I often use budo as a metaphor for real life but in this case, in the case of emotional conflict, the techniques of physical conflict are direct parallels. More than that, budo teaches the techniques of emotional warfare along side the physical.
Let’s take the most obvious, the one I thought of first. When fighting it’s important not to get angry, to prevent that adrenalin dump that takes away fine motor control. An angry fighter is a crude fighter and brute force is exactly the opposite of what budo is all about. The movie ideal of the big guy who finally fights back after the bad guys kill his dog, who gets angry enough to lose it and tear them limb from limb, is not what we’re looking for while practicing in class. It’s a movie, it seldom works if we should ever use our budo on the street. Stressed = stupid.
You can test this, next time you’re late for work and some jerk has just done something really stupid, like maybe turn left in front of you causing you to be even more late for work, check out how you’re driving. I know that when I’m angry I really ought not be in a car, my driving falls apart, I want to hit someone, rather than avoid the other idiots. My recent grading test in jodo is just the same, I gave the wrong kiai at one point and this disrupted my “mushin” to the point where I stumbled on the next movement. Now I was really angry with myself so to get back into the groove after the change to another partner, I attacked hard and forced him to give me a massive strike in the solar plexus. After two or three of these the budo training kicked in and I got icy once more. It turned the monkey-brain off.
Belly breathing, mushin, leaving mistakes behind, being kicked and punched without losing it. All this is preparation to resist, not embrace, the adrenalin dump. Little man really doesn’t beat big man if you’re going power to power with equal (little or no) training. Big guy shoves harder, clubs harder. But take that untrained big guy and put him up against a trained, calm little man and the equation shifts. If the little man can get the big man to lose it, through taunts, maybe a slap to the face, he’s got a better chance to win the fight.
One of the dumbest self defence suggestions I’ve ever read was the one about “when you are attacked you will have a surge of adrenalin and suddenly have three times the strength and so these fighting techniques you have been reading about will work for you”. Quite aside from the idea that you ought to be fighting in a self defence situation, waiting for a chemical boost that may or may not come is dubious tactics. Run Forest, Run.
Adrenalin to the rescue is right up there with the author who suggested it is a good idea to grab the knife of an attacker by the blade. “Go ahead” the author said “pick up a kitchen knife by the blade and squeeze, see it doesn’t cut”. Sure, now pull the blade out of your hand by the handle with your other hand.
I’m not saying grabbing the blade and breaking it is impossible, just a really dumb, adrenalin inspired, idea.
In budo we physically disrupt people’s balance but we also learn ways to disrupt their mental balance, through changing rhythms, “hitting at the corners” as Musashi puts it, misdirection through fakes, and many others. We also learn how to defend against these same attacks by remaining calm, avoiding sharp focus of the eyes, and staying balanced physically (which keeps our mental balance as well). You can think of others.
Poke ’em in the pride with comments about their tiny hands, outrage their honour, soup up their stress and make them angry, then start the fight.
That fight may not even be physical, if you can get the other guy to do something really stupid, really publically, it can win you the fight without fighting. Witness the over-reaction of western democracy to “terrorism”, that has always been a great way for the powerless to disrupt, unbalance and provoke the powerful. In 1914 a single gunshot from a Serbian Nationalist (terrorist) caused a world war that hasn’t really ended yet. That it didn’t get the anarchist his independent country then, doesn’t negate the effect a small action has on prideful nations itching for glorious war to advance the political ambitions of the ruling classes. Terrorism rarely achieves independance or freedom but it can act to balance the world in the other direction, it can make independent and free cultures more restrictive, intolerant, and less free.
Pride induced, adrenalin-fuelled over-reactions. Easiest to provoke in cultures that value emotion over reason.
Want to beat a big man? Hit ‘im in the hubris.
Want to resist terrorism? Keep calm and carry on, after all, a slap to the face by a little man isn’t harmful physically and “terrorism” is just a convenient definition. Check out how many of the shootings in the USA are defined as terrorism. Only those from the current scapegoat culture?
Two choices, be outraged or think who this definition benefits.
Just a thought.
July Niten and Kage seminars: http://seidokai.ca/kageryu-seminar.html
Seito Bugei Juku 