If kendo isn't used as a character defining/building tool, your missing most of the point.
If kendo isn't used as a character defining/building tool, your missing most of the point.
Phillip Panteloukas
www.ucfkendo.com
I don't know about "preaching," but, "with power comes responsibility."Originally Posted by atgm
Presumably, people learn in order to do, and people teach in order for their students to be able to do.
So, if you give the ability to do something, it seems like a good assumption that they can and should be expected to use that ability.
In terms of martial arts, "doing something" means striking people. In general or in principle, causing harm to people. Moreover, to fight, you have to learn to act without thinking. If you hesitate, you will lose. In other words, there is no time to stop to consider ethics, and so ethics learnt outside of practice doesn't mean anything. If you are a scrupulous person that has nevertheless taken practice to heart, what will happen is that first you will act and then you will feel regretful of what you have done.
For these reasons, a responsible instructor cannot separate "moral development" from martial arts. A sense of responsibility, restraint, and courtesy must be an integral part of martial arts training or else a "martial artist" is nothing more than a bully or thug.
Many of these things are built into practice, even without "preaching" or explicit philosophizing. Shidachi always waits for uchidachi. "Ichi gan, Ni soku" -- eyes, observation, is the most important thing since seeing what is happening allows you to react appropriately, which is necessary to act with restraint. But I think these kinds of lessons are subtle and easy to miss. People don't necessarily "get it." That doesn't mean that lecturing or preaching is always necessary. But sometimes it might be.
This is nothing specific to kendo. Ethics must be developed in accordance with power to forestall corruption. This might be most obvious these days in business and politics, but it's just as much an issue even in science.
Arthur Hyun (玄)
I personally would greatly enjoy the more philosophical or spiritual talks, as long as it was after practice. I'd say before, but at my (low) level I need to get into a certain mindset to focus properly, which means I have to get in early and do a ton of suburi. If I get into philosophical/spiritual discussion beforehand, I'll be of a more academic mind. There is nothing wrong however, in discussing these topics in budo, as long as it's done outside of physical practice -best with a few beers.
"I also say it is good to fall, battles are lost in the same spirit in which they are won." -Walt Whitman
The philosophical and cultural aspects of kendo are part and parcel of the art, and it would not be kendo without them, IMO. I know my teachers would be very disappointed in me if I failed to convey that aspect of kendo to my students, since they made a great effort to teach those things to me.
That said, I generally dislike preaching. I (and most people, I think) would much rather learn from an example. Without a consistent and concrete demonstration of the philosophy in action, preaching is just bloviation. Of course examples must come with some explanation, or students won't understand the meaning of what they are seeing.
There is not enough time in class to discuss all the fine points of kendo philosophy, which is why the social aspect is so important. We need time outside of class to talk about what it all means. However, some discussion must happen in class, or students will not be able to draw a direct line from a philosophical point to a actual act.
Personally, I don't go for arcane aspects of kendo philosophy. I thing there is plenty to discuss and do just based on the most fundamental ideas of giving one's best, and acting unselfishly toward others. I am also a big proponent of the idea that everything we do sends a message to others, and to ourselves. A great deal of kendo philosophy can be understood in terms of sending the right messages, all the time.
Just as an example, I "preached" some kendo philosophy just yesterday. I saw several students failing to follow through, even after landing good strikes on me. They seemed surprised to have actually succeeded, and one seemed to voice regret as if to say, "if I'd only known that was going to work, I'd have made a better finish." I told them that they must believe that every strike they attempt will succeed. Even if they fail to hit the target, it's "good kendo philosophy" to complete a missed strike, and demonstrate that you believed in yourself, and believed you could succeed. It's a clear physical demonstration of the philosophy of giving your best effort, holding nothing back.
My sensei doesn't really go too deep into philosophy, but he puts a lot of emphasis on attitude. I you are honest towards your opponent and yourself and put a lot of heart in your Kendo you will give your partner the right cirumstances to practice good Kendo. He puts it in different ways and illustrates this with examples of what you should or should not do. That's all he does, it's simple when he tells you, so it sticks with you and it pops up when you need it.
The worst kind of preaching is the one done by fresh Shodan or overly enthusiaistic Kyus... they show bad stuff to newcomers and come up with the most baffling philosophical/mystical formulas...
Most of the times it's a good dummy detector.... if someone comes to me and tries to sell me cosmic stuff as remedies for my Kendo ailments I tend to turn on the auto-pilot...
Having a Dan grade has nothing to do with behaving morally or correctly and thus being able to pass any advice on. I've heard so many tales about high-ranking martial arts practitioners behaving really badly: being bullies, arrogant, preventing perfectly good practitioners from grading above a certain rank for whatever reason, committing fraud and even making official requests for a duel (I'm not sure I believe that last one!). I think the problem with becoming a yudansha is it may be the highest 'social' achievement some people will make in their lives and perhaps they believe the hype that surrounds being a 'warrior'. Having a captive audience in the dojo is a seductive situation and perhaps this makes some yudansha want to pontificate about the world as they see it. Lets also remember that the 'moral code' that underlies the Japanese martial ways were designed for a very different time and place and so their relevance must be questioned just as the 'Codes of Chivalry' of Western Knights have little to do with how we live our lives now.
I've practised in a few dojo in the North of the UK and I've noticed a bit of a reluctance to address matters of a spiritual and moral nature in the dojo-in fact nobody has ever spoken of such things to a class I've ever attended. Perhaps its the pragmatic nature of Northern folk or the realisation that the majority of us just go through life trying to do our best, being nice to others and behaving respectfully and with honour. Does anyone need to tell anyone that?
Last edited by Kokoro777; 1st March 2010 at 09:35 PM.
But consider this- how did you learn that? The odds are that you were raised properly in a family that had an understanding of values. As a high teacher, it saddens me to say that not everyone gets that at home.
Consider that, despite whatever people may feel about these institutions, religions, Kendo, the Boy Scouts, all of these groups exist to pass on what they feel are the appropriate cultural values to the next generation. Actually, this is what school is supposed to be for as well but a lot of educators have forgotten that.
It's easy enough to say that "nobody needs to be saying this stuff." But when NOBODY ever says these things, and they aren't culturally reinforced, you end up with the sort of mismanaged children that I deal with daily. Yes, I'm telling them these things, but my lone voice won't change them. Only a committed community can do that.
I don't mean to hijack this thread to complain about my profession; let's just all be glad that we participate in something with teachers who care enough about us to DARE us to become better.
That's how I feel too, hugo; I work in elementary and junior high schools. And I think my sensei may feel the same way, having been a high school teacher.
一源三流・正剣美徳
I can see what you mean hugo and I know someone has to show, by example perhaps, what is morally acceptable. What I was getting at is that holding a Dan grade doesn't automatically make the holder a paragon of... of... well anything really! I wouldn't like the idea of a Kendo dojo leader who may also be a neo-Nazi, giving kids any sort of moral advice! Indeed how do we even know if a dojo leader has questionable moral values? We can't know that, and so I'd suggest we bypass the whole issue and say 'just teach Kendo'.
But nothing automatically makes anyone a paragon of anything. Not teachers, not clergymen, not even parents. Your logic seems to suggest that no one should teach morals.
Moreover, I think that teaching morals to children in specific is a very subtle thing and very often doesn't require lecture. Moral lessons come from things as simple as allowing them to see how you treat others. I'm not sure if it's possible for someone who spends a lot of time with children not to teach moral lessons.
Arthur Hyun (玄)
Agreeing with hyuna, here. Moreover, when one is also teaching kids to be physically aggressive, I would say it's a duty to teach moral limits.
I think leading by example is the only way to "teach" morals. You can quote all sorts of philosophers and sayings, but if you're crooked and annoying then no one will listen to you. The seniors I admire are more often the ones that keep quiet and just want to do Kendo, rather than the ones that talk more than they train.
I do HDGD and at the world championships in 2008 a banner was brought into the arena that summed up MA for me. This white banner had a red rose at its centre, with the words underneath reading that in Korean history people who wanted to avoid fights to the death gave red roses to their opponents, saying that the only red that would be seen is the red of the rose and not the red of human blood. The last line of what HDGD students call the declaration of the rose is that we train to be able to step back from violence rather than to charge mindlessly forwards into combat.
I for one think that this is a nice thing to teach people, even if the teacher is not a paragon of morality. Even a murderer can teach someone that 2+2=4. Some things are so right that they should be taught to everyone, especially in situations where training might otherwise lead to violence.
This is true. The ideal is for people to develop in character as they develop in Kendo...of course all of us have probably met people who defy that idea. (Exceptions can prove the rule, of course.) But by and large, I'd like to think that Tom Bolling-sensei's quote holds predominantly true.
"People of bad character don't do Kendo. They either quit or they change their character."
Those people usually end quitting because they are confronted with something about themselves and rather than deal with it--they leave. I'd like to hope that most sensei have the good sense to control their dojo in such a fashion that a Neo-Nazi would end up as neither sempai or sensei.
I'd also be very curious as to why a white supremacist would partake in an art taught and practiced primarily by members of Japanese communities.
ad hitlerum.
一源三流・正剣美徳
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