Self-Discipline

Blog Article/Post Caveat (Read First Please: Click the Link)

Notes:

First and foremost, one must "teach" technical methods of self-discipline. Few, if any, teach this aspect of the martial disciplines including those who teach karate. 

In the United States self-discipline itself, as a technical training, is NOT a thing to learn like math quite apart from its application in a particular instance. One way to practice a self-discipline skill is through mokuso, the self-discipline of meditation. Not just this short terse sit seiza the begin but true, consistent and dedicated meditative skills in practice. 

It is good to remember that no matter how expert a swordsman's sword thrust, not matter how meticulous his attention to detail, etc., one still needs to set aside one's books and sword and social attention and undergo a special kind of training. The Japanese refer to it as "esoteric training." Their practice of self-discipline has a recognized place in their culture. It depends fundamentally on their notion of technical self-control and self-governance. 

Self-discipline can be divided into two halves, think yin/yang concepts, the skills that give competence and the skills that provide something more, "expertness." These two are divided in Japan and their aim is to accomplish a different result in the human psyche and have a different rationale and are recognized by different signs. 

First is self-disciplinary competence. One's will must be supreme over the almost infinitely teachable body and that the body itself does not have laws of well-being that one might ignore at one's own peril. In Japan, the price one pays of self-discipline, that person is manifesting what they term as, "Japanese spirit." 

Note: notice that we are now delving into that ephemeral concept of "body, mind, and spirit" of the martial arts. 

Mental Self-Discipline: The Japanese achieve mental self-discipline through the art of shugyo or austere training. They believe that only through shugyo can a person gain the power to live fully and to 'get the taste' of life. They believe that self-discipline 'builds up the belly (the seat of control); it enlarges life. 

Shugyo, as you already know and understand, is a phrase used to denote one's efforts to "polish away the rust of the body." It makes one a bright sharp sword, which is, as you know, what one desires in their efforts in the training and practice of martial arts. 

One does not become a champion through complaining of the self-sacrifice that is required to master a skill; one does not label their frustrations of the hours necessary to become a master or expert. Self-discipline is to one's advantage and makes tough shugyo-esqe efforts seem easy to them in application of training and practice thus application in reality. 

Self-discipline skills and efforts and training and practices are how we train the mind-body to pay attention, close attention, to the 'rust of the body.' There are lists of words used in Japan to name a state of mind that experts in self-discipline are supposed to achieve. One such word is, "Muga." This is a term used in Zen Buddhism. It denotes the experiences, either secular or religious, that when there is no break, not even the thickness of a hair, between a person's will and his actions. 

Muga is the act of effortlessness. It manifests from a mind that is calm and well-regulated. It is also a state of mind that sometimes is explained as a sixth sense. A place of the mind that through austere training makes it the master over the ordinary five senses of sight, touch, taste, smell and hearing. It is that which is given special trining during a meditative state of mind. 

It is believed that the five senses supplement and support that sixth sense, and one learns in this state to make every sense alert.

Muga is training in efficiency, it is training in self-reliance. It is how we train to meet any situation with exactly the right expenditure of effort, not too much nor too little, and it allows control of our monkey's mind so that neither physical danger or danger from within oneself can dislodge him from his path be it avoidance, self-protection or hands-on efforts. 

How many of us have heard, seen or experienced that shugyo of diving, standing or sitting seiza under a freezing fall of water as standard disciplines of austere practices? The object or goal is to train one's conscious self till one non longer notices any discomfort. In mokuso, the goal is to train to continue meditation without interruption of discomfort like found by Americans who sit seiza for the first time. 

Mental training has to be self-appropriated. One might associate themselves with a teacher, but that teacher cannot teach in the American sense, because nothing a novice learned from any source outside of themselves is of any importance. In Japan, teaching is often derived through shi-kata, where a teacher may hold discussions but not to lead the students into a new of intellectual state and often a Japanese teacher is believed most helpful when the teacher is most rude. 

Another form to teach one self-discipline is a mental journey and challenge through what many understand, fundamentally speaking, as the Zen Koan. Mentally challenging problems contemplated mentally and especially through meditation. The Japanese students goals are to learn through the eyes of one's spirit, if spirit is open and they come to know anything is possible, and with no help from anyone but oneself. 

All this is to accomplish one objective in one's mind, that one must seek out self-discipline and all that entails be in American or supplanted by that Japanese form regardless of one's cultural self. All such effort is complementary to achieve self-discipline expertise and warrants one's efforts above and beyond the mere pittance of knowledge laid out herein...

If you and your dojo have not taken conscious hold of self-discipline as a skill to teach, practice and develop to a level of master then you may find your level of skills, wanting. 

For reference and sources and professionals go here: Bibliography (Click the link)

Benedict, Ruth. "The Chrysanthemum and the Sword." Mariner Books New York 2009