Soundtracks on the Best Sellers List
A friend said to me yesterday, "We have too many buffers protecting us and we think that those buffers are natural." This is crucial in understanding the difference between budo and the sports/artistic martial arts. I also happen to think that this is crucial in understanding in general.
If anyone has seen real violence, you will notice that it's quiet. In the movies, no matter how real the directors and special effects teams try to make it, violence is noisy. In the movies, Rambo becomes a demi-God with unlimited comic powers. In Platoon and Saving Private Ryan, the mimicry of the forms is almost aphrodisiacal...
I'm not suggesting that we all go out and look for trouble. I'm saying that it's important to be able to recognise what's real at a fundamental level.
Silence makes violence scary. For many of us silence itself is scary. There is no soundtrack to support us, and we are basically left on our own to contemplate the finality that violence and war brings.
In the dojo, so many people laugh during the training that I wonder if these people are aware of the violence inherent in what we do. In the past, people had to sign their name in blood in order to be held accountable for their knowledge. Death was a very real consequence of failure. Nowadays, we have pens instead of blood but the feeling should be the same. Now, if a person dies in the training would we still be able to laugh, or would we all wait for the music to start playing to tell us how we should feel?
This violence and death is part of a reality that seems to be so fundamental to the human experience, yet we who live in the industrial world seem to have distanced ourselves from this reality. It may very well be that where we are now is the place to be but I don't think for a moment that it is at all fundamental.
PS: Even though I'm required by law to include a Chuck D quote in my posts I'm going to fight the power and not do so... hehe
If anyone has seen real violence, you will notice that it's quiet. In the movies, no matter how real the directors and special effects teams try to make it, violence is noisy. In the movies, Rambo becomes a demi-God with unlimited comic powers. In Platoon and Saving Private Ryan, the mimicry of the forms is almost aphrodisiacal...
I'm not suggesting that we all go out and look for trouble. I'm saying that it's important to be able to recognise what's real at a fundamental level.
Silence makes violence scary. For many of us silence itself is scary. There is no soundtrack to support us, and we are basically left on our own to contemplate the finality that violence and war brings.
In the dojo, so many people laugh during the training that I wonder if these people are aware of the violence inherent in what we do. In the past, people had to sign their name in blood in order to be held accountable for their knowledge. Death was a very real consequence of failure. Nowadays, we have pens instead of blood but the feeling should be the same. Now, if a person dies in the training would we still be able to laugh, or would we all wait for the music to start playing to tell us how we should feel?
This violence and death is part of a reality that seems to be so fundamental to the human experience, yet we who live in the industrial world seem to have distanced ourselves from this reality. It may very well be that where we are now is the place to be but I don't think for a moment that it is at all fundamental.
PS: Even though I'm required by law to include a Chuck D quote in my posts I'm going to fight the power and not do so... hehe
posted by sleiman @ 11:17 AM
5 Comments:
At 10:48 PM, March 30, 2006,
KH said…
Interesting...
I wonder if recognition of the fundamental is the goal or experience of the fundamental?
I think that recognition is the first step, it helps us to identify the buffers that your friend spoke about
However, respect and acceptance of the fundamental would seem to be predicated on experience.
The possibility that it is impossible/or particularly difficult to congnitise the fundamental without direct experience is problematic to me but also makes complete sense...
I guess I'll have to have a think about this a little more - either that or go out and start trouble wherever possible
Aye - what the hell does that title mean???
At 2:43 AM, March 31, 2006,
Anonymous said…
To be honest, I don't think that recognition in and of itself is the goal. Like you said, recognition to me seems to be only the first step, a step that is repeated over and over. As each level or experience is entered into, new 'recognitions' emerge that lead on to further recognitions etc etc.
That's why I don't think that there is any 'goal', just a process. Entered into with the correct heart, this seemingly repetitive process creates the only real self-perpetual motion machine...
Definitely, understanding requires experience. Most certainly, but at the same time, the ability to get the most out of the least is very important and this only comes about by being able to recognise.
For something like budo which deals with war, violence and death, the only way to understand is to have trust and faith in your teachers. Of course, the only way to not misplace your trust is to be able to recognise that you haven't misplaced it. This requires a study and perserverance that has little to do with the mind.
In anycase, cognitising the fundamental without experience is flawed, hence the Saving Private Ryan example. Recognising that one has little or no experience is a vital step. Pretending to know and coming up with theories as justification is a case of the boys playing with their toys. Not knowing is fine. Like I said, mimicry is almost aphrodisiacal.
Basically, people have experience and people have experience thrust upon them. Those that survive that experience naturally pass on the important signs of that experience. The rest, I feel, is up to us.
PS: The title? Well, as Chuck D said, "Hardcore will never die"... ;)
At 10:26 AM, March 31, 2006,
KH said…
Ahhh - i get it...process not outcome.
At last I realise why I spent 4 years at UWS...the circle is finally complete
At 11:26 AM, March 31, 2006,
Anonymous said…
The title refers to the mentality which I feel takes one away from the fundamental that I keep harping on about. It's a mentality that is almost self-perpetuatuing, that is, it's on the best sellers list so I must buy into it which keeps it on the list which means I keep buying which means etc etc....
Process not outcome? Better believe it but on level far deeper than Ievleva or Dr G. ever realised.
Like Chuck D said (hehe);
"I went west in my quest
For intelligence
Climbed the fence
Took the the teacher on
Ain't seen him since."
At 12:18 PM, March 31, 2006,
Anonymous said…
Sorry for belabouring the point but I was going over some of the quotes that I had collected from the Dune series (imagine the classics written in the guise of science fiction...) and I found this one that can be related to the title;
"I have said: 'Blow out the lamp! Day is here.' And you keep saying: 'Give me a lamp so I can find the day.'" p. 269
What a great book. Thankyou Frank Herbert.
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