While reading Nick Horton’s good
blog “The Iron Samurai” the other day[1],
I came across this quote by the samurai Yamaoku Tesshu: “In order to learn about the Way, forget about self and
awaken to the truth… Exerting self is a mistake… We should not say “myself” —
in truth there is no such thing… When there is no thought of self, true Bushido
develops.”
 |
| the samurai, and Zen master, Yamaoku Tesshu |
The essence of
Bushido is summed up in the last sentence.
When there is no
thought of self, true Bushido develops.
Bushido—for those of
you who are unaware—is often translated as “the way of the warrior” or, a more
literal definition, “the samurai’s way.”
It is the way of one who practices Budo. (Budo means “martial path”.)
I have often thought
of lifting as a form of Budo, and my gym as the dojo. (This is one reason that I enjoy lifting at home, in my
garage dungeon gym. It is not
commercial, and, therefore, becomes more of a dojo than anything
commercialized. The furthest thing
from a dojo, for instance, would be Planet Fitness.)
Lifting as Budo
becomes even more true when performing only one or two exercises at each
workout for multiple sets each. A
lot of lifters who train in both martial arts and Olympic lifting understand this the best—martial arts training
(particularly the Japanese martial arts, which I’m partial to) and Olympic
lifting allow one to lose thought of self—what
my sensei would refer to as “mushin”—and, thus, attain true Bushido.
I don’t think this
can really be explained adequately in a blog post—or in any writing, for that
matter—so I’m not going to even try to do so. As my sensei was also fond of saying throughout the course
of a training session: “Fight without fighting and think without
thinking.” He never attempted to
explain this to anyone. If you
didn’t “get it”, or if it didn’t dawn on you at some point during your Budo
practice, I doubt he thought there would be much point.
The only way for any
of us to develop true Bushido, and experience this directly, is to train. Training is the path. The path is the goal.
When there is no thought of self, true
Bushido develops.
[1] I read his
blog once every two weeks or so—I would read it more but, to be honest, I’m
afraid I simply don’t peruse the internet enough, which I think is a better
trade-off than perusing it too damn much
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