The Big(ger) Picture

Had a great training session yesterday with Nagato sensei. He went through much of the Te Hodoki and branched off from there. Lots of movement and even some twisty stuff when he dropped his knee onto his opponent's foot and turned over kicking him square in the gut. Good show.

After class, a question was asked about training and in particular the way of training. "Soft training alone won't do it. But hard training alone won't do it either. You have to find the balance," Nagato said. It seems we often have questions on not just what to train, but how to train it. With Soke continually speaking of the 'connection,' it layers things even more.

I hesitate to mention this, but there's a lot of talk about Soke retiring and exactly what that's going to mean for the rest of us. The story is, in two years time, Soke may hang it up, or perhaps simply reduce his teaching. It sounds like he wants to concentrate more on his art and by removing himself, at least to some extent, he can see how resilient the Bujinkan is without his constant presence.

But it seems to me, too much of this talk is focused on ourselves. "What's going to happen to us?" "What are we going to do?" We should instead focus on Soke. He has dedicated his life to us in so many ways.

It was no coincidence he trained with the one man who was the last guardian of this information. It was no coincidence that one man chose him to become the 34th generational Soke. Hatsumi sensei set off a worldwide Ninjaboom, circling the globe, bringing this 'way of living' out of the shadow of history. He could have controlled its knowledge, he could have piece mealed it out only to those who could afford it, but instead, he simply handed it back to humanity, where it now resides in all of us. An open secret, welcome to everyone, with no invitations.

Think about how many have used our training to protect their loved ones and themselves from harm. How many have used our training to protect their communities and nations. Think about how many lives have been saved and will be saved simply because Hatsumi sensei has lived. In my book, that makes Masaaki Hatsumi the greatest Ninja in history. And at 78 years old, he still teaches three times a week, still gets interviewed for TV, writes books, and films dozens of DVDs. And for whom? Him? No, for us. For all of us.

So, whatever Soke chooses to do, we should support and be happy for him. He deserves it. Nagato sensei said we learn naturally in the Bujinkan; experience has always been our greatest teacher. Well, our experience already tells us what we will do and what will happen. And when change occurs we will change right with it.