at our lives with a lens that is trained inward.  We are our biggest problem and when we start to see that we can begin this journey inward.  Until that time the world will be against us and every person and every thing will be our enemy.  Give up the need to find the source of your problems outside yourself and begin to look inside of you.  This is the only way out.

Always be prepared

Martial artists aren't giri-giri type people. Giri-giri is an onomatopoeia that Japanese use to refer to something that is done last minute. This morning on the radio, I heard that there was an earthquake advisory in effect from now until October 4th. This advisory happens to come at the end of national preparedness month. This made me think about how a martial artist needs to be prepared for any person, condition or thing.

As martial artists, we are always supposed to be prepared. It is part of our training and the reason why we train so much. I am sure many of you have heard this one, "How long have you been training? You've been going so long, why do you still need to go?" We still need to constantly train because, like in emergency preparedness, we never know when the "Big one" will hit.

As martial artists, we are people who not only learn from our mistakes, but from others as well. I can remember this one time when I was a student and someone forgot their hakama at a demonstration and how mad Furuya Sensei got. From that point on, I always kept a back up uniform in the car just in case and I know that many others did too. I learned from that person's mistake. There is a famous story about Tiger Woods during his time at Stanford. Supposedly, there was a really bad storm out and Tiger was seen heading toward the driving range. Someone stopped him and he said, "This is the only time I will ever get to hit balls in these type of conditions." Tiger wanted to be prepared if he ever had to play in hostile weather conditions.

We train so that our minds and our bodies will be ready for anything that comes our way. Nothing would be worse than to succumb to someone or something because of a silly mistake or underestimation.

Martial artists must be prepared for anything, natural or man-made. We are always prepared and thus are never giri-giri. Please make sure that you are always prepared.

Fighting one man is the same is fighting ten thousand - Miyamoto Musashi

https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=PgKg0Hc7YIA I recently saw this video made in Japan where three Olympic fencers took on 50 untrained or barely trained fencers on a Japanese variety show. The video was made for a TV so it wasn't that serious but I was amazed at how poorly the Olympic fencers performed.  Not only did they show a low level of skill, but they also showed that since it is a sport there was no group strategy.

At first as the 50 converged on them, the Olympians fled to the stairs.  I thought, "Ahh, this is correct."  Furuya Sensei taught us that to fight one person is the same as hundred and to strive for high ground (which I am sure was gleaned from Miyamoto Musashi's Book of Five Rings strategy).  Going to the stairs would have provided them a natural barrier for three of the four sides of attack and they would only have to face opponents from only one direction and, most crucially, only one at a time.  This strategy would have allowed them to use their skill to win the battle.

As you can see from the video they abandoned the strategy of working together and using the stairs.  Those three Olympic fencers would have been overwhelmed and killed in a matter of minutes if it were are real fight.  They would have been picked apart as the odds stacked up against them because each Olympian could be surrounded by as many as 16 people at any given time who would be attacking from all sides.  Also, did you see by how many times the untrained fighters just poked them in the arms and back as they ran by?  This method is called "Death by a thousand cuts" in knife fighting where small non-lethal wounds add up to a tremendous amount of blood loss and eventually take their toll on the fighter as the battle rages on.

It is interesting, as things become more "modern" or sporty they can sometimes lose their martial sense. As martial artists, we can look at this video and take heart to make sure that we practice our arts as martial arts and not just something we do for exercise.

The strength to keep on going

"It takes more courage to examine the dark corners of your own soul than it does for a soldier to fight on a battlefield." - W. B. Yates Anyone can be physically strong, but being physically strong doesn't necessarily mean that we are mentally strong.

To be mentally strong, one needs to have an inner courage. This courage isn't blindly running foolhearted at something.  Rather it is standing up to the darkness that inhabits our inner souls despite the pain or fear that it elicits.

Yates' quote is so apropos to budo and because true budo is really just the journey that one undertakes to develop themselves.

It's like the cave scene in Empire Strikes Back.  Yoda says, “That place… is strong with the dark side of the Force. A domain of evil it is. In you must go."  Luke asks, "What’s in there?" Yoda replies, "Only what you take with you.”

When push comes to shove, what we do shows our true inner character. To be the people that we want to become, we need to have courage and be brave. Courage is the inner attitude or strength and bravery is what it looks like on the outside.

The only true strength is the strength to keep on going despite the odds and that is the definition of courage.

Let it go

Every year my birthday falls on the autumn equinox. Autumn is the season associated with letting go which is sometimes sad to me. It is a little sad because there is so much hard change in the fall. In a blog post on the website alchemistrecovery.com  someone wrote that autumn according to Chinese medicine is the "season of decline, release and ultimately death. It is the phase of the yearly cycle where we are encouraged, or forced to, let go of the things that are naturally coming to an end." Being able to accept or just let something be, no matter what it is, is a corner stone of budo. Not being attached to something is what the Monk Takuan talked about as the "non-abiding mind" in his book The Unfettered Mind. The non-abiding mind does not discriminate - It only observes. This ability to just observe is what one might call mindfulness.

There is a saying associated with autumn, "If it comes, let it, if it goes let it." Yagyu Munenori said that the goal of training in swordsmanship was to overcome the six diseases parallels this ability to just observe things and let them go. The six diseases are: the desire for victory, the desire to rely on technical cunning, the desire to show off, the desire to psychologically overwhelm one's opponent, the desire to remain passive in order to wait for an opening and the desire to be free of all these diseases.

These diseases can be thought of as the stages of one's development in one's training.

If we let it come when it comes and if we let it go when it goes then we can be free of the diseases that Yagyu Munenori was warning us about.

Happiness is a matter of perspective

This is a great little article by Furuya Sensei about happiness being a matter of perspective. Have a great Friday! Isn't It Funny?

When we consider what we have, we are always happy. But somehow, when we begin to think what we don't have, we are never satisfied. Isn't it better not to go there in the first place?

In Zen, there is a well-known saying: "Houken wa te ni ari."

"The Treasure Sword is in your hand." Everyone searches of their "treasure sword" (wisdom) yet, it is something which we already possess in our own hearts.

In the early days of the dojo, we were so poor and many times there was no money at all to even pay the bills. As it often happens, one weekend there was not a penny at all, so I just stayed in the dojo and did not go out or do anything at all. The next day, when I started to do my laundry, I found a ten-dollar bill in my back pocket. I thought I had no money to go out and buy myself some groceries to eat, not knowing the money was there right in my pocket. I could do nothing at all. I was not stopped by the lack of a little money but my lack of "understanding."

More often than not, we have everything we need to be happy but not realizing we already possess this "treasure sword," we are unhappy and complain about this and that.