Thoughts

Relationship between master and pupil

The image

Every student has a certain image of his teacher. He sees him as a guide and model when learning the martial art. But when he realises that, in private life his teacher is human like any other, with feelings and faults, he may be disappointed. The insight that the image he has from his teacher is not complete, may confuse the student. That is why a student should never put his teacher on a pedestal or consider him to be infallible. The teacher is only his "guideline".

Praise

A student may be disappointed if his teacher does not praise him. Martial arts praise impedes the efforts of the student in striving for perfection. In a martial art one should never be satisfied with oneself. The moment one thinks oneself as good is the moment when further development stops. Many wars have been lost because the militants believed in victory too soon. A struggle may go on even after its termination. To overcome this frustration, the practitioner must exercise patience.

"Patience is the foundation of the training,"

so teach us the guidelines of the Bujinkan, which have been passed on for three generations from Toda Sensei to Takamatsu Sensei and then to Hatsumi Sensei. To us, this point should be the main guideline. Not only for our own training, but also for our life.

Each master has a different way of praising or reprehending his student. In the martial arts one's action is not determined by expectations, such as praise, success, fame, or invincibility. These things hinder the intellectual development and keep the students from bringing mind and body in line, which is required to obtain what people call "perfection".

Perfection

The real "Perfection" lies in accepting the lack of perfection. Just as nature makes mistakes and then corrects them itself. Since man is not perfect by nature, his action is not perfect either. Unfortunately, it is also in the nature of man to make others responsible, e.g. parents or teachers. But this is the most important insight, that each person is responsible for themselves.

The martial art

Since the martial arts were created by people, who are “only human”, there can be no perfect fighting style. In Asia, there are many arts, for example the art of love, the art of war, the art of healing and the art of killing.

"There is no good or bad fighting style"

It all depends on the representative of a combat style, whether he represents it "good" or "bad". The "perfection" of a fighting style is to completely engage the enemy, thus getting to know him and learning to beat him at his own game or by taking advantage of his mistakes.

Perfect / good teacher

A "good" teacher has a great responsibility towards his students. The first thing they must learn is, in the first instance to rely and themselves and not only on their fighting techniques.

Hatsumi Sensei say, that even 30 years after Takamatsu Sensei died, he can still feel his spiritual presence. Such a close relationship between student and teacher requires love, respect and loyalty. Whether the bond between student and teacher persists even after many years, lays in the hands of the student, who may have become a master himself. Every master stays a student towards his old master. There are students who will always stay on the lookout for the "perfect master". But they will not find him, since even a master is only a human being who makes mistakes and is not perfect. The result is that the student is disappointed in his search for a lifetime.

A student may also disappoint his teacher, who will stay silent and wait for he knows there is no perfect student either.

A teacher can learn a lot from his students, but the student should never attempt to teach his teacher.

""I do not teach, so you shall not teach what I teach" (quote: Sensei Soke Hatsumi, April 2006)