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If adults were just as pure One of the benefits we gain from Budo is learn to tolerate pain and as an extension we learn to tolerate and be civil to others who may not be as accommodating. We learn to keep a calm mind in difficult situations. If we have mastered the concept of Mizu no Kokoro then we can also diffuse aggravating situations where people with lesser control would resort to verbal and physical violence. How do we learn anger? Why is it we have to relearn controlling anger and search for purity of the soul? Infants cry because they do not have the verbal skills to let us know they are tired and hungry. I do not think that comes under the definition of anger. What "soils" us that we learn anger? Why do we lose tolerance and civility? I am an avid user of the local YELP for dining information. You may wonder why on an island? You must have already eaten at all the restaurants! (^^) Recently there has been an surging "battle" between writers. Actually it appears that a handful of writers cause the grief by being vindictive and acid of tongue. The fact that your identity does not get revealed may contribute to this. The non-attributable factor. It is very sad to see this happen. Civility goes out the window and mud slinging starts. How anyone can build up so much anger and hate against someone he/she has never met is beyond me. I hope that as practitioners of martial arts we do not become the same. Unfortunately it does exist in the martial arts communities. ( - -;)  or  Which would you choose? |
Friday, August 6, 2010
Tolerance and Civility
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Konbanwa Roushiichi and all other Doushins
ReplyDeleteI have been thinking about your Tolerance and Civility and even your post on Hiroshima, and how it relates to martial arts. I have had the privilege to train with members of Shokei Matsui, Kancho Yoshikazu Matsushima, Kancho and Hatsuo Royama, Kancho, Lowe, Shihan, Quinn, Shihan and Flynn, Shihan dojo’s. Now I know that the Tolerance and civility for different fractions as been in question since the passing of Sosai in 1994, but every dojo member that I meet on the floor has been accepting, tolerant. I was not a member of any of there organizations. The dojo members meet much like the two children in your picture Roushiichi, at first there is the slight apprehension, a few Osu!! those are at first solely based on respect. Later, I find the Osu!! changes. It becomes sincere. Many people tell me that the things that I hold dear about karate and budo, are from a time long since pasted, practice by a people that no longer exist, an archaic time, a time glorified. I once told a rather scholarly woman, that I wish to live my life in the bushido way. She smile and said, “Tony what did you paternal grandfather do for a living? I replied the work on the railroad, lighting the way for trains, between Mechanicville and Boston. She told me then that lamp lighing should be my profession if I was to live by the bushido code. I know that there is much I don’t understand of this period, in a culture that is still so foreign to me. Yes maybe so, but I can not think of a time, that this foreign, archaic and long since” unnecessary” way of life we call budo, is more necessary.
The scholarly lady was spot on! (^^) as your grandfather lit the way for trains to safely reach their destinations, you are lighting the path for a better and meaningful life for those who choose to follow you! Different paths but same goals!
ReplyDeleteI want to direct readers to an excerpt from Nitobe Inazo's "Bushido", a must read book if one is understand martial arts.
In Chapter one, Bushido as An Ethical System, he writes “Chivalry is a flower no less indigenous to the soil of Japan than its emblem, the cherry blossom; nor is it a dried-up specimen of antique virtue preserved in the herbarium of our history. It is still a living object of power and beauty among us; and id it assume no tangible form, it is not the less scents the moral atmosphere, and makes us aware that we are still under its potent spell. The conditions of society which brought it forth and nourished it have long disappeared; but as those far off stars which once were and are not, still continue to shed their rays upon us, so the light of chivalry which was a child of feudalism, still illuminates our moral path, surviving its mother institution.
I reccomend that those who particpate in martial arts read this book. (^^)
Roushiichi, your comment here made my day. Love to think, that I AM lighting the way for younger ones to follow, and following my grandfather ways. Thank you for such kind words. I have taken your advise, I am off today and reading Bushido, The Soul of Japan, by Dr. Inazo Nitobe. Weather here is nice and cool today, so it's me and the book outside on deck. Hope the weather is better for outside practice on your end.
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