BUDO SEISHIN

The Correct Mental Attitude of the Martial Way

By Ben Haryo

When I began learning martial arts in the 80s, my country was a country with plenty of crime and violence. These days (early 2000s), it is an even more violent and crime-infested country, and the level of developments has sunk much lower. Indonesians lives in an age of fear, an age of uncertainity. Human life are cheap. If one reads the newspapers in Indonesia, one can conclude that there are more people killed by criminals in Indonesia within two WEEKS than people killed by terrorist guns and bombs in Israel & Palestine within one MONTH.

So, it was not surprising that in Indonesia, the study of the martial Ways, has become equated with a study of survival. People come into Budo Dojo, and (especially) to Pencak Silat Perguruans (Perguruan = Pencak Silat Dojo) to learn how to fight. How to hurt another human being, how to avoid being a victim by victimize others. People even join Aikido classes NOT to learn Love and Harmony, but to learn the techniques of Steven Seagal as depicted in his movies (Above the Law, Under Siege, etc). The learn Aikido to become violent, completely opposed to what Uyeshiba Morihei had designed his art for.

I myself pursue the martial arts for entirely different reasons though. I didn't study the arts to learn how to fight. Fighting was(and still is) pretty much a facts of life in the section of Indonesia where I live. I know many powerful streetfighters and streetfighting gang members, they are not trained in any Dojo, and yet they are nearly invincible in streetfighting. In the rough streets of Indonesia, with its unique "tawuran" (mass streetfighting) tradition, essentially NO martial art works. It's always about the element of surprise, the strength in numbers, the advantage of locations, and the lethality of the weapons of choice that saves (and crushes) life. In another word, a bunch of untrained streetfighters with edged weapons (even FIREARMS) can kill a martial artist easily, like picking a rose from a field of flowers.

Therefore, I found it especially amusing if a person told me that he/she studied the martial arts to "win fights". If he/she equates "winning fights" with the Indonesian term "menang pertandingan", then yes, the word make sense, because "menang pertandingan" means winning a contest of strength or a competition. However, winning a schoolyard fight or a martial art tournament is ENTIRELY different with surviving a real streetfight. In a streetfight, you do not "win fights". Your effort is to SURVIVE a streetfight by emerging from it relatively uninjured. Therefore, ESCAPING to GAIN SAFETY is the best policy in a real fight. Your ability to RUN AWAY is much more important than your ability to perform "super secret deadly moves" to "beat" your opponent. Why? because NO streetfight in Indonesia are conducted one against one, it's always one against many unarmed thugs. And NO martial art will prepare any living human beings against multiple ARMED attackers, despite what martial art movies has depicted. So, I realized that anybody learning the martial arts with the hope of being a real-life version of Steven Seagal, Bruce Lee or Jet Li is pursuing an essentialy futile effort.

Having been cured from this "illusion of invincibility", I have decided to use a different philosophy in my martial arts training. In fact, I am reviving a long-forgotten concept of Budo, which to this day has remained ironically alien to many martial artists: BUDO SEISHIN.

BUDO SEISHIN is the Correct Mental Attitude of Budo. SEI means correct or just. SHIN means heart, or better, Mental Attitude. I equate BUDO SEISHIN with the true purpose of Budo: Self-Improvement through the Study of Body Movements. We are learning Budo as a tool of self-expressions through the study of body movements, and the by-product of learning the body movements are many. Budo can improve your health and wellness. It can make you do things you are previously unable to do, such as breakfalls, kicks, punches, techniques of avoidance, and many more. It can make you become more aware of many types of attacks and how to avoid them. It can make you become more disciplined (by coming to the Dojo on time and without many absence). It can make you a person with correct moral values through the study of respecting the teachers and fellow students (and thus fellow human beings). And most importantly, if you learn a traditional martial arts (and I am not talking about Japanese Budo only but also Indonesian martial arts, Chinese martial arts and other types of martial arts), you are helping to preserve ancient cultures, which still retains many moral, mental and physical values, values which are still relevant in the modern world.

BUDO essentially was not about fighting for dominance or to impose one's will upon the others. If you look at the character of BU, it contains the literal meaning of "to stop the spear". Which means, BUDO was not about starting a fight or beginning a war. It was about how to NOT start a fight or begin a war. It is all about defense. That is, the essential Budo: the Art of making PEACE. This is the ideals of Budo that our great masters such as Gichin Funakoshi (Shotokan), Hironori Otsuka (Wado-ryu), Uyeshiba (Aikido) and Jigoro Kano (Judo) was trying to explain to us. Gichin Funakoshi said "Karate ni SENTE nashi": There are NO first strikes in Karate! Which means that a Karate person must not start a fight. Hironori Otsuka calls his Karate-Jujutsu hybrid art "Wado-ryu" which means "Way of Peace". Uyeshiba considers his Aikido as the Art of Love and Harmony. Jigoro Kano said that Judo is to teach Jitta Kyoei, which means "Mutual Benefit and Welfare". NONE of them are saying that "I will teach you the ultimate martial art which are unbeatable and will allow you to kick anyone's butts". They all wants to teach you BUDO SEISHIN: The correct mental attitude of Budo.

Therefore, it is very important to understand and realize that Budo is a tool of self-expression through the movements of the martial arts, and a tool of self-improvement through the study of the principles of the martial arts. Self-defense skills are the RESULTS of martial arts training, the years of training will certainly improve your self-defense abilities as well, but they should never became the central point or the ultimate goals of martial arts training. If you want self-defense training without the philosophy, you can learn self-defense tricks in special self-defense only classes, or you can simply join a street thugs gang. BUT, If you are learning Karatedo, Aikido, Judo, Goshinbudo Jujutsu, Gendai Goshin-ryu Jujutsu, Budo Taijutsu, Ninpo Bugei, Kendo or another types of "DO" arts, then Budo Seishin must become your guide in your Budo journey.

See you in the Dojo!

BEN HARYO

GBI Club Chief Instructor

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