Understanding the Difference - Part II

My last post was aiming to point out the distinctions between what is 'the way' and what is actually not the way and things that might be compromising the way.
This post is a continuation of this.


There is a difference between...


...just going through the motions and real training.
Some practitioners of the martial arts don't know how to put real effort into their training.
As Gichin Funakoshi said: "You may train for a long time, but if you merely move your hands and feet and jump up and down like a puppet, learning karate is not very different from learning a dance. You will never have reached the heart of the matter; you will have failed to grasp the quintessence of karate-do."
Real effort yields real development.



...striving to improve and expecting Sensei to do it for you.
If you are frustrated that you're not leaning or growing in your knowledge or ability, it's easy to blame the person imparting that knowledge and expect them to somehow do the work for you. As the saying goes, The instructor can only show you the door, you have to walk through it.
This a lesson for everything in life; if there's a problem, look at the part you've played before blaming others.



...choreographed routine and Kata.
All kata have many lessons to teach. There is a large range of different things about your Budo that you can learn from a single kata.
If all you do is memorise the pattern and moves of a Kata so you can perform it well, then you're missing out on the majority of what can be learnt from the art form.


...Kata and Bunkai.
Even if you're aware of a certain bunkai for a particular kata and even if you keep that bunkai in mind when you practice the kata, you still only 'know' the kata. You 'know' the bunkai when you can execute it at speed with control against an opponent's real attack.



...assumption of practicality and a technique that works.
People who 'know' the kata, quite often assume that they could execute the bunkai at speed with control against an opponent's real attack, even though they've never actually it. This is a dangerous assumption to make.



...ego and honour.
Your ego is how you view yourself - Honour is how the world views you. Problems arise when we feel we need to defend our ego, or prove some aspect of it. It's easy for someone with a hurt ego to claim their honour is insulted. Honour is something separate from our ego. It's not our self-image, it's the integrity of our spirit and virtues.



...doing ‘good’ for self-centred reasons and benevolence.
True benevolence (being a truly good person) is to be self-less. The sort of person that does something 'good' expecting people to owe them or expecting praise for their 'good deed' is not actually a benevolent person, in spite of how much they wish you would perceive them as such.



...justification and rectitude.
With a little bit of imagination it's possible to justify any action and say it was the right thing to do, but this doesn't make it so.



...equivocation and the truth.
Google defines 'equivocation' as: "the use of ambiguous language to conceal the truth or to avoid committing oneself." It is when dishonest people willingly allow others to be deceived even though the words they use are 'technically true'. This is basically no different to straight-out lying. 



...bravery and courage.
Put simply, bravery is to act without fear, but Courage is to be afraid and to be strong enough to act in spite of it. There is no skill or strength required to be brave.



...blind obedience and loyalty.
Loyalty has a specific purpose or point. There is logic, thought and reason behind it. Obedience demands the absence of thought and reason. An obedient person does as they're asked without question. True Budo requires Loyalty, not Obedience.



...showing respect and having respect.
Just 'acting' respectful doesn't mean that you 'are' respectful. A person who acts like a someone is amazing and says how great they are, but then will say the opposite behind their back, is a coward, dishonest and dishonourable. A true Bujin is always polite and is never 'disrespectful', but at the same time they aren't disingenuous with anyone either.
Be courteous with everyone, but 'have' respect for those who deserve respect.

Comment below to share any thoughts or opinions you might have. J

Thanks for reading.
Derm

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10 Other Thoughts on Budo

Last week's post was 10 Thoughts on Budo.
So this week it's 10 Other Thoughts on Budo.



一Why train?
With training comes physical fitness & skill, these lead to confidence (of course make sure to avoid ego inflation). With the right mindset, this helps to bring perspective in daily life which leads to happiness and a feeling of wellbeing.




二Budo should be a cure for immaturity
The weaker traits of humanity are what has corrupted the martial way of the modern world. What are these traits?

• Arrogance
• Pettiness
• The need to prove that we're better than others
• The need to 'look' good (rather than training to 'be' good)
• Jealousy
• Lack of serious dedication (but still an expectation of the results that serious dedication brings)
• Impatience
• Lack of drive to seek understanding of the way
• Belief that ignorance is ok
• The expectation that all will learn and develop at the same steady rate
• Insecurity regarding the opinions of others.

Training in Budo is meant to help us remove these weaknesses from our character, but instead, the popularisation of Budo in modern times has lead the acceptance of each of these as part of Budo. 
Seek to be greater than the weaker traits within yourself and you will find the greater virtues of the way.




三The Way
‘Do’ 道 (the way) literally means ‘path’ or ‘road’. This implies that it is ongoing and not something you work towards. It isn’t a destination or a goal. It is the whole journey.
It is a habit... A Lifestyle…. a ‘Way of Life’.
So stop seeking something, stop chasing a 'goal'... just train earnestly and you will find the 'way'.




四Want to become strong?
Hojo Undo every day!




五Knowing is not enough
It is good to have knowledge, but to apply that knowledge is wisdom.
This is what makes us strong.
Seek knowledge AND seek to use it correctly.




六Wisdom
Wisdom does not come with time & age but with correct effort.
(Knowledge on its own is useless).




七"Those who speak do not know,"

"Those who know do not speak..."-Laozi

What’s the point in talking when you don’t have anything to say?
Yet many people seem to do this. Wisdom grows from listening & understanding, most of the time we can only do this by not talking.

八Resentment
Remove resentment from your heart by getting over the need to prove to others that they are wrong.




九When we achieve
When you feel that you've achieved something, it feels like the end of that. When you reach the end, you stop and you have to start something else.
I have no intention of ever stopping, so I don't set particular goals, don't aim for particular achievements.
Never stop learning; you never know ‘enough’, you never know ‘it all’. There is always more to learn, always opportunity to grow and understand better & deeper.




十Always remember
Once realising the way, don’t lose sight of it!




Comment below to share any thoughts or opinions you might have. J

Thanks for reading.

Derm

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10 Thoughts on Budo

It's very important in martial arts that you be thinking for yourself, analysing and seek understanding. Never just blindly do as Sensei said. The attitude of "Sensei is always right" is insulting and condescending.
THINK FOR YOURSELF!

Anyhoo, sometimes when thinking and analysing you'll have the odd interesting thought regarding some aspect of the art form.
If an interesting thought occurs to you, don't rely on your memory, write it down.

I have been doing this for some time now. Here is another collection of interesting thoughts I figured I'd share:
(The first post I did sharing random thoughts can be found here)




一When you know you should train more
It is amazing what we are able to do when it is necessary, when we don’t have a choice.
So train like it’s necessary, act like there’s no choice.




二When things are difficult
It’s not about the amount of effort you put in, but where you apply that effort.
Some things only require little effort, but people make it difficult for themselves by putting lots of effort in the wrong place. They then get upset or frustrated when it's too difficult. With some things, it's only difficult because we subconsciously make it that way.




三Be the real thing
When you are tough, you don’t need to act tough.
When you are strong, you don’t need to act strong.
When you are confident, you don’t need to act confident.
Don’t act, just be.




四As Obi Wan said...
Everything depends on the point of view and relativity.
Water is both yin to rock AND yang to fire. ☯
Very few things are absolute, yet many things seem to appear so.




五What does a true warrior fight against?
The real enemy is your own ego.




六Your attitude about you
Having the correct attitude regarding your own ability is important.
You can’t be too arrogant as this will hinder your ability to see areas of needed improvement. You do need to be confident in your skill, enough to know you could defend yourself effectively if need be. Being negative about your progress is also going to hinder future possible progress. So you can neither be too negative or too over-confident. I have found that the best attitude is to consider yourself to be on the boarder of average and good. Knowing you’re skillful enough to use it, if need be, but also knowing there is always plenty of room for improvement. Think of yourself as slightly above average.

This attitude is constant, regardless of your actual skill level.




七I need not your encouragement or criticism.
I can provide both encouragement and criticism for myself. I'm capable of doing this through self-knowledge & self-honesty.




八True Budoka
If you want to be able to call yourself a true Budoka, you must seek to follow all aspects of the way. You can’t just pick and choose things that are ‘easier’ or ‘more interesting’.




九Budo Mountaineering
You should always endeavour to climb the mountain of knowledge & understanding.
Just because you are near the top doesn’t mean that it’s the only peak and certainly not the end of the journey. Never fall into the trap of thinking you 'know it all' or 'know enough'.
There are always higher peaks and more to learn.




十Is what you're doing working?
You may 'do training'  but if you simply go through the motions of the techniques, you can train as much as you like, you will wonder why it is not getting you anywhere.
To be progressing it takes more than just doing techniques, you must put effort into improving them, making them faster, stronger and more accurate and precise. This is something you must do yourself, the instructor can tell or show you how, but if you want to be the best you can be, you have to be putting the correct effort in.
As Gichin Funakoshi said:
You may train for a long time, but if you merely move your hands and feet and jump up and down like a puppet, learning karate is not very different from learning a dance. You will never have reached the heart of the matter; you will have failed to grasp the quintessence of karate-do.







Comment below to share any thoughts or opinions you might have. J

Thanks for reading.
Derm

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What Bushido Isn't (Part 2)

The seven virtues facing outward
with five additional virtues on the inside.

What Bushido isn't (Part 1) was about the opposites of the virtues of Bushido.
The idea was to explain what we want to avoid in order to enrich our understanding of the seven virtues.



In my post about Beyond Bushido, I defined and explained five additional virtues that expand on the seven virtues of Bushido. These are less about your actions and more about the internal character traits that motivate them.




Self-Respect over Self-Doubt
Self-Doubt will infect every part of your being if you let it.
Self-doubt is when you let your confidence slip and paranoia guides your own view of yourself.
When you doubt yourself, you'll question your own abilities, both mental and physical. Whenever you are trying to do anything slightly complex or difficult, your self-doubt will hold you back, slow you down and even stop you completely from achieving anything.

In order to achieve anything in life you must first believe you can. This means it's the doubt of capabilities that will actually be the thing that makes you incapable.
As the Buddha said: "Your worst enemy cannot harm you as much as your own unguarded thoughts."
The weapon of your unguarded thoughts is your self-doubt, it can and does cause more damage to your life than anything else you'd encounter.



Self-Control over Recklessness
Recklessness is thoughtlessness in overdrive.
Being reckless is acting without any thought. Recklessness is dangerous, not only to you, but to everyone around you.
Where thoughtlessness could possibly result in unfavourable situations, recklessness pretty much guarantees it.
When we act recklessly, we are acting without thought or control.

Having some self-control is essential to ensuring we don't make reckless decisions. Reckless decisions will never work out in the long term.

As martial artists, we have to be smart and thoughtful. In a serious situation where we have a responsibility to de-escalate things, any reckless act will only serve to escalate and make things more dangerous.


 
A Positive Mindset over Negativity
Negativity, at it worst, can make your world a dark, cold, lonely and sad place.
Only a fool always expects positive things to happen every single time, but negativity is believing that positive things will never happen.

Always expecting the worst is being truly pessimistic and it will colour your perception and change how you view the world. This will result in you reacting in a negative way, creating more and more negative situations.

Having an optimistic view will help you be happy and interact with the world around you in a more positive way. When you believe things are bight and good, things will be bright and good. 
 
A realistic person knows that bad things sometimes happen, so it is best to not be ignorant and know that they do happen, but understand that it doesn't mean anything.
A naïve person is always finding meaning in the positives & negatives of situations and circumstance that aren't there. It's best to know that the world is neither for or against you, it just is. Don't place unnecessary meaning on things and you will find more happiness.

A healthy mindset is to keep your mind focused on the positives and expect the positives to happen, but prepare for possible negatives. That way you aren't caught unprepared.



Wisdom over Naivety
Naivety is your "default factory settings", life is about learning and growing.
There is nothing inherently bad about being naïve, we all lack knowledge and understanding about many things, but we should seek to be less naïve about our world in general.
The more we learn and the more experiences we have, the less naïve we should become about the world around us.

A naïve person will always make silly mistakes and will require the help of those around them. This is ok in certain circumstances.
For example, If you started in a new job recently, there will be some basic things you don't know and might need ask others about. However, if you have been working at the same place for 12 years and still need to ask people where the toilet is, you're obviously not paying attention.

In all situations it's best to learn and take in what is going on around you, be observant!
If people are frequently being attacked on the same street corner at the same time of day, then it's your own fault if you go there at that time and six thugs mug and beat you.



Calm Disposition over an Emotional Disposition
Emotions have a purpose, that purpose is not to control your actions & decisions.
Being Calm is essential to being a true warrior. It's also the most difficult thing to master for many people.
Many people let emotions rule their thought processes. Without self-disciple or self-control it's easy to react to situations emotionally, but this very rarely leads to a congruent outcome.

For martial artists having control over our emotions and being able to stay calm is very important.
If you've ever been in a situation where you needed to use your martial abilities,
you'd know that it's very emotionally charged. Letting those emotions get the better of you is never the path to the best possible outcome.

The aim is always to stay calm and logically and objectively evaluate the situation in order to be able to make the best decisions possible. When emotional a person is incapable od making any sort of rational wise decision.

Comment below to share any thoughts or opinions you might have.  :)

Thanks for reading.
Derm

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XMAS SPECIAL - The Twelve Days of Training

Click play on the video and sing along with the lyrics below!

 On the 1st day of Training my Sensei taught to me:

A martial system called Karate

On the 2nd day of Training my Sensei taught to me:
Two Training Kata

And a martial system called Karate

 

On the 3rd day of Training my Sensei taught to me:
Three Ryukyu Villages
Two Training Kata

And a martial system called Karate 

 

On the 4th day of Training my Sensei gave to me:
Four Funakoshi Books

Three Ryukyu Villages

Two Training Kata

And a martial system called Karate

On the 5th day of Training my Sensei gave to me:

MUSASHI'S FIVE RINGS!

Four Funakoshi Books

Three Ryukyu Villages

Two Training Kata

And a martial system called Karate

On the 6th day of Training my Sensei gave to me:
Six Hojo Undo Tools

MUSASHI'S FIVE RINGS!

Four Funakoshi Books

Three Ryukyu Villages

Two Training Kata

And a martial system called Karate

On the 7th day of Training my Sensei taught to me:
Seven Bushido Virtues

Six Hojo Undo Tools
MUSASHI'S FIVE RINGS!

Four Funakoshi Books

Three Ryukyu Villages

Two Training Kata

And a martial system called Karate

On the 8th day of Training my Sensei taught to me:
Eight Budo Masters

Seven Bushido Virtues

Six Hojo Undo Tools

MUSASHI'S FIVE RINGS!

Four Funakoshi Books

Three Ryukyu Villages

Two Training Kata

And a martial system called Karate

On the 9th day of Training my Sensei gave to me:

Nine Kobudo Weapons

Eight Budo Masters

Seven Bushido Virtues

Six Hojo Undo Tools

MUSASHI'S FIVE RINGS!

Four Funakoshi Books

Three Ryukyu Villages

Two Training Kata

And a martial system called Karate

On the 10th day of Training my Sensei taught to me:

Ten Itosu Precepts

Nine Kobudo Weapons

Eight Budo Masters

Seven Bushido Virtues

Six Hojo Undo Tools

MUSASHI'S FIVE RINGS!

Four Funakoshi Books

Three Ryukyu Villages

Two Training Kata

And a martial system called Karate

On the 11th day of Training my Sensei taught to me:

Eleven Makiwara Strikes

Ten Itosu Precepts

Nine Kobudo Weapons

Eight Budo Masters

Seven Bushido Virtues

Six Hojo Undo Tools

MUSASHI'S FIVE RINGS!

Four Funakoshi Books

Three Ryukyu Villages

Two Training Kata

And a martial system called Karate

On the 12th day of Training my Sensei taught to me:

Twelve Practical Bunkai

Eleven Makiwara Strikes
Ten Itosu Precepts

Nine Kobudo Weapons

Eight Budo Masters

Seven Bushido Virtues

Six Hojo Undo Tools

MUSASHI'S FIVE RINGS!

Four Funakoshi Books

Three Ryukyu Villages

Two Training Kata

And a martial system called Karate

Happy Holidays Everyone!

Don't forget to keep your eyes out for Santa!

Ðerm
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What Bushido Isn't (Part 1)

Sometimes it's important to understand what we're not striving to be, just as much as what we are trying to be.
Knowing the what we don't want to be can help guide us toward what we do want to become. Sometimes, when faced with a choice, it's easier to see what we shouldn't choose. This narrows down the options and helps us choose the right option.


In my post on The 7 Virtues of Bushido, I defined and explained the seven virtues that outline the Samurai code of bushido.
This code help us (especially those of us trained in martial arts) act with Honour and Integrity, being a good and just person.
Bushido is a basic framework of how to act and guideline for us to know what correct behaviour is.


The following is the Severn Virtues of Bushido and a brief explanation of their exact opposite (in my opinion). Understanding the antonym of each virtue should give context to the virtue itself and assist with applying Bushido to your character and actions.



Honour over Shame
Shameful acts will almost always lead to bad outcomes for everyone involved.
The antonym of Honour is shame.
Shame is basically the recognition of your dishonourable actions or intentions.
Google defines it as "A painful feeling of humiliation or distress caused by the consciousness of wrong or foolish behaviour."
Without a sense of Honour guiding your actions, the embarrassment and humiliation of being ashamed will undoubtedly catch up with you eventually.

Shameful acts are generally motivated by selfishness. The desire to gain something or get an advantage from a situation without regard for others the possible negative outcome.

This type of dishonourable behaviour is short-sighted. While it's possible to get away with it on the odd occasion, this selfishness will inevitably be brought to light and others will realise that you would sell them out for some short-term advantage.

In the long-term, shameful acts will lead to not only be bad the others that your actions affect, but also result in lasting negative, damaging to you and the course of your life.



Benevolence over Cruelty
Those who are cruel will find that the laws of Karma can also be cruel.
The antonym of being a good person is cruelty.
Cruelty, more often than not, brings bad things and misfortune back onto you, as is described by the concept of karma.

Karma isn't some magical universal force that deals out justice to those who "have it coming".

Instead, it describes the idea that if you are cruel to others, it will begin chains of events that will eventually bring cruelty back onto you. The Same is true benevolence. This (I believe) is the reason for the old saying from the bible "Do to others as you would have them do to you."

The world around you reacts to your actions, both in how other people react to you and in circumstances in general. If you want good things, if you want people to be good to you and you want good things to happen to you, then you need to be good and treat people well.

Of course this doesn't mean that good people only bring good onto themselves and bad people only bring the bad.
People seem to think that if something bad happens, then they must have done something to deserve it.

That's an overly simplistic view and isn't not always so.
Karma doesn't make things 'fair', it basically means that you reap what you sow.



Karma

If you make benevolent choices, the probability of good things happening will increase.
If you make cruel choices, the probability of bad things happening will increase.



Rectitude over Corruption
A true warrior with integrity in his heart has an incorruptible spirit.
The antonym of justice and truth is corruption.
A person who is trained with martial skills has a responsibility to uphold the truth and stand for what is right!
Corruption, for lack of a better term, is weakness. It's when you see the right thing to do, know that you should do it, but instead you let fear or selfish desires guide your actions.

We all know corruption at it's worst. We think of corruption as 'selling out', for example, when politicians accept bribes or 'kickbacks' for allowing large corporations to carryout their agenda when it's against the wishes and even harmful to the people that the politician should be representing.
This sort of corruption is obvious (it is probably the worst kind), but we do see corruption every day in many different ways.
It's any time you are willing to make an exception and act against what is right. This can be anything from being lazy and not doing some simple task, to putting profit or pride above other people. Any act or decision (large or small) that perpetuates injustice are a result of corruption of some kind or another.

With a strong will and a strong sense of integrity, you will recognise corruption and injustice, learn to remove it from your life, and know to never tolerate it from others around you.
Being able to recognise your own corruption (and realise to avoid it) is a big step towards being a better person. This is one of the truly difficult aspects of being a true warrior and following the code of Bushido.




Sincerity over Deception
There is nothing redeeming of deception, it's the shadow of arrogance motivated by cowardice.
The antonym of honesty is lies and deception.
A person who lacks respect for all (including themselves) will use deception to attempt to manipulate the world around them. With little regard to other people (even those they care about) these people selfishly seek advantage in all situations.

Those who deceive, believe themselves to be better than others. They think they are smarter people around them. They believe they are more deserving of whatever it is that they trying to get out of their deception.
If someone you know uses lies and deception with others, it's pretty much a guarantee that they lie and deceive you too. These people can't be trusted, this might seem obvious, but people seem to be too willing to trust others even when there's evidence to the contrary.

Deception is subject to the, above mentioned, laws of Karma. Those who deceive other, fail to realise that they only make things worse for themselves and people around them.
Cowardice and fear motivates deception, even when it seems to be coming from some other motivation.
A person will deceive in attempt to manipulate a situation out of fear of what 'might happen'.
This is basically weakness and a lack of integrity and honour.



Courage over Cowardice
To have no self-discipline is to be motivated by fear.
The antonym of courage is cowardice.
Without courage, cowardice is all that remains. Cowardice is motivated by fear. If you act out of fear you will do and say all sorts of stupid illogical things.
As many people say: "FEAR" is just an acronym for "False Evidence Appearing Real".
Fear is your mind running away with itself. It draws conclusions based on nothing but the emotions in your own head. Emotion is the opposite of logic, it has no grounding in actual reality.

When we act out of fear, we are reacting to something that doesn't exist in reality.
Cowardice is basically not having the strength to act on logic. It's letting the emotions within your head spark fear and then letting that fear take over.

In order to be strong enough to use logic over cowardice you must force yourself to do it as often as you can (as is the case with all forms of strength). Through repetition, you will 'exercise' that skill, make it stronger and a more natural part of your mindset.

 

Loyalty over Selfishness
One who is only concerned with selfish desires fails to see the big picture.
The antonym of loyalty is selfishness.
The epitome of everything that isn't the way of Bushido (at it's source) is selfishness.
When your view of the world is only on yourself, you fail to truly see other points of view. People like this are incapable of seeing what the right course of action is, as they only see what is 'best' for them. This short-sightedness can only lead to bad consequences, not only for the people they failed to care about, but also themselves.
Over time people catch onto the selfishness of others.
Eventually a selfish person goes through life without the trust of any other people. They are unable to rely on people because the people know they can't rely on them.
The truly sad thing about this is, that in some cases the selfish person fails to even realise that they have lost the trust of those around them (as a result of their own self-centred views).

Selfishness can be a cause for cruelty, corruption, deception, cowardice thoughtlessness and disdain for others. It will almost always lead to shame.
This is why the way of Bushido is rooted in selflessness.


Respect over Thoughtlessness and Disdain
In general there are two main causes for a lack of respect.
Thoughtlessness springs from a self-centred attitude of not valuing knowledge or understanding.
Thoughtlessness is action born from ignorance. It's ignorance at it's worst, when we act without thought or consideration for others or the situation, we leave ourselves vulnerable to any sort of negative repercussions.
Thoughtlessness becomes disrespect when we fail the consider the point of view of the others around us.

When people say: "I was just trying to help" it's a weak defence for thoughtlessness, it's a cop out. It's a way of saying that ignorance is ok when you have no malicious intent, it isn't ok, warriors are always mindful and always THINK first.
When we act without thought, we unintentionally insult others, get in others way or even endanger people. A warrior is smarter than this.
It's always best to use a little for thought and analyse a situation.

Disdain is arrogance at it's most rude and insulting, it's unacceptable of a true warrior.
Disdain is the intentional disrespect of others. Generally this is due to strong negative feelings toward a person (or people).
A person has disdain for others thinks they are above them, they think they're better than them for some reason. 
A true warrior doesn't act like they're superior to anyone, irrespective of how they feel about them.

It's a mistake to blindly respect people who aren't deserving of that respect, but that doesn't mean it's ok to treat people however you like.
To act with distain will only bring animosity and animosity never helps any situation, it only hinders things.
Negativity only creates negativity!
(no reasonable person truly want negativity in their life)
It's dishonest to act like you like or respect a person who is undeserving of it, but a persons dishonourable actions isn't a licence for you to be rude or disrespectful.
These is never a reason for disdainful behaviour.




Comment below to share any thoughts or opinions you might have. J

Thanks for reading.
Derm

Ͼ