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Dojo Kun, each dojo regardless of its origins as culturally manifested; no matter of any major organizations that may govern the dojo; no matter who the Sensei is; no matter who the students are; and no matter where it is located in the entire martial community world is a collection of precepts that govern the dojo teachings where both those who lead and those who follow create a reciprocal set of traits, rules and conditions meant to foster the best of the myriad of things within the dojo.
It is and always has been a unique thing specific to the dojo while often within each dojo adopted from what style may be trained and practiced as originally set down by the style or systems creator. As can be seen in the few examples of translation and meaning it can be thought of as, “Rules, teachings, explanations, instruction and/or readings.” This is significant in translation because those not of the culture of origin may assume just one specific or specified meaning is implied such as the assumption that the dojo-kun are “Rules.”
Rules tend to static and unchanged so I tend to not think of the dojo-kun as rules. Precepts also tend to refer back to rules, i.e., “a general rule intended to regulate behavior or thought.” I don’t feel that the dojo-kun should mandate anything to the student but should be more of a fluid guide like a map that Sensei passes on so that the practitioner can use it to guide their path while fostering a creative way that translates into something unique to the individual regardless of others also following their own path.
This is how I find a more personal philosophical understanding of our training, practice and application of all the fundamental principles of what ever system of martial discipline one participates in. Kun, or precepts or rules or requirements just seems controlling and limited often leading to stagnation that is referred to mostly as adhering dogmatically to something someone else created and then called, “Tradition or Traditional.”
If I could change things, and I can in my dojo, I would prefer to call what I am writing about as, “The Dojo Philosophy.” You see when you change the term, “Rules and/or Precepts” to “Philosophy” you get:
- the study of the fundamental nature of knowledge, reality, and existence, especially when considered as an academic discipline.
- a particular system of philosophical thought.
- the study of the theoretical basis of a particular branch of knowledge or experience.
For me, I read and reread that first one because that tells it as best as I can understand the concepts, the fundamental nature of knowledge and reality and existence but would remove the academic reference in this case because I feel it applies to ALL disciplines be they physical, mental or wholehearted. It is about one’s thoughts as the collect new understanding from research, analysis and then synthesis. It is about our effort to study things hopefully with an open mind remaining aware of how our species is subjected to things like cognizant dissonance and confirmation bias, to name just two of many.
It is about, “read,” in that how we read ourselves, how we read others and how we read the internal and external stimuli be it academic or reality-based experiences all contribute to our philosophy.
Philosophy is an entity of the mind that changes in every moment from the influences of the constant influx of environmental stimuli through our senses of sight, hearing and especially touch or tactile senses.
Dojo-tetsugaku [道場哲学] These characters/ideograms are translated by two sources as, “Dojo philosophy.” I am not advocating a dojo or person just dump these, some anyway, historically oriented documents because of their significance to the history and traditions of the founders, creators and all Sensei past and present BUT as to what we today use as a guide or map for students following us down this martial practice and path, philosophy today is more apropos to what we all are working so hard to embrace, practice and live.
“Dojo kun is a Japanese martial arts term literally meaning (training hall) rules.”
The characters/ideograms translate as, “Road-way; street; journey; course; moral; teachings,” and “location; place,” and “Instruction; Japanese character reading; explanation; read.”
Another translation of the characters translates to, “The Precept of the Dojo/Teaching Place.”
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