masters everywhere
Originally Posted by
hectokan
David nice post.....I guess there must have been budo masters everywhere around the world then,What about the eqyptians with their architectual pyramids and sphinx? They must have been budo disciplined!.What about the incas with their buildings in the southern hemishpere?where they trained in budo too?
Whatever they called it in their language, I guess they had military arts and something of a military culture, but somehow it did not come down through history. What made their cultures disappear while the Japanese have been with us around 3000 years? Why don't we dress like Incas and Pharaohs and fight with those sticks you see in heiroglyphics? (haven't checked Baffling Budo lately, though...Prince Loeffler might have found something new...)
What I am trying to get at is this..... I just don't see how someone cannot possibly get the same principle humanitarian qualities found or attained thru budo in say something like High school wrestling?I mean,discipline,respect for authority & elders,courtesy,and loyalty are all values that a good solid program based around a good coach can exemplify.
Yeah, I guess, supposing the coach was reared in a family of knights or had grown up in a culture where half the men he ran into had had personal experience in fighting with swords. And if he were like Gene LeBell, except that all his teachers had come from centuries-old family lines full of warriors, all crafty masters of technique, weaponry and warrior lore.
Without offending anyone in the koryo arts,sword arts,aikido,judo,karate-do,kendo but they are all just physical activities that "could" cultivate the good humatarian traits that the budo arts are suppose to demonstrate.
And they could very easily become cults.
They can easily lead people on for decades, imitating cultural behaviors they don't understand in the least, expecting that someday, they will "get it" if they just keep going, never suspecting that their teacher never "got it" himself and does not really know where he's supposed to be leading them. This comes from Zen, too. Mistaken Zen. These teachers are just marking time in repetitive movements until they get their next promotion.
In real budo, you are really meant to "get it" and the sooner the better. I was sort of raised on the idea that you just train without expectation of "getting it" or getting higher rank or such things. But in Japan, I found that that was bs. Sensei wanted everyone to "get it" as quickly as possible. Go for it, including higher rank. There was no shame in wanting to advance, unlike we had been taught here. Wrestling is a lot like that. Not saying that a coach need be any worse a role model than Sensei Johnny, either. It's up to the student to evaluate the teacher and not accept abuse or lack of ability. No need to make a stink, just say ta-ta.
Do you think all the samurais developed this good humanitarian traits?of course not,then it's not a fool proof system is it?It's not that I don't believe in the good of budo ethics,it's just that I don't think the eastern martial arts are the only ones that can attain these good humanitarian ethics and they sure do not own the exclusive rights to them either.
No. And the majority of them don't even use the black belt. But most people here who want to be seen as martial artists do want the black belt. Even if they have to just make up a system and promote themselves. Even if their "system" is mostly HS wrestling with some karate moves and a bit of boxing. Somehow, they want it to be accepted as part of "the black belt tradition". What makes that symbol so attractive?
I told the story elsewhere of how Mochizuki sensei protected his cities in Mongolia during WWII. The communists would attack and the military had to fight them inside the cities. Sensei trained "barefoot doctor" type of medics and stationed them at little clinics around the cities. These doctors treated the locals, who came to trust them and reported Communist movements when they knew of them. The medics sent runners to the cities and the Japanese army met the communists outside the city to fight, instead of inside the city.
Not that I can applaud anything the Japanese did in or out of their own country in that time, but it's better than a bloodbath inside the town. Sensei, by the way, was not a military man but a political worker serving as a deputy governor in Mongolia. He had a lot of trouble getting things done with the Japanese military running over everything, but he remained friends with many Mongolians long after the war. I've heard that there's a bridge there named after him. While I was in Japan, a young Mongolian woman stayed at the dojo while she attended the local college. So Sensei didn't make a bad name for himself there, regardless of what the Japanese government and army did there.
Now, that's the kind of thing I don't expect to hear about from a wrestling coach or a football coach. It's something from outside our whole frame of reference. Japanese culture is so old and contains such riches that people are drawn to it and spend decades acquiring full understanding of parts of that culture, just because they admire it so much. Others will spend hours coming up with some bogus claim that they, too, have this wisdom--most of that time spent designing their "uniform".
Budo is not jealous of other people having their own knowledge. But I wonder why so many people that don't have that knowledge want to be seen as having it.
As for wrestling and BJJ and MMA, I don't see anything really wrong with it. It doesn't bother me that it's popular or that some people train in it and ignore aikido or other traditional arts. I'm just up to the gills with what I have to do in the time I have in a day, and I'm past the age where I want to pick up more to do.
Best wishes.
So what is
David Orange, Jr.
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"That which has no substance can enter where there is no room."
Lao Tzu