Budo and Responibility

[pboylan]

So I finally got around to writing a blog for last week. It's about budo and responsibility. Yes we have a responsibility to use what we use correctly, and wisely, but how often do we really talk about that, and can that lesson of responsibility extend beyond the dojo?

http://budobum.blogspot.com/2014/07/...nsibility.html

[Carina Reinhardt]

Thank you Peter for a great article, I agree with most of it, but would like to add that the most important power we should train in our budo which is also the most difficult, is to keep calm, always, and with this calmness we can face almost every conflict, deciding in an instant what skill of those we have learned, we will apply in each case with responsibility.

[cxt]

Good read....well worth checking out.

[Tripitaka of AA]

A good read indeed. Funny how you used the word responsible and responsibility so many times in the article and then mis-spelled it when you wrote the title for this thread .

Responsibility and ethics are a big part of good budo training. At least, that's how I see it. Some would disagree. Some would prefer to focus on hard physical training and ignore the necessity to include any moral guidance. Some would say that philosophy, ethics, morals and spiritual development are not skills to be learned from a martial arts instructor. I would say it depends on the instructor and how he has been taught. Shorinji Kempo is one art that takes that side of things very seriously. The instructors are taught how to approach those aspects, as are the students. It probably/maybe wouldn't work that way in other schools.

Another part of the "responsibility" topic that you didn't touch on is how this concept fits into the Buddhist view of the world. Personal responsibility has a different meaning in a culture where God doesn't make things happen, or the Devil makes you do it. I know it wasn't part of your topic, but it can be a spin-off discussion perhaps. Being responsible for your own actions is certainly not incompatible with other religious systems or beliefs, but perhaps the cultures where there is no deity controlling things have developed systems to encourage personal responsibility... systems like, for example, martial arts.

[CEB]

Used to discuss this a lot in the dojo. Not so much anymore but it is still discussed from time to time. No real need to discuss it. We are all good people and mostly OLD practitioners.

It isn't so much that we have great powers requiring great responsibilities. My experience has been that most martial artist are not as dangerous as they think they are. It can really hard to hurt mean people.

The main thing is that I don't want myself or my people to do anything that embarasses or brings shame on the dojo or our teachers. It aint just violence. I don't want liars or thieves associating with our dojo. I don't want people who write bad checks or are public drunkerds or etc........

In the West things a little honked up in regards to how a teacher is viewed. Here it is thought that the teacher's primary responsibility is to their students. It is not. Your primary responsibility is to the RyuHa. You protect the standards of the Ryuha. Fortunately this in turn is good for the student. An important piece of this is only accepting a high level of moral decency within the dojo.

But that is just me.

[Tripitaka of AA]

Not just you Ed. Fortunately there are some other good people out there too. But you hit right on the target as ever.