When I was writing last week's post, I couldn't quite put my finger on why it sounded so dogmatic and narrow-minded, despite my efforts to ease off a bit. Thanks to Mike's comment and some reflection, I think I figured it out. It sounded off to my ears because I completely left out the "why." (Ironic, considering I spent most of the last 4 years writing papers based on the question "Why?".)
Guess I wasn't too far off base when I said that I might be projecting my own experience onto the matter. I was, but not the whole experience. See, I'm the type of person who gives a lot of thought to things I consider serious (i.e., buying a car, future career, faith/spiritual matters, etc.), and once I decide something, I tend to forget all the work I put into getting there. I simply move on with that decision and don't look back, hence the mindset in my previous post. It may or may not be the best way to go through the decision-making process, but it's my default. Anyway, the important thing about it is that there is a period of time - sometimes long, sometimes short - when I analyze everything, weigh my options and the what-ifs, and try to pinpoint why the matter is important and why I should or should not decide this or that.
The Why is very important. If you know why you're doing something, then you can remind yourself of it when things get tough - it gives you determination and strengthens resolve. If you understand why you're doing something, that usually makes it more meaningful than acting blindly, too.
Why do you eat? Why do you exercise? Why do you do the job you do? Why do you train?
Think about it. If you've already thought about it in the past, take a minute to remind yourself of the conclusions you came to.
Wednesday, May 23, 2012
Wednesday, May 16, 2012
Priorities and Distractions
There are always things that will vie for your time. The question is, what will you decide to make a priority?
I've recently taken up the phrase, "Do what you need to do." I'd like people to do certain things or go certain places, but they have other things vying for their time, and I just tell them to do what they need to do.
What does that have to do with training? Well, my opinion is that once you sign that waiver and buy your uniform - basically, when you decide you want to do this - showing up to training should be your priority. There will, without fail, be something else you could be doing, something else that's also demanding your time. You have to make a choice: Will you be distracted by those other tasks or will you commit to coming to training?
I understand that some people get into this art and realize that maybe it isn't for them after all. Or life circumstances prevent them from pursuing this for the time being. I don't judge them for that or think ill of them.
The same goes for budoka who've made the commitment to train, but things come up and maybe they have to miss a few classes. Maybe a lot of classes. I hope that they do at least some sort of practice on their own while they're away, but that's their choice. What I'm really watching for with people who have to miss training for an extended period of time is where their focus is. When the thing demanding their time and attention passes, do they return to training?
Reading that for myself, it sounds like I view the things that take us away from training as distractions, regardless of their necessity. Well, that's not entirely wrong. A distraction is defined as "a thing that prevents someone from giving full attention to something else." I definitely advocate being fully present in whatever you're doing - what's the point, otherwise? - but the thing itself is, by definition, a distraction from training.
I don't think training is the end all be all of life. That would be an unhealthy way to live. But I do think that once you make the commitment to train, it becomes woven into your life, which means it's not as optional as, say, whether or not you wear socks today.
I might just be making all this up, projecting my own experience onto what I think others ought to think/act. Or maybe the only way to continue training is not so much make a choice every time, but to make one choice and act is if there isn't another one to be made: train Bujinkan or do not. That's pretty stark, but I do allow for exceptions; there is a life outside the dojo that demands attention, after all. It's just keeping those things in their place and maintaining focus that I wish I saw more people doing.
A penny for your thoughts. Do you agree? Disagree? Any additional comments? Maybe some sudden insights into the meaning of the universe?
I've recently taken up the phrase, "Do what you need to do." I'd like people to do certain things or go certain places, but they have other things vying for their time, and I just tell them to do what they need to do.
What does that have to do with training? Well, my opinion is that once you sign that waiver and buy your uniform - basically, when you decide you want to do this - showing up to training should be your priority. There will, without fail, be something else you could be doing, something else that's also demanding your time. You have to make a choice: Will you be distracted by those other tasks or will you commit to coming to training?
I understand that some people get into this art and realize that maybe it isn't for them after all. Or life circumstances prevent them from pursuing this for the time being. I don't judge them for that or think ill of them.
The same goes for budoka who've made the commitment to train, but things come up and maybe they have to miss a few classes. Maybe a lot of classes. I hope that they do at least some sort of practice on their own while they're away, but that's their choice. What I'm really watching for with people who have to miss training for an extended period of time is where their focus is. When the thing demanding their time and attention passes, do they return to training?
Reading that for myself, it sounds like I view the things that take us away from training as distractions, regardless of their necessity. Well, that's not entirely wrong. A distraction is defined as "a thing that prevents someone from giving full attention to something else." I definitely advocate being fully present in whatever you're doing - what's the point, otherwise? - but the thing itself is, by definition, a distraction from training.
I don't think training is the end all be all of life. That would be an unhealthy way to live. But I do think that once you make the commitment to train, it becomes woven into your life, which means it's not as optional as, say, whether or not you wear socks today.
I might just be making all this up, projecting my own experience onto what I think others ought to think/act. Or maybe the only way to continue training is not so much make a choice every time, but to make one choice and act is if there isn't another one to be made: train Bujinkan or do not. That's pretty stark, but I do allow for exceptions; there is a life outside the dojo that demands attention, after all. It's just keeping those things in their place and maintaining focus that I wish I saw more people doing.
A penny for your thoughts. Do you agree? Disagree? Any additional comments? Maybe some sudden insights into the meaning of the universe?
Thursday, May 10, 2012
To Serve and Protect
As a Christian, there are two commandments I try to live by: Love the Lord my God with all my heart and with all my soul and with all my strength, and Love my neighbor as myself. Personally, I think both commands are ingrained in various forms in all valid religions, so this isn't really a Christianity-specific doctrine. Either way, I try to make sure I'm obeying those commands with everything I do in life.
So, what I'm pondering is this: How can we use our training to 1) love/serve God and 2) love/serve others? The first is slightly more subjective, so I'll leave that one to your own considerations. The second, however, I can do something about.
How does training in Bujinkan Budo Taijutsu help me help others?
Probably the most obvious answer is that it equips me to protect myself (preserving my life so that I can continue to serve) and to protect others (no greater love has man than this, that he would lay down his life for his friends). Protecting others is generally seen as a more noble cause, but both are worthy of respect. The same thing that causes us to want to preserve the lives of others is in us, meaning we are equally worthy of preservation. Learning effective ways to do either enables us to be of service to others in a life and death way.
The training itself teaches values that can help form you into a better person, someone more thoroughly equipped to go out and be a positive force in the world. Some of these values are humility, perseverance, cooperation, and confidence. Hopefully everyone is at least being exposed to these values wherever they are and whatever discipline they've absorbed into their lives. For me personally, the dojo has been a place to put into practice what I learn from Jesus and the church on how to live with others.
So, what I've got so far is protection of self and others and strong values. Both disciplines are present in Bujinkan and are shaping me into a person that will be of benefit to the world.
(Commence slight tangent.)
If I put the two aspects together, my first thought is "warrior." Not just a soldier and not just a virtuous person, but an active combination of the two. Perhaps the Bujinkan is teaching me how to be a warrior.
When I told my friend what I was writing about (being a warrior) she had some excellent insight into what it means. She said that being a warrior is in the mind, heart, and soul. You have to have the thoughts, the feelings, and the reasons to act. A warrior is not necessarily someone who does certain things or acts a certain way; it's who you are at your core.
What are your thoughts on how Bujinkan helps us serve one another? Or on what a warrior is?
So, what I'm pondering is this: How can we use our training to 1) love/serve God and 2) love/serve others? The first is slightly more subjective, so I'll leave that one to your own considerations. The second, however, I can do something about.
How does training in Bujinkan Budo Taijutsu help me help others?
Probably the most obvious answer is that it equips me to protect myself (preserving my life so that I can continue to serve) and to protect others (no greater love has man than this, that he would lay down his life for his friends). Protecting others is generally seen as a more noble cause, but both are worthy of respect. The same thing that causes us to want to preserve the lives of others is in us, meaning we are equally worthy of preservation. Learning effective ways to do either enables us to be of service to others in a life and death way.
The training itself teaches values that can help form you into a better person, someone more thoroughly equipped to go out and be a positive force in the world. Some of these values are humility, perseverance, cooperation, and confidence. Hopefully everyone is at least being exposed to these values wherever they are and whatever discipline they've absorbed into their lives. For me personally, the dojo has been a place to put into practice what I learn from Jesus and the church on how to live with others.
So, what I've got so far is protection of self and others and strong values. Both disciplines are present in Bujinkan and are shaping me into a person that will be of benefit to the world.
(Commence slight tangent.)
If I put the two aspects together, my first thought is "warrior." Not just a soldier and not just a virtuous person, but an active combination of the two. Perhaps the Bujinkan is teaching me how to be a warrior.
When I told my friend what I was writing about (being a warrior) she had some excellent insight into what it means. She said that being a warrior is in the mind, heart, and soul. You have to have the thoughts, the feelings, and the reasons to act. A warrior is not necessarily someone who does certain things or acts a certain way; it's who you are at your core.
What are your thoughts on how Bujinkan helps us serve one another? Or on what a warrior is?
Wednesday, May 2, 2012
USA TaiKai & Kunoichi Kai 2012
This past weekend was the annual USA TaiKai and Kunoichi Kai in Atlanta, GA. A lot of great instructors came out, and there were plenty of friendly, skilled people to meet and train with. The theme for the seminar was "Cutting Through the Illusions," playing off the two-fold theme for the year: sword and kaname. The idea was that we would be trying to cut away the extraneous and unnecessary to get to the kaname.
There were several points made that I'll be chewing on for the next few weeks at least, but the one that kept getting repeated by almost all the shihan was kamae. (Some other things they harped on were position, waiting, "short, sharp, and violent" attacks, and knowing the body you've got.)
Kamae is important. Everybody says so, and in this case "everybody" is right. Kamae is at the base of just about everything, and it is present in every efficient movement. I have heard on a number of occasions that Hatsumi Sensei can move the way he does because he's practiced fundamentals like kamae for so long. He understands how they work, and so they don't often look like the formal kamae we're used to. His "soke magic" stems from decades of practicing kamae.
Because so many of the instructors placed emphasis on kamae, I was able to see just how lacking mine are. There was one technique we were working on that seemed very simple: all you had to do was drop back into hira no kamae and let your fist collide with the other person's jaw. Aside from an unfamiliar wrist movement to make the collision more effective, the concept could not have been more straightforward. And I had a ridiculous amount of trouble with it. I almost never practice hira no kamae, and executing it required a great deal of focus.
For something to become intuitive and [relatively] easy, you have to practice it about a jillion times. A story I recently read says 50,000 times. Would you be willing to practice the same movement over and over? It's a daunting number, but if the movement is essential...
Mr. Miyagi had Daniel-san doing all kinds of repetitive movements to ingrain them into his muscles, so that Daniel would be able to bypass the mind when he needed to actually use those movements. You don't have to go sand the wood floors or wax all your cars and your neighbor's cars (though I'm sure your neighbor would love that), but I do think it's important to be able to execute movements like jodan uke, the various kaiten, and kamae without thought. The less you have to think about these fundamentals, the more attention your brain can give to the rest of the situation.
I have high aspirations for my future skill level, and getting there means first having a firm foundation in the fundamentals, particularly kamae. Establishing that means I'll have to get off my rear and start practicing and drilling. I sometimes joke that it would be better if the technology in The Matrix were real and we could download skills and information directly into our brains, but I'm not sure I would actually take that option. Nothing worth having comes easily, and hard work builds the character necessary to go with heightened power and ability. Practice doesn't make perfect, but practice does lead to perfection. What higher aspiration is there than that?
There were several points made that I'll be chewing on for the next few weeks at least, but the one that kept getting repeated by almost all the shihan was kamae. (Some other things they harped on were position, waiting, "short, sharp, and violent" attacks, and knowing the body you've got.)
Kamae is important. Everybody says so, and in this case "everybody" is right. Kamae is at the base of just about everything, and it is present in every efficient movement. I have heard on a number of occasions that Hatsumi Sensei can move the way he does because he's practiced fundamentals like kamae for so long. He understands how they work, and so they don't often look like the formal kamae we're used to. His "soke magic" stems from decades of practicing kamae.
Because so many of the instructors placed emphasis on kamae, I was able to see just how lacking mine are. There was one technique we were working on that seemed very simple: all you had to do was drop back into hira no kamae and let your fist collide with the other person's jaw. Aside from an unfamiliar wrist movement to make the collision more effective, the concept could not have been more straightforward. And I had a ridiculous amount of trouble with it. I almost never practice hira no kamae, and executing it required a great deal of focus.
For something to become intuitive and [relatively] easy, you have to practice it about a jillion times. A story I recently read says 50,000 times. Would you be willing to practice the same movement over and over? It's a daunting number, but if the movement is essential...
Mr. Miyagi had Daniel-san doing all kinds of repetitive movements to ingrain them into his muscles, so that Daniel would be able to bypass the mind when he needed to actually use those movements. You don't have to go sand the wood floors or wax all your cars and your neighbor's cars (though I'm sure your neighbor would love that), but I do think it's important to be able to execute movements like jodan uke, the various kaiten, and kamae without thought. The less you have to think about these fundamentals, the more attention your brain can give to the rest of the situation.
I have high aspirations for my future skill level, and getting there means first having a firm foundation in the fundamentals, particularly kamae. Establishing that means I'll have to get off my rear and start practicing and drilling. I sometimes joke that it would be better if the technology in The Matrix were real and we could download skills and information directly into our brains, but I'm not sure I would actually take that option. Nothing worth having comes easily, and hard work builds the character necessary to go with heightened power and ability. Practice doesn't make perfect, but practice does lead to perfection. What higher aspiration is there than that?
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