Sho Shin Wasuru Bekarazu — Don’t forget the spirit of the beginner
This concept is important in the martial arts in that no matter how advanced one is in their particular art, the need to continuously start again and practice the basics is paramount. Because everything is built upon the basics, the ability to develop and understand the advanced techniques will only come with the further refinement of the basic movements of the art. This is reflected in the cycle of learning in the martial arts; where one starts out as a beginner, knowing nothing of the art, then progresses to an intermediate stage where the feeling that one knows the art is present (and is a dangerous stage in the practitioner’s development in the art) and then finally moving on to an advanced stage in the understanding of the art, where one then comes back full circle to the beginner and feels like there is much more to learn about the art.
Not forgetting the spirit of the beginner will also inform an advanced student when they train with a novice, or lower level, student. One must be mindful that who you train with may be at a stage where their knowledge, skills and experience is below that of your own, so when you train with such a student you need to set the pace, intensity and strength of the training to be challenging, but not overwhelming, to your training partner. This will encourage development of their skills (which is the goal of having a beginning student training with a more advanced one). However, if the more advanced student sees such training as an opportunity to only practice their more advance techniques or to treat the training as a competition, where the objective is to defeat the training partner, then this will inhibit the development (and possibly the spirit) of the more novice training partner.
Finally, no matter how skilled one is, there are times when one needs the correction and instruction of a teacher. Often times a more advanced practitioner will feel dejected, embarrassed or frustrated when instructions are given on what they feel they already know, this is only their ego getting in the way of their improvment. Even the most senior practitioners will know that they cannot know it all…there is always some aspect of the technique that needs improving, even if it has been practised one thousand, ten thousand, one hundred thousand times before. Keeping in mind the spirit of the beginner will allow any practitioner to take correction on their technique as that, a correction that is aimed at improving their technique.
Let’s all work this year on keeping in mind the spirit of the beginner.