Sunday, July 24, 2011

The Meaning of a Black Belt

There is a Zen parable that was given much discussion when I was coming up through the ranks. It is about how, in the heyday of the Japanese martial arts, a person used only one obi (belt) during practice-from the time he was initiated into the arts until he became a master.  The point of the parable is to show that changes in the color of the martial artist's belt over time are symbolic of advances in his degree of insight.

For those unfamiliar with the parable, it goes something like this. At the beginning you have a white belt.  It symbolizes the beginner's mind, pure and unfettered.  There are no questions about right and wrong and no hesitation because the beginner hasn't enough skill to intentionally do anything wrong.   He is all innocence with intentions as clean and white as the belt around his waist.

Gradually, as the novice trains, his belt becomes stained.  First, it turns green from grass stains.  Then it becomes brown as dirt stains are added to them.  Finally, after years of staining, the belt begins to take on the black hue we now associate with mastery. But the parable tells us that this is really the middle of a true martial artist's journey.  At this point he is in the darkest and most dangerous place in his journey toward mastery.  It is when he has more skill than wisdom.  His intentions are tainted by his ability to hurt people.

In the third and final stage, the belt ages along with its wearer.  It becomes frayed and eventually is a tattered white belt as its wearer learns the difficult lessons about being seduced by anger and hate.  It becomes white again as the martial artist's intentions become pure again.  Experience deepens his insight, and he now knows when it is right to fight and when it is not.  His journey comes full circle in mastery. He has the skill of a great fighter, a clear and unfettered mind to guide his use of it, and a white belt around his waist to symbolize it.

The parable offers a great lesson in the development of a martial artist, but I believe the strength of this story is that it shows us the real meaning of a black belt.  A black belt indicates expertise (in fighting).  Anyone who wears one should be able to easily beat people within the focus of his art.  In other words, a karate shodan (first degree black belt) should be able to easily punch and kick an opponent into submission, and a judo or jujutsu black belt should be able to easily take an opponent down and choke him unconscious or break his arm.  But this is not enough.

The parable shows us that attaining a black belt is the middle of a journey toward mastery in the martial arts, and it is the most dangerous part of that path.  It is a black time in two respects.  First, it is when the martial artist possesses great skill, and if he is not careful, he is also capable of great sin.  Second, it is the time when he is truly "in the dark" about when it is right to fight and when it is not.  At this point his martial skill is relatively new, and he hasn't the life experience to know how to use it judiciously.  This is the middle of a journey toward mastery because martial skill does not automatically lead to wisdom-even if it does require us to seek it.

So if you've ever wondered whether your black belt means anything, you should ask yourself two questions. The first is, "Can I fight?"  If the answer is "no", then the belt is just a fashion accessory to a pair of Japanese pajamas, and there is no moral dilemma to master.

But if the answer is "yes", you should ask yourself a second question, "Can I swallow my pride and look for guidance?"  If the answer here is also "yes", then your black belt means a great deal.  It means you are on your way to becoming a white belt again.  It means you are on your way to becoming a master!

Now having related this parable, please no one run off and drag your obi behind the car, or throw it under the lawn mower, to make it look old!

Wednesday, July 13, 2011

Growth

Someone asked me recently what I thought about the growth of the Yushikan as a dojo and as an organization so I thought I would share my thoughts on this with you and please feel free to share your thoughts on the matter.

As for the Yushikan main dojo, my dojo is a closed dojo, which means it is not open for anyone to walk in and sign up for a class. The criteria for being accepted into my dojo is not necessarily about being over selective, but more about being sure that the student is genuinely serious about studying the Art, whilst being one who is sincere and respectful. I keep the classes small on purpose so that I can maintain the quality of instruction, I have considered adding more students, but we will see. 

 
I would like more participation from my yudansha, some give a lot and train a lot, and others I see once a year, but again we will see. I am pretty sure that I will not ever open a commercial dojo again. Over the years, I have had a few and some nice ones at that. The current dojo is located on the same property as my home, so there are no distractions that would occur in a commercial setting and I like my little backyard dojo with its pond and garden, where I can teach and don't have to worry about handing out belts to keep students. My dojo is dedicated to training in Okinawan empty-hand and weapon martial arts. Our goals in training are the development of the practitioners’ body, mind, and spirit and the improvement of self-defense skills through the practice of traditional Okinawan martial arts. We train in a non-competitive environment; each member works not only to improve him or herself, but to help the other members improve as well.


My training method using junbi undo, hojo undo, kihon, kata, kumite, kakie, and conditioning drills does not take long to weed out the class, in the last year I have admitted 5 new students, none lasted more than a month before the stopped training, it isn’t that I abuse or work them to death, but I do expect them to work and train, we do lots of repetitions and maybe they get bored because they aren’t learning all the flashy kicks, I don’t know.

As for an organization, I belong to and am in a director position for a few, so I focus on those, but as for the Yushikan growing into an organization, I suppose that will happen, but growth will depend on the yudansha, which means that yudansha students who move should consider beginning karate programs at the local YMCA, Boys and Girls Clubs, local Church, City Recreation Departments, and or in a park. Teaching in this way contains no financial risks for the instructor as they do not have any overhead. Also there are those people who are black belts from other groups that come to me, I have had several, but to date I have only accepted a couple into our group.


So yes, I would like to see growth, but I want it to be good quality, what good is having a large group if they suck? So I guess a small steady growth is better, perhaps my approach is not the best for growth, because I do not promote often and we train over and over on the same things, but I would rather have one excellent student then 100 mediocre students.