This brings us to the end of the ten week series of articles attempting to apply martial art principles and mental attitudes to non-martial situations in everyday life. And it's appropriate that the series ends with the beginner's mind set.
Soshin, refers to what is called, “the beginner’s mind”. This is the act of maintaining an open, inquisitive and eager mind when learning martial arts even at an advanced level. The concept is to approach each subject as a beginner with no pre-conceptions.
Personally, I have found this to be the hardest task to attempt. Ego always gets in the way. In training in three different disciplines, Shotokan karatedo, the hard techniques of Soke Morris’s JJI syllabus, and the efficient techniques of Hakkoryu, which shares the same root art, Daito-ryu, with Aikido and Hapkido, I had some difficulties emptying my mind. I would want to throw uke in karate class, kick uke in aikijujutsu class and finesse uke in JJI class; I was very mixed up and carrying a lot of baggage. After a time, and with lots of training, I sorted myself out, but it took some concentrated effort I can tell you.
One of the reasons I wanted to re-write my first book, An Introduction to Seishindo; A Modern Method of Self-Defence, I had refused to listen to my trusted friends who edited and printed the book. They were printers and had a lot of experience putting books together, but I stubbornly rejected their input and suggestions. I had not approached the subject of writing with the mindset of soshin and I missed learning critical elements of sentence structure and layout.
If you are not excited by the prospect of learning new things, experiencing life outside your comfort zone, putting forth an effort in order to acquire new knowledge, then you are closing yourself off from the world around you.
At some point the knowledge you have accumulated and guarded will become stagnant and redundant and you will not have cultivated the skills to learn new things.
Remember the concept of movement. If life, like a river, is in constant motion you will need to be equipped to adapt to the changing environment.
Cultivate the habit, the second nature of learning new things or at least being open to the learning as a process.
Of course you do not want to throw out that which you have already learned but rather add to the cache of accumulated knowledge, adjust what you have learned for accuracy.
Approach the acquisition of new knowledge with the wonderment of a new born. Soshin.
Learning never stops until you are dead. The more I learn the more I realize how little I know and how much I have yet to learn.
Soshin, refers to what is called, “the beginner’s mind”. This is the act of maintaining an open, inquisitive and eager mind when learning martial arts even at an advanced level. The concept is to approach each subject as a beginner with no pre-conceptions.
Personally, I have found this to be the hardest task to attempt. Ego always gets in the way. In training in three different disciplines, Shotokan karatedo, the hard techniques of Soke Morris’s JJI syllabus, and the efficient techniques of Hakkoryu, which shares the same root art, Daito-ryu, with Aikido and Hapkido, I had some difficulties emptying my mind. I would want to throw uke in karate class, kick uke in aikijujutsu class and finesse uke in JJI class; I was very mixed up and carrying a lot of baggage. After a time, and with lots of training, I sorted myself out, but it took some concentrated effort I can tell you.
One of the reasons I wanted to re-write my first book, An Introduction to Seishindo; A Modern Method of Self-Defence, I had refused to listen to my trusted friends who edited and printed the book. They were printers and had a lot of experience putting books together, but I stubbornly rejected their input and suggestions. I had not approached the subject of writing with the mindset of soshin and I missed learning critical elements of sentence structure and layout.
If you are not excited by the prospect of learning new things, experiencing life outside your comfort zone, putting forth an effort in order to acquire new knowledge, then you are closing yourself off from the world around you.
At some point the knowledge you have accumulated and guarded will become stagnant and redundant and you will not have cultivated the skills to learn new things.
Remember the concept of movement. If life, like a river, is in constant motion you will need to be equipped to adapt to the changing environment.
Cultivate the habit, the second nature of learning new things or at least being open to the learning as a process.
Of course you do not want to throw out that which you have already learned but rather add to the cache of accumulated knowledge, adjust what you have learned for accuracy.
Approach the acquisition of new knowledge with the wonderment of a new born. Soshin.
Learning never stops until you are dead. The more I learn the more I realize how little I know and how much I have yet to learn.
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