Polishing the Stone with humility

[Sensei Derek Bennati]

This is an excerpt taken from the book Kodo Ancient ways:

 

     Dont limit your training to uilding up your arms and legs, but carry it into your head and heart as well.

     In my dojo, the students clean the practice area before and after practice, every day. One visitor exclaimed, "It looks like they do more cleaning than practicing!" In the feudal days in Japan, a warrior in training would pass by a dojo, if the entranceway was dirty or unkept. It the enterance was sloppy, most likely the discipline inside the dojo was sloppy too. A monk in training would never enter a temple if he though the discipline was not of the highest standard.

     On one trip to Japan, I went to visit several master sword polishers. At one place, the students were sloppily dressed and drinking soda while working. At another place, the students were disciplined and orderly. The workplace was immaculate, with not a speck of dust anywhere. It was easy to see the difference in the work they produced. ALthought to the general eye it doesn't seem to be different, the the trained eye, it is very evident.

     I had a student who refused to clean up after practice. He said " Cleaning jeopardizes my personal integrity." What a wonderful excuse!" I said. "But you still have to clean."

     Cleaning is a form of discipline, and it is not separate from training. It is like the warrior who polishes his sword every day weather he is going into battle or not. It is like the craftsman who keeps his tools in perfect order.

     We wash our own faces and brush our own teeth. Even the emperor or King of a Nation must brush his or her own teeth. It is only natural then , that we clean the area we practice on. In the case of martial arts, however, it cannot be just physically clean, it must be spiritually clean as well. This means that cleaning involves the correct mental attitude; it involves an attitude of humility and respect.

     If we look at the chores in the dojo at work, perhaps we feel a reluctance. The additional chores and cleaning up of the dojo are part of the training and should be looked at in that way. It was nothing to do with personal  integrity. It is the way to become completely and perfectly self-sufficient. It is the way to become responsible, and it is the way to learn to work with others. Indeed, when we are rescued from our personal integrity is when our true self is revealed.

     One day while  the students were cleaning the dojo, a neighbor came in and asked "Why are you cleaning this school? Are you getting money?" We forget we live in a commercial society now where everything is calculated in money. It is not the warrior society in which martial arts developed. There, the human spirit came first.