11/28/09
Something 'viral' and a very sore throat did not keep me out of the "Redemption Center" last night. I ended up doing 13 minutes of continuous snatching (in embedded video above), and 2 x 2:00 kettlebell snatches at 21reps/minute pace. Nothing particularly impressive, but not bad for how I felt.
Mental Notes To Self:
The goal of training is to learn and reinforce desirable habits and skills. Through training, we confront discomfort and uncertainty. The goal of (well-planned) training is evident in every exercise, repetition, and set. No rationalization is needed. Training is thoughtful.
Addiction, on the other hand, is a movement away from discomfort and uncertainty. The goal is control. Self-improvement may, ostensibly, be a goal of the addictive behavior, and we may be replacing one discomfort with another, but the goal is to escape from expectations, responsibilities, weakness, and fear. Addiction is an escape from thought.
Am I just training, or am I an addict who trains? Sometimes the line is fuzzy.
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3 comments:
Boris,
Some very old thoughts on the aims of training...
"When you have run the length of various practices and none of those practices remain in your mind, that very lack of mind itself is the heart of 'all things.' When you have exhaustively learned the various practices and techniques and made great effort in disciplined training, there will be action in your arms, legs, and body but none in your mind; you will have distanced yourself from training, but will not be in opposition to it, and you will have freedom in whatever techniques you perform. You yourself will be unaware of where your mind is, and neither demons nor heresies will be able to find it. Training is done for the purpose of reaching this state. With successful training, training falls away."
-Yagyu Menenori, "The Life Giving Sword" c. 1632 (Translation by William Scott Wilson)
Munenori was sword master to the first three Tokugawa Shoguns (Ieyasu, Hidetada, and Iemitsu)
Thank you Charlie. I am pretty sure I've read that - was it in The Book of Family Traditions on The Art of War as well?
Great stuff. I will try to review that for myself sometime soon.
I've only ever seen it in Munenori's book Heiho Kadensho (The Life Giving Sword), however, it could certainly have been included in "The Book of Family Traditions" as representative of the Yagyu clan.
:-)charlie
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