timtv

Gahh!!! Is it too much to ask to have a disciplined, obedient disciple?! Every time I watch classic martial arts films I want to go beat the students! (with love, of course!) But I'm sure that just as I wish the students to be focused, loyal, dedicated and fanatical in their training, they probably watch the same movies and wish that I would be more like Miyagi or Mifune or Master Pai Mei. Ah well. It goes both ways.

The handful of incredible and talented warriors-in-training that I have here (yes, L. & A., you are included) make it all worthwhile. The poverty, the long hours, the scores of half-hearted martial artists, the dozens of pompous chest-beating black belts (other than me, I mean), and the constant stream of people who are not willing to put their heart into what they do... it's enough to really make me want to give it up and train in seclusion. The Yamabushi did it. Oyama, Funakoshi, Yamaguchi (Gogen, not Christy), Uyeshiba, and countless other masters did it. The monks from all over China, Japan, and Korea did it. The Ninja and many Samurai did it as a regular part of their training.

They called it "musha shugyo" (harsh wilderness training) and they would go up into the mountains for weeks, months and often years to refine their minds, bodies and spirits under the most severe conditions. I guess maybe what I'm going through is just the urban version of it. Toughness and endurance through the hardships of this chosen life.

And Helen Keller put it perfectly: Character cannot be developed in ease and quiet, only through experience of trial and suffering can the soul be strengthened, vision cleared, ambition inspired and success achieved.

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Helen Keller was a badass. I'm not so tough.

I'm off to go do some pushups...