A Deadly Serious Attitude

In Karate do Nyumon, (Page 43) Funakoshi Sensei writes about Training :

Each and every punch must be made with the power of your entire body behind it. With the feeling of destroying your opponent with a single blow. You must believe that if your punch fails, you will forfeit your own life. Thinking this, your mind and energy will be concentrated, and your spirit will express itself in the fullest. … You will find that training with a deadly serious attitude will over time benefit not only your study of karate, but many other facets of your life as well. Life itself is often akin to a match with real swords. With a lukewarm attitude toward life – such as assuming that after every failure you will always have a second chance, what can you hope to accomplish in a short life span of fifty years ?

Although this is about Karate Training, I believe it also applies to every training, and among them to Zen. We should practice with a deadly serious attitude, as if each one of our expiration were our last one, and concentrate right then (Right Zen ?) !

AH ! What if this one were my last breathe ? What if I'd drop dead right now with my mind entangled in my daily life worries !

OK, do I practice like that? Of course not, give me a break, I am no Master but a beginner trying to figure it out, and only my experience of Martial Arts is what best helps me on my way !

And on this way Humor is good, and we should keep it flowing too. Have a deadly serious attitude, and at the same time not beat ourselves too hard on the head when we fail.

Always stand back up after we fell and learn from our mistakes.

Let's have a deadly serious attitude, and when our mind wanders around, let's bring it back home and start over again, as if it would again be our last breathe...