Zen, Budo and Flying.

Back to the Pilot analogy

You can try to learn everything about the theory of flights. You'll never will be able to fly. 

Buddhism and Martial Arts are the same.  If you spend your life trying to understand, you will become a Buddhist or a Martial Arts Scholar. You won't have acquired any useful skills and all you'll have learned won't really help you when you need it. 

On another hand, some believe they practice Zen by spending hours in a row sitting without moving or thinking at all. They are like someone who would sit in the cockpit of the plane, close their eyes, and believe they really are flying. 

Some other people practice and teach crazy things (Yes, you can become a certified light saber fighting instructor !) and believe they could actually fight. 

Buddhism and Budo first and for all are practices. 

Find a teacher, learn how to fly ! 

 

Sculpture and Karate

Sculpture and Karate teaching both are about creation. When you make a statue, you actually create its form out of matter; when you teach karate, you create a form in a student's mind.

Let us say you have 2 different materials : Clay, and Steel bits and pieces, and you want to create the statue of a standing man.

The Clay Statue : you first take a big chunk of clay and shape it to the general shape of a guy - about as tall and wide as you envision it. Then, little by little, you adjust. You start shaping its torso, head and limbs. Once your piece looks like a crude humanoid silhouette, you get into more details : arms, shoulders, wrists, ankles... Later you get to even minuter details : eyes, nose, fingers, ears and toes, etc... From the beginning, you actually shape the statue by mostly removing unwanted material. This is a global and synthetic way to proceed.

The Steel statue : If you work with steel parts, you are going to cut, bend and weld them. So chances are that you will first create perfect feet and perfect calves, then weld the calves onto the feet. After that you might create perfect legs, and weld them on top of the calves, etc, etc, until you weld the perfect hat on top of the perfect head. This is a very detail oriented and analytical way to work.

Both ways have their plus and minus.

With the clay, you have from the beginning a certain idea of where you are going and you maintain it. There is a certain continuity of goal in your work, but it is going to take a long time before the whole thing looks good : for quite a while your statue might be seen as a gorilla as much as a man.

With steel, there will not be any clear indication of what you are actually building until enough things are put together, but from the very beginning, each individual little parts you build will look good - and you may get quicker a satisfying sense of achievement. The difficulty may come if the individual parts you have built do not perfectly fit one with the other.

Please note one important part : You need to adapt the way you work to the material. You could in theory shape perfect bits and pieces out of clay and glue them together, but you hardly could weld a great amount of steel pieces together and remove parts of them to shape a human form.

Back to Karate.

Different students learn differently. Some love to learn details before they learn the big picture - that is the way to proceed with steel. Some students do better learning the big picture before getting into details - that's the synthetic way better suited to clay.

Instructors too have their preferences.

An analytical type of instructor will spend a great amount of time teaching each individual move in great details, so that the student has to learn the first move of a fighting combination and be able to execute it perfectly before he is allowed to learn the second move.

A synthetic type of instructor will first teach a whole kata without worrying too much about the counts. Only once the student can demonstrate something that sorts of looks like the kata does the instructor begin to clean up each move.

Plus and minus of each way.

The synthetic method may be easier to memorize for Western students. It is more like a dance or a gymnastic routine - it is possible to tune it up so that the final execution of the kata "looks" better faster, which may give the student satisfaction and make him want to progress further.

The analytical method is probably harder for more students - it requires more patience. In the case of learning a whole kata, it will take a much longer time than the global way, and the result may not always look better than the kata learned the synthetic way.

On a strictly actual fighting and self defense standpoint, it is likely that the analytical method will give better results (providing the instructor knows what he is doing). The accurate performance of a few individual move is more important than the ability to demonstrate a beautiful looking kata including a number of moves which the student does not understand.

Why bother with Kata ?

Kata are a tool to help student memorize self defense moves by putting them together within a routine. The past masters took the pain to create and transmit them. They used both synthetic and analytical ways.

We should teach as they did. We should make sure we transmit kata as they were taught to us - synthesis - and make sure each individual move makes sense in an actual fighting context - analysis.

Also lets keep in mind the sculpture analogy : some students nature are clay, some are steel.

Some pure steel type of people are absolutely not able to learn kata - which does not mean they cannot do good karate and be excellent fighters. It would be a mistake to try bother them too much with kata.

Some older or younger people cannot do proper basic moves but can perform beautiful and elegant kata. Their actual self defense ability might be close to zero. However, if they stick around long enough, they will get better and one day be able to actually realize what they are doing, from that day on, you should be able to teach them actual applications of the kata.

Instructors should be able to tune up their teaching to each type of student. No matter what your personal teaching preference is, in order to really transmit karate, you should be able to teach both ways.

And THIS...

is valid for all teachings.

I am under no obligation to teach you...

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The Cula-Malunkyovada Sutra

or Poisoned Arrow Sutra

Once upon a time the Buddha and a number of his disciples and followers were staying at a monastery, and the venerable Malunkyaputta was with him, training very diligently. As he was sitting in meditation the following thoughts came to him :

The Buddha has left quite a few important questions unanswered :

• “Is the Universe eternal, or is it not ?”
• “is the Universe infinite or finite? “
• “Are soul and body the same thing, or are they different ? “
• “After death does one exist, or does one not exist, or does one exist and does not exist at the same time, or does one neither exists nor does not exist ?”

I really do not approve that he does not take a clear position on these questions, and I'm going to ask him about these matters !

If he actually takes a clear position on these, then I will keep training under him. But if he does not take a clear position, then, I'm out of there !

So that evening, Malunkyaputta came out of his retreat. He went to the Buddha, bowed to him, sat beside him, and he asked : “Lord, as I was sitting in Meditation, that is what came to me :

I am not happy with the fact that you do not take position about a number of questions. So if you give me a clear answer about the question of the eternity of the Universe, or about existence or non-existence after death, then I will keep training under you. But if you don't, I'll quit and leave.

Lord, if You know whether the Universe is eternal or not, then tell me. But if you don't know, be straightforward about it and admit 'I don't know, I don't see'...

If you don't know whether there is a life after death or not, then be straightforward about it and tell me 'I don't know, I don't see.'”

The Buddha answered :

"Malunkyaputta, did I ever tell you, 'Come, and train with me, and I will tell you whether the Universe is or is not eternal or finite, and also whether there is life or not, or both, or neither, after death ?

"No, lord."

"And did you ever say to me, 'Lord, I'll train under you and in return you will tell me whether the Universe is or is not eternal or finite, and also whether after death there is existence, or not, or both, or neither ?

"No, lord."

"Well if that is the case, what possesses you moron to think you are entitled to demand anything from anyone ?

"Malunkyaputta, if anyone were to say, 'I won't train under the Buddha until he tells me that the Universe is eternal, or not... or that after death there is a life – or not;” this person would die before the Buddha would answer those questions.

Imagine that a man is wounded by a poisoned arrow and a surgeon is called to extract the arrow. And imagine that this man does not want the arrow removed until he knows everything about the man and the weapon that wounded him : the caste his aggressor belongs to, his given & clan names, his size, the color of his skin, his home town; whether he used a long bow or crossbow, the exact material of the bowstring, the nature of the arrow's shaft and feathers, the exact shape of the arrow head, and the way it is mounted... Well then ! This man would just die before he'd learn anything about these matters !

"In the same way, if anyone were to say, 'I won't train under the Buddha as long as he does not tell me whether the Universe is eternal or not, and if after death one's soul goes on or not, ' this man would die before the Buddha would answer these questions !

"Malunkyaputta, You don't have to know whether the universe is eternal or not in order to practice. No matter the answer to this question, there are still birth, aging and death, there are sorrow, lamentation, pain, despair & distress, and my teaching is about ending them.

And it is also true for the other questions : Whether the Universe is finite or not, whether soul and body are the same or different, whether there is existence or not, or both, or neither after death. No matter the answers to these questions, there is birth, aging and death, there is sorrow, lamentation, pain, despair, & distress and my teaching is about ending them.

"So, Malunkyaputta, keep in mind which questions I left unanswered, and which ones I answered. I did not say anything about the infinity or the eternity of the Universe, I did not say whether Soul and Body are or are not the same, and I did not say anything about a continuation of existence or lack of it, or both, or neither, after death.

And the reason I did not say anything about these things is that it would not help. Knowing about these things would not free you. And this is why I did not say anything about this.

And what is it that I teach ? I teach about suffering, about the cause of suffering, about the cessation of suffering, and about the path that leads to this cessation of suffering. And the reason I teach about this is that these teachings are fundamental to achieve our goal and realize our practice. These teachings and practice will free you.

"So, Malunkyaputta, remember which things I did not speak about, and which things I did.

Malunkyaputta was delighted and went back to his cushion.

Comments :

Beside the parabola of the poisoned arrow, which does not need any comment, as it is very eloquent, I see 2 important points made by the Buddha in this sutra.

When the Buddha asks : "Malunkyaputta, did I ever tell you, 'Come, and train with me, and I will tell you whether the Universe is or is not eternal or finite, and also whether there is life or not, or both, or neither, after death ? “ He is basically asking him if he ever asked him to become his student.

When he later asks him : "And did you ever say to me, 'Lord, I'll train under you and in return you will tell me whether the Universe is or is not eternal or finite, and also whether after death there is existence, or not, or both, or neither ? “, He is basically asking him if Malunkyaputta ever asked him to become his teacher.

To both questions, the answer is “No Lord”.

So basically, Malunkyaputta is under no obligation to be Buddha's student, and Buddha is under no obligation to be his teacher.

And this is important. Practically, back to our 21st century, this means that when you do your best to teach Zen or Martial Arts, or anything else, put you r heart in it, give of your time and energy for this, students should have the decency to follow your directions without questioning you too much. And if they don't, I suggest you remind them that you are under no obligation to teach them, and that they are under no obligation to stay.

Said in a different way : “The door is open. “

I did not say that, the Buddha did !