Stealing from the Mongolian Tiger Shugyo

Have we been lied to? Or, are the truths very hard to reach within the Takamatsu-den, available to those willing to go deep, traversing the depths of a discipline, enduring the physical and emotional demands needed to actually 'get it' only to arrive at new beginnings, over and over again? Is 'play' a decoy? 

Meanwhile, jesters and charlatans splash about in puddles of mastery with cool names like kyoshi or renshi, literaly wearing capes and hoods of the mystics, telling tales to western students of far-off lands they've journied to and stories of sages they've learned from.

In this reflection I pose the question to leaders and instructors, are you faking it for reasons of ego and vanity, or are you actually going after the Bu-do as a student, relentless in your pursuit of basics, with humility and the willingness to get tapped out as your north star? Are you trying to capture the gokui with each root form, or are you more concerned with conversion rates and click throughs on your video stats?  

In this episode I encourage self reflection; are we contributing to the degradation of our Kobudo due to inaccurate representations online? Or, as leaders, do we correctly emphasize the importance of discipline, fitness, bio-mechanics and historical appreciation of our craft? This is solely a conversation between you and you. 

I hope something is gained in this conversation, some value and thought are carried forward; if only for one person. Please enjoy and consider.