Josh Gold“Simply be the best that you can be, for you, for today!.”.. “Success is reliant first on showing up. Then putting in the work. And regular persistence in manageable instalments.”
Mostly, the key attribute – that of efficiency – of all combat training (or any art for that matter) is mastered in old age when it is likely, though not assured, that it may not be needed. The so called but feared, “soft style,” is a misnomer.
In youth because of our relative physical strength, rage, hormones and mental instability caused by excess of hormones, we fight ourselves. We always bring an additional enemy to the fight. Ourselves!
Everyone’s life, whether they will honestly admit it or not, is a roller coaster of conflict and chaotic behaviours and circumstances. This is not a bad thing as the stagnant, the complacent, the conceited are already dead. The challenges of the past will ultimately become our best teachers if we let them be so by embracing them in the right way.
When we stop fighting and contending with ourselves, we then enter another journey of discovery. When we unlearn the junk and excrescences and begin to understand how to, without compromising our own integrity, cease fighting life, others and the world as well as ourselves, the art then comes to life.
Mostly though, people fear to risk the vulnerability that is a requirement of opening up to the depth of skill. To risk trusting the intuition, the inner tuition. Budoka and all true artists thrive on it.
We fight ourselves. We spend most of our lifetime fighting ourselves. As we age we tire and perhaps fight ourselves less. Some reconcile. Others give up as they age or give in to vice and go on to become bitter and twisted, fat and lazy, or induce illness because of bad habits. Those who maintain creative discipline and succeed in making peace with themselves most often go on to become great lights in the world. They were not “lucky.” They simply kept moving.
When we stop contending with ourselves, we are then afforded the opportunity to enter another, deeper journey of discovery and how to, without compromising our own integrity, cease fighting life, others and the world as well. Some die from this fearful proposition. They do not have the tools to traverse this portal. A lifetime of skillful practice enables you to meet this challenge.
With this, “softening,” the opportunity to embrace inner efficiency then begins to expresses also outwardly. Harmony. Love. Productive harmlessness. A condition far more powerful than the illusion of “power.” This is achieved by discovering ways to weed out, to kill out the inefficiencies of mind that lead to forcing, striving and to contest and enter the constructively creative realm of clarity and presence that empowers better ways to get results, to attain solutions to problems without the need to resort to primal fighting or contention of any kind. The ascent of skill is born.
Some label such progressions with hubristic misnomers such as the myth of a final and conclusive “enlightenment,” something that does not exist, since there can be no arrival, but only steps in the great universal journey without end. There are many and endless awakenings, so called enlightenments. And not all are necessarily pleasant, understood at the time, or even often noticed. All too often missed by the outward focus of the present trend and wanting things to be other than as they are. Supplementing practice with meditation may help in this regard.
Because ageing is a gradual process, as strength and hormonal potency declines, efficiency will increase provided the intention exists and with it regular practice of the art continues.
Now here is the secret to success. Stop trying to be better than anyone else. Stop trying to be the best in the world. Simply be the best that you can be, for you, for today!
A little of something is better than a lot of nothing. Or too much.
If you accidentally do become “the best in the world,” it won’t last long anyhow, so do not cling to that silly proposition. If you do, it will break you. There you go fighting yourself again. Stop chasing that delusion. It is the cause of unnecessary suffering. As for faking that you are great or in some way better than others, don’t forget, we are all equally mortal.
On the way to self mastery the luckier ones may experience such gifts as an extremely debilitating illness and other near death situations earlier in life. If they survive, whether because of dedication to the art, the intense will to protect and remain connected with loved ones, or a desire to teach and impart the benefitof skill and empowerment to others; they continue to train. That’s the gift they give to themselves.
This early experience of debilitation and thence the necessary reliance on letting go and trusting efficiency, adds to true skill and has a remarkable effect that adds value to Aiki skill and also to the quality of life. However the value of debilitation, to be capitalised upon, requires dedication and practice of a valid art to be converted into the quiet touch of the masters hand.
The decline of strength is going to come regardless in dotage. How you will handle it is determined by the life you live now. The regular practice of skill enables.
When young, instead of paying attention deeply, most tend to fake the masters’ techniques, or use force, or drop entirely off the path after trying too hard for too short a time, instead of regularly and progressively in manageable instalments simply practicing. At the level that you can for that day. So much time is wasted striving and fighting ourselves instead of cutting to the chase.
It may appear as if empathically and by osmosis that some learn the secret inner art that will transform outer skills into a dynamic and truly effective potency for great and meaningful effect in the world. The ultimate victory. But it is in fact mostly the attrition of regular practice that enables anyone to attain the depth of skill.
Success is reliant first on showing up. Then putting in the work. And regular persistence in manageable instalments.
Imagine if you were to learn to stop fighting yourself whilst still young, strong and relatively powerful. Then by really paying attention deeply and instead of merely mimicking techniques, you were to tune in to the universal principle behind them and attain the epitome of skilled economy of motion by identifying the secrets earlier in life.
Your training would then really begin.
Trust your intuition. Explore. Seek to discover and then go deeper into yourself and you will!
Some Related Articles:
A Tired Old Man – Bare Bones
The Aikido Body
Aikido’s Operating System: http://yamabikonomichi.com/2013/10/03/aikidos-operating-system-2/
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