The Elimination of Suffering

Budo is a philosophy for living life. It is the practice of purposely facing life's suffering in order to overcome it. Suffering permeates life, and suffering for many people is very difficult to overcome. Just look at the growing rates of alcoholism, drug addiction and abuse, eating disorders, and any other unhealthy compulsion created by the stresses and emptiness of modern existence. The purpose of budo is to find meaning in one's suffering. This meaning gives the suffering purpose. With purpose, suffering becomes tolerable, even joyous, when it is overcome.

Through rigorous martial training, ones faces fear, weakness, pain, and numerous other forms of weakness and suffering in one's self. One learns to accept, and in many ways seek out, this suffering. Without it, progress does not occur. The greater the suffering one can endure and overcome, the greater the progress towards the elimination of suffering. Enduring and overcoming suffering through martial practice builds not just practical martial skills but also a quiet personal confidence. With the confidence that comes through the cultivation of martial skill, life's more mundane sufferings (ie. traffic laden commutes, long lines at the grocery store, a car that will not start, etc.) become less of a physical and spiritual burden and more of a reason to laugh at one's self and at others' rather absurd over-reaction to such trivialities.

With diligent and consistent practice, this confidence manifests itself in what martial artists from the Japanese tradition call "mushin", or "empty mind". This is the ability to keep a calm, clear mind when the body is under duress. Through mushin, suffering becomes inconsequential. There is no ego, there is no fear, to cause suffering and the martial artist is able to act without hesitation to whatever attack he may be faced with without thought as to his possible injury or death, thoughts that, if followed and/or believed, will result in suffering. A goal of the martial artist is to be able to enter mushin at will and, thus, eliminate the causes of suffering at will. This can only be attained with years of diligent and hard training, if it is ever attained.

More concretely, I practice aikido, and other martial arts, to be a better all around warfighter both technically, tactically, and morally and to cultivate my own sense of budo physically and spiritually. I believe that hard, realistic, and diligent training is necessary for this purpose. Hard, realistic training allows one to face suffering in a controlled setting and develop and test strategies for overcoming it. Continued training forges successful elements of these strategies into habits. Cultivating these successful habits helps one grow as a martial artist and as a human being and ultimately helps give suffering meaning. Once suffering has meaning, it ceases to be suffering. It inhabits its meaning, and, thus, suffering is eliminated.