Old roots, new leaves.

The infantile feeling of moving into a new element is very exciting. Today’s training was my first introduction to the “Water Stance”. It is a new movement, a new attitude and a new feeling as opposed to Earth but it is also closely related to something which we are familiar with in Hoshindo; our Sanshin no Kata. Since Sanshin is the base of all our taijutsu we practice it as a part of our initial routine every training day. At first it may seem strange that we have been drilling Sanshin every day for about a year and it is only now that we are learning a movement that is essential to every part of the kata. The way I see it is; all the basic movements of Sanshin have been ingrained in me but after today, one simple lesson has improved my Sanshin tenfold.

What I understand from this is the value of cherishing the tools you have. We come across something new and what we feel to be “better” and too often we drop everything we have acquired up to that point. We have all attained so many priceless lessons throughout the course of our lives that we do not even acknowledge. The key as you progress is to build upon and work with the abilities you already have. Of course we must drop bad habits, smooth out our own edges from time to time, but that in the end is also building upon and working with what you have. Progressive growth involves being able to distinguish the useful from the useless and recognizing your weaknesses. It is wonderful when someone decides to turn a new leaf but it is tragic when they lose everything they’ve gained when doing so. Sensei gifted us with the knowledge of Sanshin yes, sure it wasn’t perfect but we have Sanshin. Now that we have this raw clay and moulded it into an abstract shape with our hands, Sensei has handed us a chisel. I am very excited to see what tool we will be given next once we finishing chiselling our work.

Life in every breath – RSR

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