The Middle Path

While philosophy, ethics, and camaraderie are values that rightfully belong to any martial arts curriculum, practitioners should not forget that the martial arts are first and foremost martial in nature. Budo (the way) comes from bujutsu (the art itself). They are not, nor ever should be regarded as separate. This is important to understand, because leaning too far in either direction is fraught with problems. A budoka who can recite passages from The Art of War, but can't really defend her/himself is just as inept as the black belt badass who has visions of becoming a legbreaker for the local shylock. It is possible to master waza (techniques) sans the all-important core values. But having a rich knowledge of martial philosophy without the actual skills to back it up is ludicrous. The complete warrior needs both ability and insight.

The dichotomy of ability and insight in the martial arts can be summed up in Musashi's tenet, "The way is in the training". We train, not only to improve, but also to maintain already acquired skills. For the practitioner, training is not only a means to an end (jutsu), but also an end unto itself - training is the prelude to self-discovery and self-knowledge (do). Draeger wrote, "...training for a skill can lead to inner self-mastery as well as outward mastery of a technical skill."