Year: 2021

From Shiro Kuma by kumablog

In “Advanced Stick Fighting, Hatsumi Sensei speaks of Shinnyō, “thusness.” (1) (2) Known as Tathātā in Sanskrit, it defines “merely the way things are, the truth of all things.” (3)

This is also the real definition of “Shizen.” Due to limited time, teachers do not explain the depth of Shizen to their students. Shizen is not only “natural,” it is what “is in its natural state when there is no conscience involved.” You can read the explanation of “thusness” in “The Demon’s Sermon on the martial arts” by Issai Chozanshi. (4)

When you develop a shizen attitude, you tune your actions with your environment. Your moves express trust and confidence. This is Shinrai. (5) (6)

We know that a pure Budōka is someone with a deep sense of responsibility, a man or a woman that people will always trust. Once you are one with the world of natural movement, people will follow you.

That is what the warrior’s creed by Robert L. Humphrey explains beautifully. Jack met Mr Humphrey, Iwo Jima veteran and MIT teacher, while being a graduate student in San Diego in 1981. Since then, Mr Humphrey has been a mentor and a guide to my friend. Read Jack’s account of their encounter. (7)

Here is the warrior’s creed: (8)

Wherever I go,
everyone is a little bit safer
because I am there.
Wherever I am,
anyone in need has a friend.
Whenever I return home,
everyone is happy I am there.

Jack Hoban introduced me to the warrior’s creed back in the 90s, and I often think about these words. (9) I see the creed as the essence of the Ninja warrior path. That is what we study with Hatsumi Sensei. He teaches the way to make our actions natural, to become true warrior.

If you reach this level, you are more than a Bushi, (10) you are a Yūshi, a courageous warrior, a hero.

Welcome to the Super Hero path.

Trust me, I’m a Ninja!

______________

1 真如, しんにょ Shinnyō, thusness, Tathātā (the ultimate nature of all things)
2 信用, Shinnyō: confidence; trust; faith; reputation
3 Tathātā: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tath%C4%81t%C4%81
4 https://www.amazon.com/Demons-Sermon-Martial-Arts-Warrior/dp/4770030185
5 信頼, Shinrai: reliance; trust; faith; confidence
6 I’m not speaking here of the monk Shimotsuma Shinrai,下間真頼, from the mid 16th century. More: https://www.japanese-wiki-corpus.org/Buddhism/Shinrai%20SHIMOTSUMA.html
7 http://www.lifevalues.com/
8 https://www.livingvalues.com/warrior_creed.html
9 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_L._Humphrey
10 武士, bushi: warrior; samurai
11 勇士, Yūshi: brave warrior; hero; a brave man

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From Shiro Kuma by kumablog

Climate change is now accepted. As a consequence, polar bears are having increasing difficulties in feeding themselves. 

“Because of melting sea ice, it is likely that more polar bears will soon starve, warns a new study that discovered the large carnivores need to eat 60 per cent more than anyone had realized. Turns out they are high-energy beasts, burning through 12,325 calories a day—despite sitting around most of the time, according to a unique metabolic analysis of wild bears published Thursday in Science.” (…) “Climate change is heating up the Arctic faster than anywhere else, and sea ice is shrinking 14 per cent per decade.” (1) 

That means that by the end of the century, the Arctic will be nearly free of ice!

I am concerned because I am a polar bear. In 1987, Sensei saw my picture taken in the snow and nicknamed me “Shiro Kuma”, the polar bear. (2) 

I can easily view a lonely polar bear drifting on a shrinking iceberg. With the pandemic, Our Bujinkan lives turned into the ones of a polar bear. Since March 2019, we are in a world pandemic. For many students and teachers, it has been difficult, if not impossible, to train in a dōjō. And I’m not even considering training at the Honbu. It is forbidden to travel to Japan. 

The world of martial arts was huge, comprising millions of practitioners worldwide. It collapsed in a few months with the spreading of the virus. In this metaphor, martial art is the arctic ice bank melting down. And martial artists are the polar bears isolated on the melting icebergs. 

The recession in the martial arts world has and will continue to strike us. I see the majority of martial arts halls disappearing by lack of practitioners. This is sad but doesn’t mean the end of Budō. You can find the seeds of success in the midst of defeat. Hatsumi Sensei repeated in class that “it is ok to lose a battle, as long as you don’t lose the war in the end.” We lost this battle, but the war is not over yet!

To win the war, we have to change our understanding of what and how we train. Since our dōjō closed last March, I have been thinking a lot about our next Budō moves. With my students, we conducted some experiments with that and came up with a few rules:

• Budō practitioners are still there, but training places are closed 
• A lot of self-training can be implemented, but there are limits 
• We can train alone, but we often need an external “eye” to improve
• Budō training should be more adapted and teaching chiseled 

To get to that, we must accept that big dōjō or organizations might not survive the virus. As a result, “family size units” or small structures will be key elements to our rebirth. I am preparing a book on that. (3) 

These small training units will become the “ninja clans” of the 21st century. The virus forced us to recreate the ancient ninja clans of feudal times. This is why our future structures have to be limited in size. I call this new period of Bujinkan training “clanification 2.0.” (4)

Obviously, there are benefits and disadvantages to this “clanification.”

Pros	Cons
Better quality in teaching	Skills limited by the size of the group
Real student / sensei relation	Technical diversity limited to the abilities of the teacher
No hiding in class: better control	No hiding in class: lesser skills
Bad teachers will self-disappear	Less exchanges with other “clans”
The arts will survive	Some teachers will turn into half-gods
Hyper specialization of the group	Hyper specialization of the group

When we reopen our Bujinkan training groups, we will have move from “Taijutsu” (5) to “Taijutsu.” (6) We will train like our Budō ancestors. Right now, we may be like drifting polar bears on a chunk of ice. But I am confident we will find land soon. And our ancient traditions will survive the harshness of history once more. 

After all, our only job is to survive.

———————

1 From National Geographic https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/article/polar-bears-starve-melting-sea-ice-global-warming-study-beaufort-sea-environment
2 白熊: Shiro Kuma, white bear aka polar bear
3 publish it soon
4 clanification: I made-up this word by adding clan and the suffix “-ification.” The Oxford dictionary definition for the clan is “a group of people with a strong common interest.”
5 体術, Taijutsu: fighting technique done with the body
6 隊術, Taijutsu: fighting technique done by a military unit; or army squad

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