Although it is important to study and train for skill in techniques, for the man who wishes to truly accomplish the way of budo, it is important to makehis whole life in training and therefore not aiming for skill and strength alone, but also for spiritual attainment.
Interpretation
True mastery in budo requires not just physical skill but also spiritual growth and a lifestyle dedicated to training.
Mas Oyama emphasizes that true accomplishment in the way of budo transcends physical techniques and strength. Instead, it entails a holistic approach to training that integrates one's entire life with the pursuit of spiritual enlightenment, indicating that the journey is as important as the destination.
In practice
In a martial arts class discussing the deeper meaning of practice.
Karate is not a game. It is not a sport. It is not even a system of self-defense. Karate is half physical exercise and half spiritual. The karateist who has given the necessary years of exercise and meditation is a tranquil person. He is unafraid. He can even be calm in a burning building.
Karate is Budo and if Budo is removed from Karate it is nothing more than sport karate, show karate, or even fashion karate-the idea of training merely to be fashionable.
Sice Karate exists for cultivating the spirit and training the body, it must be a moral way surpassing mere techniques.
One becomes a beginner after 1000 days of training. One becomes a master after 10,000 days of practice.
The path of Martial Arts begins and ends with courtesy. So be genuinely polite on every occasion.
The criminal is the creative artist; the detective only the critic.
It wasn't until we got over the self pity that we were able to accept suffering as apart of our life with Christ. A man or woman reaches this plane only when he or she ceases to be the hero.
Much of what we call evil is due entirely to the way men take the phenomenon. It can so often be converted into a bracing and tonic good by a simple change of the sufferer's inner attitude from one of fear to one of fight; its string can so often depart and turn into a relish when, after vainly seeking to shun it, we agree to face about and bear it.
There is nothing alive more agonized than man / of all that breathe and crawl across the earth.
There are people who can write their memoirs with a reasonable amount of honesty, and there are people who simply cannot take themselves seriously enough. I think I might be the first to admit that the sort of reticence which prevents a man from exploiting his own personality is really an inverted sort of egotism.
According to Greek mythology, humans were originally created with four arms, four legs and a head with two faces. Fearing their power, Zeus split them into two separate parts, condemning them to spend their lives in search of their other halves.
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.