If I had a magic wand that would
enable me to instantly bestow a high level of (martial arts) skill
upon my students, I would use it for kindling. I have mentioned this
to some of my students over the years and they're always surprised.
“Why?” they ask. “Why wouldn't you use it?”
“Because acquisition of high
physical skill must be accompanied by an equally high level of
discipline and spirit,” I tell them. “And it is the struggle for
the skill that makes us strong.”
Martial skill in and of itself is
very nice but believe it or not, it's not really the entire goal.
The struggle; the discipline, the effort and pain and sacrifice that
it takes to achieve high skill is, I believe, the most important
thing. It is only through this special forge and tempering process
that we can truly come to understand and develop ourselves.
As in the art of kyudo (Japanese
archery), the goal is not necessarily to hit the bull's eye. To a
Westerner, this would seem nonsensical. But as I mentioned in an
earlier writing, we tend to see (Eastern) things through Western
eyes. This distorts our vision. We are not seeing truly (which is
different from not truly seeing).
No, the object in kyudo and in all
of the martial ways is to perfect every aspect of the outer
movements. This must naturally lead to perfection of the internal
aspects as well. Perfection of the self. And if you hit the bull's
eye from time to time, that's nice. But stop trying to hit it. Pay
attention to how you're standing, how you're breathing, what your
mind is doing (or not doing).
Do it perfectly. You'll
understand when you get there.
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