IS IT REALLY NECESSARY?

 By Phillip Starr

When I was living in China, I was once approached by a young man who was one of my English students. He knew that I practiced martial arts and asked why I bothered to practice such an arcane art. I told him that there were several reasons but he went on and said, “But you can't make a living that way (I could easily argue that point but I understood what he was saying) and since we have modern-day policemen, why continue to train in an ancient form of self-defense? He felt that it had very little, if any, practical use in today's “modern” society.

Ah, the blissful ignorance of youth!

Violent crime is very rare in China and even more rare in Japan. This is not, as many contemporary leftists believe, due to the lack of availability of firearms, but because of the culture of these nations. Still, it does occur and even more so in other nations! The need for effective self-defense is probably greater now than ever before.

I'm reminded of a story here about a scholar who took a small ferryboat to cross a rather large river. As the boatman handled the rudder, the scholar asked him if he'd ever read some of the great Confucian classics. The boatman said that he'd never learned to read and the scholar smugly replie, “Ah, what a waste! You have lost half a life!” Time passed and before long a a squall had come up and the boat began taking water from the crashing waves. The boatman turned to the scholar, “Can you swim? The boat's going to sink.” The scholar replied that he'd never learned to swim and the boatman said, “Ah, what a waste...you have lost all of a life!”

Stress in unquestionably responsible for many more deaths annually than violence. It is insidious and our “modern” society, with all of its creature comforts, only serves to increase it. Everywhere we turn, there are “new and effective” programs being hawked as ways to reduce one's stress level. Martial arts is an excellent way to reduce stress. Whether it's taijiquan, taekwondo, judo...they're all effective.

Fitness is another story altogether. Looking at the current generation of both children and adults, it's clear that some sort of regular fitness program is needed more than ever! Getting fit and staying fit contributes to both mental and physical health. Many “fitness programs” have a central problem that is one of the main reasons people don't stick with them for very long (if at all)...boredom. But martial arts are anything but boring.

And then there's discipline. As with fitness, the need for discipline is needed by both adults and youngsters nowadays. Desperately. My most senior student hails from Japan, where he trained in various forms of gong-fu for many years before we met. He told me that discipline is one of the greatest benefits he derived from his training when he was young.

Today's world is, in my opinion, more violent and dangerous, more confusing, stressful, and undisciplined than ever before. Laws can be passed all the livelong day but to no avail. Each of us must take responsibility for ourselves.

Taking responsibility for ourselves and striving to perfect ourselves (or at least, to improve ourselves to some measurable degree) gives us a goal...and without a goal, we are lost.