"The Meaning of Our Training
I know I've said this again and again, but in the age of nuclear explosions, automatic rifles, and napalm bombs such as America has been using in Vietnam in this age overflowing with weapons of mass destruction -- the idea of someone brandishing his fists and saying, "Come on, take me if you can!" is ridiculous!
Even if someone trained his body so that he could beat a person or kill an animal with his bare hands, no one would think that made him a great man.
Still, I hear things like: "My leg rises 5 centimeters higher than that guy's leg," "I can break ten roof tiles with my fist," or "tanomou, osu" and I just want to say, "Don't make me laugh." Although we act as if we understand the error, it is not only others but some of us as well who just don't get it.
It is my own opinion that when you're talking about a contest, there has to be a finish to it. Even after you've knocked someone over once or twice, that doesn't mean the struggle is over. If you've devoted three years to training your body as a weapon, and then you find that you want to kill someone for some purpose, the best method is just to do it with a quick shot from a gun.
That is why weapons developed.
Nevertheless, there are still plenty of people who, mistaking the meaning of Shorinji Kempo's training, persist in acting like fools.
Shorinji Kempo is different from Japan's traditional martial ways and it ought to be valuable in its unique way of cultivating the spirit. Of course, the spirit can be cultivated through zazen or mountain climbing, and it is possible to give the name of cultivation to chanting while dumping water over one's head. All martial ways say that they cultivate the spirit. There is, of course, a certain amount that can be accomplished through attention to sheer guts or a fighting spirit. But when it comes to what society needs, to the more fundamental and vital things, what kind of spiritual training is it that we're talking about?
When we call someone a person of character, we mean something more than just a scholar, a brave man, or someone who can endure any hardship, suffering, or poverty. Training oneself to endurance is one strong point, but that alone is too passive and would not be active. A person of character knows how to move others and knows how to present his own thoughts. In short, the person who, as we say, acts "half for yourself, and half for others --" the person who can do this may be said to have succeeded at self-cultivation.
Look at the wall paining from the Shaolin Temple in China. Pairs are enjoying themselves, throwing and kicking with happy faces, each enjoying their various techniques. Our way of living in which no one is trying to beat another is summed up in that scene.
