Although it is important to study and train for skill in techniques, for the man who wishes to truly accomplish the way of budo, it is important to makehis whole life in training and therefore not aiming for skill and strength alone, but also for spiritual attainment.
Interpretation
True mastery in budo requires not just physical skill but also spiritual growth and a lifestyle dedicated to training.
Mas Oyama emphasizes that true accomplishment in the way of budo transcends physical techniques and strength. Instead, it entails a holistic approach to training that integrates one's entire life with the pursuit of spiritual enlightenment, indicating that the journey is as important as the destination.
In practice
In a martial arts class discussing the deeper meaning of practice.
Karate is not a game. It is not a sport. It is not even a system of self-defense. Karate is half physical exercise and half spiritual. The karateist who has given the necessary years of exercise and meditation is a tranquil person. He is unafraid. He can even be calm in a burning building.
Karate is Budo and if Budo is removed from Karate it is nothing more than sport karate, show karate, or even fashion karate-the idea of training merely to be fashionable.
Sice Karate exists for cultivating the spirit and training the body, it must be a moral way surpassing mere techniques.
One becomes a beginner after 1000 days of training. One becomes a master after 10,000 days of practice.
The path of Martial Arts begins and ends with courtesy. So be genuinely polite on every occasion.
The only real number is one, the rest are mere repetition
To offer no resistance to life is to be in a state of grace, ease, and lightness. This state is then no longer dependent upon things being in a certain way, good or bad. It seems almost paradoxical, yet when your inner dependency on form is gone, the general conditions of your life, the outer forms, tend to improve greatly.
When the world is ruled according to the Way, the ghosts lose their power. The ghosts do not really lose their power, but it is not used to harm people.
Policy makers, like most people, normally feel that they already know all the psychology and all the sociology they are likely to need for their decisions. I don't think they are right, but that's the way it is.
We must reason in natural philosophy not from what we hope, or even expect, but from what we perceive.
Character is "a stamp of good repute on a person."
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