Perfection

"Perfecting the forms is for beginners.”

Long accepted as being the goal of martial arts study, many martial artists persevere for years to perfect techniques, skills, and weapons. A further struggle is the perfection of the self. Manners etiquette, philosophy—a great deal of effort is spent on becoming perfect, even if only in some small way.

Perfection has a ring of nobility to it. "Mastery," "perfection," "flawlessness" are all commonly stated values in the martial arts. Its attainment is an admirable goal, to be sure, but one must never lose sight of the fact that budo is formlessness. Once you make it—or force it—to exist, it disappears. Is it wrong to say that chasing after an impossibility is the same as chasing after a fantasy? How elusive perfection is! And little wonder. It doesn't exist. At least in budo. The more you chase after it, the more it stays away from you.

"Have no fear of perfection—you'll never reach it."
—Salvador Dali

The seeking of perfect form is not budo. A perfect looking form may look good and be personally satisfying, but this has more to do with the desires of the practitioner than with budo. Not only that, it will never happen. A person could easily spend their whole life (and many have) trying to achieve this perfection. And if you ever should achieve it, which would indeed be a fantastic feat, it would still not be budo.

“Do not try and think of working for perfection.
If you try and work on this, you will never improve."

Budo is not much more than a series of mistakes and the budoka changes with each of these so-called mistakes, moving into a free flowing world where the artist finds his space. These mistakes rarely appear as things of beauty; budo often looks ugly and gritty. It is hard to equate beauty with ugliness but that is one of the talents of the budoka, to be able to recognize this beauty when human constructs fail.

“Don't think about perfecting your punches and such.
Study how mistakes are a normal thing and to
not be flustered by them.”

For the athletically or spiritually minded, doing budo correctly often results in a positive feeling when finished. The athletes satisfaction after a hard training session or the intellectually stimulating discovery of more principles is a common one. But budo is not a sport nor is it a theory or philosophy. In the beginning, doing budo correctly will not make you feel good when it is over. There is no rush at the end. If its for real, your first feeling may be guilt, even if it was necessary to save a life. Nobody will be complimenting you on your form. More likely, they will be putting you in handcuffs until things get sorted out.

“Ninshiki wo shinobu"
(Endure the realization [that we are killers].)

The seeking of correct, perfect form can be an obsession with many martial artists. Indeed, many martial arts are concerned only with it. Perhaps the seeking of forms has its purpose. After all, the ability to narrow your focus onto performing a strict set of forms can be an effective way to manage stress. But is that budo? For those who have been in the military the question needs to be asked: What part of basic training did you find to be effective at relieving stress?

Perhaps the most common rationale for perfecting martial arts forms is that once they are perfected, they can then be let go of, thrown away, as the saying goes. This seems reasonable but after ten, twenty, or even thirty years of training in these forms, one has to wonder: how long does it take to be able to let go?

Techniques certainly have their place in budo. But keep in mind the old saying: "Never take a knife to a gun fight." Someone will always have a gun, no matter how sharp your knife. So why then are there even techniques in the martial arts? Consider the answer to that question like this: Techniques are studied in order to learn budo. One does not study budo in order to learn techniques. And what does this study entail? Learning to let go of the need to study techniques...

It sounds almost ridiculous to say that one studies something in order to realize it is not necessary but that is the way things go. We often spend our formative years learning the difference between black and white, only to discover that in the real world, there happens to be a lot of gray. Budo and the desire for perfection can be seen in the same light.

Perfection is a beautiful concept. It has inspired many to perform fantastic feats of elegance, grace, and beauty. But budo is life, complete with all of its gritty little mistakes, miscalculations, and frustrations. To go beyond the idea of what we deem is beautiful and to enter instead, the world of what is there, is to leave the crutch of perfection behind and to embrace life.

“Budo is a living thing, always changing. People who don't understand this are just “technique collectors.” That is not budo. A great pot-maker would give his pieces away or throw them into the sea when they were finished. They were no longer precious to him. That is the feeling of true budo.”

Icemen

Some solidify liquids,
Thinking themselves
Masters of the flow.

When children play, there is mud and dirt, laughing and crying; the building blocks collapse, the crayon colors never stay inside the lines... what part of a child's play is perfect?

“I am teaching you how to play...
to play as demons play.”

“Kanpeki de ha nai, dakara, kanpekt"
(It's not perfect, therefore its perfect.)

Two lost, hungry boys found an entire box of cookies by the side of the road. All but one of the cookies were broken into pieces. They spent all day arguing and fighting over the perfect cookie. The next day, one of the boys made it home.

“I want you all to capture the feeling of play
in your budo."

The shark is one of nature's most perfectly formed creatures. Its body design allows it to almost effortlessly roam the oceans in search of prey. Sleek, silent and savage, the shark is absolutely hopeless out of water.

“Basics are said to be important, but they are not
actually used in a real fight Real fighting is always
a case by case situation."

Racer

Breakneck nothing,
All the way to
Nowhere.

"Don't give your opponent anything.
Control mm with nothingness.”

How frustrating it is for adults when they cannot catch hold of a floating balloon, while for children, it's all part of the fun!

"My life has been nothing but a failure.”
—Claude Monet

The purpose of camouflage is not to look like a soldier: it is to NOT look like a soldier; to look like sand or leaves and dirt, formless, shapeless, nothing.

“There are various kinds of arts. The judge of most of them is often the public. With budo however, good budo has nothing to do with the average person. This is a difference between budo and the other arts. The person watching cannot see.”

Three men are sitting around a table. There is a glass of water. One man says, "The glass is half empty!" The second man says, "The glass is half full!" The third man reaches over, drinks the glass and then gets up and leaves.

The nature of theVessel

I would like to write the most beautiful of prose
There would be no letters in this prose
No words or sentences.

I would like to paint the most beautiful of paintings
There would be no brushstrokes in this painting
No shapes or colors.

I would like to recite the elegant of poems
There would be no words in this poem
No sounds or emotion.

I think only then
With nothing else but me
Could I call myself and artist.

"You are not able to do this because you're trying
too hard to do each little part perfectly."

A man complained angrily at the pet store one day. He kept saying that all the fish tanks were empty. They're not empty," said the manager, we just took down the labels for cleaning."

Still very angry, the man replied, "How can I see any fish if I don't know what to look for?"

Do not fear mistakes. There are none.“
—Miles Davis