I still remember that class. It had been a class much like any other, Jack would say one thing, and I would do another. I was not being a bad student deliberately, I was actually training very hard and paying attention. It was just that something key was missing in my training. For years Jack had tried to impart upon all of us the importance of having the right ethic, of controlling the space effectively, and how to apply a technique efficiently. It made sense in words, I could see and feel the application in action, but when I went to do it my habit was to fight for a winning technique, or finishing move. Sacrificing all else in the process.
In this particular class we studied Sanshin no Kata, some of the most "basic" movements in the Bujinkan system. Jack was explaining how the ethic drives the tactic which drives the technique in this controlled scenario. Somewhere around the second form I suddenly saw something and internalized it, "from that space there, he is safe, if he is unethical and goes in this way he will break his tactical advantage and get hit, if the opponent moves in however he can stay safe and can defend himself very well". Not very exciting in words I know, but my mind started to buzz with new possibility. My first realization was....you can consistently be ethical, and tactical and do a technique!?
Not impressed? Well of course, in words many things are easy. But in reality, my own life experience and years of martial arts training had not led me to hold much confidence in being ethical when it came to violence. And even when it came to tactics, the most common tactic that seemed to work was to be stronger, faster and more ruthless than the opponent. Being unexceptional at all of those, I'd barely managed to fight or run my way out of trouble on several occasions in the past. Being ethical, while also surviving, seemed like a lofty ideal. But suddenly that night, it was demonstrably possible, even in basic form, even for me.
The next observation was that, actually, being ethical was not just possible but better! That was the main realization. It was absolutely clear, if I lose the ethic of protecting self and others, my mind would cloud, I would perhaps get angry or panic, I would freeze or rush into something, and it would be little more than luck if my forced technique worked. On the contrary, keeping ethical kept me thinking tactically, and eventually allowed me to find the right form for the technique. True, it would require me to change the way I trained, it would take time to develop any level of proficiency, but if I was not prepared to evolve and put the work in, I had essentially reached the end of my training anyway.
There is often a joke on the internet about "what has been seen cannot be unseen". What I saw was a better approach to my martial arts training than what I had been doing up to that point. 6 years later I certainly have not mastered it, but I am happy with the progress and look forward to many more years of growth and development. In that regard too, it is a better life.
Not impressed? Well of course, in words many things are easy. But in reality, my own life experience and years of martial arts training had not led me to hold much confidence in being ethical when it came to violence. And even when it came to tactics, the most common tactic that seemed to work was to be stronger, faster and more ruthless than the opponent. Being unexceptional at all of those, I'd barely managed to fight or run my way out of trouble on several occasions in the past. Being ethical, while also surviving, seemed like a lofty ideal. But suddenly that night, it was demonstrably possible, even in basic form, even for me.
The next observation was that, actually, being ethical was not just possible but better! That was the main realization. It was absolutely clear, if I lose the ethic of protecting self and others, my mind would cloud, I would perhaps get angry or panic, I would freeze or rush into something, and it would be little more than luck if my forced technique worked. On the contrary, keeping ethical kept me thinking tactically, and eventually allowed me to find the right form for the technique. True, it would require me to change the way I trained, it would take time to develop any level of proficiency, but if I was not prepared to evolve and put the work in, I had essentially reached the end of my training anyway.
There is often a joke on the internet about "what has been seen cannot be unseen". What I saw was a better approach to my martial arts training than what I had been doing up to that point. 6 years later I certainly have not mastered it, but I am happy with the progress and look forward to many more years of growth and development. In that regard too, it is a better life.
