Zyaga Writing about whatever the hell I want, cuz it's the Interwebz!

Thursday Reflections: Become acquainted with the arts

Often, people become accustomed to their own art and if they were to try adapting to another style or art, they would have quite a hard time in doing so. I happen to also be in the group, that has this problem. There is a tendency to read Miyamoto’s third rule, “Become acquainted with the arts”, and take it as “we should become acquainted with our art”. There is a vast difference between becoming acquainted with our art and the arts. Miyamoto was not only speaking of Martial Arts, it was believed that he was also referring to the fine arts and the works of various artisans.

There will always be more to learn from every art no matter how long you practice it. Sure, you may become a so called master in your particular art, but what does that really mean? Well, if you believe you’re a master of your art, first off you probably have quite an ego drive, but more importantly you should realize that you’re only a master of your art. Being great at one art has very little to say about how good you are at another. In fact, you may be able to beat others that use another art, but does that mean you can do what they do? Not at all. I may know how to fight, but I won’t ever tell you I can break dance, or more realistically, practice Capoeira.

I wouldn’t dare attempt to perform the moves found in Capoeira, because I’d simply make a fool of myself. To be honest, I’m a very “grounded” person. That’s not to say I can’t perform jump kicks and the such, but I just prefer to keep my feet on the ground where they belong( ). So, lets say you have the ability to defeat someone who practices Capoeira, does that then invalidate the usefulness of Capoeira? I don’t believe so. I believe each style has it’s purposes. Do you have any clue at how coordinated you have to be to be able to perform some of the moves they do? Eventually you develop a stability and control over your body that can easily be seen.

I’m not saying you should suddenly drop your art and go study Capoeira because you haven’t ever studied it before, but I’m also not going to tell you it’s a bad idea, because it’s not. Just realize that no matter how much you practice your art, if you simply fight with only your art, you’re going to only be a master of that art and not a master of Martial Arts in general. It’s been suggested that you should study your enemy, if only to learn how he moves, but I also suggest taking what is worthy of being used from his arsenal and putting it into yours. Just imagine, what if you took all the best features out of every art and put them into one, what would you have? Just something to think about.

My instructor recently said to me, “Who else have you been training with? You’re using a totally different style compared to last time and I know you didn’t learn it from me, nor is it a form of Aikido.” My reply was quite simple and to the point, “What does it matter what style I am using?” Of course, his answer wasn’t what I expected, “Ah, I see. So you finally figured that out?”, followed by a smirk. This conversation was during a sparring session, considering we often talk, or rather discuss, things while we’re sparring. The more I study and practice, the more I realize none of it matters, your style or art, because the more loyal you are to one particular thing the more you lose from the others.

If you apply the rule, that we just used for Martial Arts, to everything else such as other arts or crafts, it can really expand the scope of your view on everything. Whether I get a chance to practice every art(in every sense), I still love learning about them. The mind is a powerful thing and cultivating it is a huge part of walking the path of Martial Arts and Zen(We’ll talk about Zen another time). In fact, Capoeira kind of kills two birds with one stone. Capoeira is an art that will also increase one’s overall control of their body.