Most of us have asked that question, either in an open discussion or just inside their mind. Everyone who takes part in the training of a martial art will ask himself from a certain point of time, why he is studying just this martial art. The beginner will ask this question more often than the advanced student, but in time even the advanced one will make his life hard with his doubts.

In the early years of martial arts people hardly ever thought about such things. It was simply not necessary to do so, because those people had to fight simply in order to survive. It was the law of war. They learned certain techniques which had been selected and were sent to the battlefield in order to serve their master, as a matter of life and death. Not just the techniques were decisive but the mental state of the warrior played an important role as well.

The mental aspects always played an essential role in the martial arts. Since the ancient martial arts were influenced by esoteric teachings like Buddhism and Shintoism, it was inevitable that you had to have a look at these mental teachings. They were embedded in the sub consciousness and became later on the essential heart of the teachings of all martial arts.

One wants to know:

Why we do have to fight or even to kill anyway ?

This became the essential question of all martial arts.

In order to give an answer to such a question one has to occupy oneself with other teachings so that we can better understand some things of importance. For example it is said that „The secret of martial art is the secret of Zen“.

The secret is to guide his mind in an essential way. But how can you do this? In one chapter of a text of the Kyushin-Ryu the following is said: „The true technique of the body has to be the substance of the mind himself. The substance is the mind. One may not look at the body of his opponent, but rather has to direct one’s own mind. There is no opponent. The mind is formless, but he can take shape sometimes - this is like Zazen.“

The training of martial arts shall not only be regarded as a physical development, even though nowadays most people only concentrate on competitions or the pure learning of techniques. In the early years it was different because it was simply a matter of survival, and in the end it depended on bare intuition. Thus the physical, technical and mental strength was and is closely connected, but the ability of concentration (the mental strength) has to come first.

The tension of the body, the technical ability and the mental intuition have to be brought together and have to become one. Action and consciousness have to form an integrated whole. Than you are in KU or in the emptiness. This is the true Way of Budô.

You have to learn to ACCEPT your life and death completely. Even if the body dies, the mind has to remain upright. In the face of life AND of death the mind has to remain calm. Due to this having control of the unity of body and mind means controlling life and death. The great sword-master Miyamoto Musashi gave up his life of fighting as well in order to find an answer to the essential question: „How could one die...???“

The martial arts are neither sports nor a game nor a simple way of passing the time. There is a deeper meaning in them, the MEANING OF LIFE in general and thus the meaning of death, because both are inextricably linked with each other. This is BUDO. The TRUE WAY OF BUDO is neither competition nor dispute - he is beyond life and death and beyond victory and defeat.

And what does this mean for our daily training??
Well, at the beginning one practises again and again techniques (waza) and forms (kata) in order to lay the foundations.
In time you „become aware“ of these techniques and forms, you „get used“ to them. During this period you are always thinking and considering; due to this you always are in contact with your „awareness of the self“. When we use our mind in this way, our behaviour and our actions will be slow and hesitating. Questions will rise, the mind will become tired and our consciousness will be like a flame in the wind.

You can compare this beginning with the learning of a musical instrument. Later on you are able to play without any consideration, which means that after years of training you do no longer stick to your awareness of the self but you play in a natural way. With this „non - awareness“ you are now able to create something new. The same goes for our everyday life and for our training as well. But you may never forget the beginning; otherwise our mind will become exhausted and because of this we will loose our concentration. The reasons are a much too strong egoism and a lack of effort. By this way we run the risk of leaving our course.

An essential aspect of BUDO is to find the immediate unity with the authentic truth of the universe. It is important for your personal way of thinking to transcend the „awareness of the self“, and not only with your mind. You have to „think“ with your entire body. In general we regard the life of the body and the life of the universe as two separate unities. But actually our life is not limited to our „physical“ life but it is in a constant exchange with the life of the universe. To understand this mutual dependence or relation means to understand KU. Practising KU at the same time means to look for the greatest truth, for universal love.

This emptiness, KU, has infinite energy which we are able to receive only if our life is in harmony with the life of the universe. The greatest teaching of martial arts. The greatest teaching of Ninpô.

This purpose serves the training in the martial arts!!