Life Lessons

One thing that I often find myself talking to Alexandra about is Shintoism and Buddhism or religion in general.

In a world of instant gratification and fear of missing out (FOMO) there is something to be said about following the old ways today in 2026.

One observation is that we are very emotional and reactionary as people and this can be a difficult thing to manage without constant assessment of yourself objectively, and that is not easy to do at all. 

To be a good instructor you can't simply be good at being violent, in fact I would say thats the exact opposite of what being a good instructor is!

You have to be somewhere in the middle between warrior and monk being aware of both you physical ability and limitations and your mental ability and limitations. If you can be objective and find the middle ground then essentially thats enlightenment being constantly aware of your actions phyisically and mentally. 

Now I'm not religious in fact again quite the opposite, I'm logical about my approach to ideas and always take what i'm told with a pinch of salt but somewhere in the middle of mental and physical is spritual. This one is quite hard to explain. 

Now I am not Zen or Buddhist but think of it like a Sohei you have to be a warrior monk.

From personal experience I will tell you life is hard, sometimes it just decides to stand up and kick you square in the nuts for no reason and this is when the spirituality kicks in. I dont care if you call it god, allah or buddha but you find something inside yourself to keep on fighting and keep on pushing.

While not wishing to go into detail I can tell you I have been in situations that would make most people take the easy route out or give up on life entirely.

However I have found no matter how hard it truly gets you find the hope to keep on going somehow.

To give you a prime example this morning I was feeling down and missing my daughter terribly, then out of nowhere without any tabs open on my phone it starts playing music and when I investigate find its a post of my daughter with her looking happy with me holding her, that is something small but whoever the gods are they knew I needed that to keep fighting or you could say I'm crazy. Whatever it is as humans we find a reason to keep going, to keep fighting.

So how do you put this into practice? Well you have to train yourself to take a step back and not be reactionary to outside influences, then formulate and objective response. It both is and isnt that simple but it takes a great amount of practice and willpower to fight your own nature. 

It seems as human beings we are pre programmed to take sides and create division but we need to learn to actively battle against the baser insticts and find the middle ground.

Now this doesnt then become pacifism, There is a time to stand up for whats right but the difference between a warrior and a savage is the savage loves baseless violence without cause. There is also the careful balance between the ego and emotion to consider, simply being insulted is not cause to start a battle but the threat to your freedom, family and liberty is cause to act.

The older I get the more I learn its about controlling my emotions and my intentions to shape the world I want to live in, whether that be as loved or hated.

My beliefs and actions actively influence the outcome rather than circumstance and sometimes the problem isnt the problem, but how much you are letting it live in your head and affect your perspective. 

In conclusion be a warrior and a sage, I have learnt a lot in the past year about who I am and the more I learn, the more I understand true mastery is in harnessing mastery of the self, not physical violence.

As Soke says become a Tatsujin (Complete Human Being) not a Shihan (Master) as thats paradoxically where true mastery lies in the martial arts.