One of the tenets of my martial art - and, I suppose, most traditional martial arts - is the concept of practicing and passing the art down as taught.
Over time in training (over 17 years for me now), one picks up slight habits and quirks, ways of doing the techniques which are not the technique as it is demonstrated by the soke, the ultimate arbitrator of the style. They can be incredibly subtle things - for me recently, how I have my body weight balanced, the resetting of my hand as I perform preparation for chiburi and noto ("blood throw" and sheathing), how I grasp my blade and do not hold it down at a 90 degree angle. But over time, these things cause me to veer from kihon (the true form).
Over time - as my soke and my sensei have pointed out in the past (and as recently as last week) - one continues to veer from the path and develops one's own style, not the style that one is training in.
The point is that the martial art is not the possession of the student. It is not something to be adapted per se (although it can be for physical issues) or made unique or individualized. It is to be practiced and in turn handed down by us to the next generation as it was given to us.
"Empty yourself" was the counsel I was given. "Remove you from the equation and practice the art."
I was walking the morning after when I realized the same was true about my Christian walk.
Christianity, at its core, is a long walk of us giving up ourselves - our sinful, flawed selves - for that of God. Through our relationship with the living Christ, we are (in theory if not practice) supposed to "empty ourselves" of everything that is not of God and allow Him to fill us with Himself (which - perhaps differently from my martial art - will manifest itself in unique ways).
What this requires, of course, is us saying "No" to ourselves and "Yes" to Christ. Which sounds incredibly easy in concept, but is very difficult in practice?
Why difficult? Correcting a hand grip or a stance can be done with time and practice and involves no great sense of personal loss in correcting the behavior. But letting go of anger or pride or lust or possessiveness, especially when they seem justifiable? It can feel like we are totally destroying ourselves with no guarantee of success or succor.
But ultimately, that is what Christ and God are asking. I am sure if I had the courage to ask, the answer I would hear would be the same: "It is not your salvation or even your religion, but Mine. Preserve it as it is passed on to you, understanding I may allow great latitude - or none at all. Either way, Come and Follow Me.
Emptying myself of my bad habits for the sake of my style seems doable; emptying myself for the sake of The Kingdom seems endlessly challenging.
Agree about the challenges! I believe that God is pleased by our efforts, even at times we fall short of our goals.
ReplyDeleteSbrgirl - I am constantly reminded by kind folks such as yourself that in point of fact many have this challenge. To quote the Apostle Paul, I still find myself the worst of sinners in this regard.
DeleteI am so glad I found your blog! I am christian and into martial arts, qi gong and so on. I became christian quite resently and thought if I should let go of my interest in those arts. So happy to see that obviously one's practice can support faith and even give you some insight.
ReplyDeleteAlso love that picture of scotsman with rifle.
Hi Poustinia! Welcome to our little corner of the InterWeb. We are glad you are here.
DeleteI am only one guy - and laity at that - but I do not find that any conflict between my own martial art (a sword martial art) and my faith. I think it is impacted by the spirit in which one practices it - in my case, I practice it for other benefits rather than any inherent "spiritual" world view it might hold. And it has taught me a great deal indeed, about myself and about my faith.
The picture appears on the cover of the Penguin Classics book Waverly by Sir Walter Scott. It is called "Disbanded", painted by John Pettie in 1877.
Blessings, Poustinia!
ReplyDelete"Come and follow me" calls Jesus! We are all on that walk. 🤗 C.
We are, C. Stumbling and often lost, at least for me.
DeleteA life-long struggle to follow what the ultimate Sensei has laid out for us TB.
ReplyDeleteIndeed, Nylon12. Would that I were a better student.
DeleteGetting rid of our egos frees us up for a lot of different things.
ReplyDeleteI hope so Ed. There are often times where, in trying - mostly not successfully - to get rid of my ego, I find myself worried that I will be completely effaced.
Delete"I've always been told 'be myself', but every time I do I'm met with censure and rebuke from those same voices for being 'strange'.
DeleteAnd then they have the gall to wonder why I stopped listening to them."
You'd think that living so much of life under a mask of normality would make emptying one's self easier, until you've done it by necessity and wondered if there's still You underneath.
Can't speak for others, but I find it an issue of trust: can I trust the arbiters of This Thing to follow their own ways? It seems that when The Thing in question has several centuries of proof that yes, we will adhere to The Thing as often and closely as we can, the pill is far less bitter to swallow.
That cuts both ways, though; I've never taken to religion because I can't trust myself to commit to it on such a fundamental level. How could I call myself a Christian of any stripe when every prayer and exultation is a blatant lie? That's a grave insult to everyone involved.
P_P: I can only speak for myself; standard warnings of individual opinion and layman apply.
DeleteThe reality I often have to face and remind myself of are twofold. The first is that it is really not about me, no matter how much I try to insert myself as the hero and leading character into every story. The second is that Christianity is not so much about us as it is about God and His offer of salvation to creatures that in no way deserve it. In that sense it is quite all about Him and not at all about us.
I struggle with this. The times I have had to remind myself, especially recently as a grown adult, that "It is not all about me" are too numerous to count. And does God always come through the way I would wish? No. But He is not some kind of wish granting genie; if I accept as a Christian that He is omniscient and omnipresent and all-powerful as the Creator of the universe, then I have to accept that He does things which may make no sense at all to me. That is the point that faith comes in, that believing at the core He is a good God - and "good" in ways that transcend what we believe as "good", which is more often than not "I hope this works out in my favour".
We all, at some level, have facades which we present to the world - I have at least two, one that is outward and one that is inward. This is not an unknown concept: the Japanese have the words omote and ura, which mean "Outer" and "Inner", which are used both to describe the outward facing sides of things but also the individual: we all have an omote (outer) and ura (inner) person. My ideal goal would be to merge these two individuals into one but I do not know that it will ever truly happen: to be truly one's self in the world is to present one's self in a way that I can only describe as raw flesh being constantly exposed to wind, rain, and salt. I am simply not that strong, at least all the time. Occasionally, yes.
I will say that the struggle that you describe in the last paragraph is one that great men - C.S. Lewis comes to mind - have struggled with. It is honest. And God never rejects an honest struggler.
Not all of us can do great things, but we an do small things with great love. Mother Theresa.
ReplyDeleteAnon - I cling to that sentiment quite a bit.
DeleteThere is much to be said for a person that dedicates himself to learning a skill or an understanding of a subject and attaining a level approaching perfection. They must dedicate many hundreds (sometimes thousands) of hours of practice and repetition to be considered a master of the craft. I have the greatest admiration for such people that are willing to put forth the effort and dedicate the time for the accomplishment. The admonition to forget themselves and concentrate exclusively on the actions required to achieve success may be a necessary requirement. Since I have not attempted to acquire this type of skill, I do not know for certain. What I do know is that this is not necessary for a person to become a better Christian. We are told in the bible that Christ emptied himself and took on the attributes of a natural man. He did this because of his deity as God. Do you think we would believe him if he said “I know exactly what you are going through and you have my sympathies for your suffering” if he did not actually experience them himself? What do you think of a person that says “I know how you feel’ when you are certain that they don’t? So, he laid aside his power and omniscience and became human just as we are. He suffered pain, loss, thirst, exhaustion, doubt and finally death just as we will, so he could be a savior we would believe in. He became a man but retained his authority. It is interesting to note that of all the miracles he performed while on earth, none were to his personal benefit. He went to the cross and died for everyone. We were all born into sin. We are condemned not because of who we are, but what we have done. He died and made himself a perfect sacrifice for us and he stands ever ready to forgive our transgressions. No one is too far gone or beyond his reach. His death two thousand years ago means there is nothing you could do today that would be outside of his perfect offering. We are to accept his gift of salvation, obey his commandments and live as much as possible at peace with all people. Nothing else is required. Do not permit anyone to persuade you otherwise.
ReplyDeleteAnon - As noted above, I am layman, so my words may not always express my concepts accurately.
DeleteWhile God's gift of salvation is free and requires nothing, it does not assume that we stay as we are. C.S. Lewis dealt with this concept; quoting a bit from memory, it is the same as a child: while we appreciate their first attempts to walk and would never criticize them, we expect them to continue in the "walking adventure" and develop a full stride.
It is the same in Christian walk.
When Christ told the disciples "Deny yourself, take up your cross, and follow Me" (Matthew 16:24), to my mind that is a form of emptying myself: denying my sinful desires and illicit wants - in fact, carrying my cross which is the Thing that they die on - and following Him. The epistles reinforce this: we are constantly reminded to "put off" sinful habits and put on Christlike ones. These represent - again, to me - the emptying of my self, my wants, my sins, my desires for those of Christ.
If I had a concern about much of modern day Christianity (of all varieties) is that the first part - belief in Christ's atonement for our sins - is heavily emphasized whereas continuing to grow in Christ - "emptying myself", as I put it - is seen as something that is not as important. As a result, we end up with thousands of people "on the rolls" but most not sincerely changed by the experience, a sort of "my interpretation of Christ" rather than conforming to the image of Christ.
Thanks for taking to time to post such a thoughtful comment.