Dojo life is different. For some it is ideal.
Dojo life is dignified, collaborative, strong and devoted to freedom. Different from a world of coercion, deception, isolation and dependence.
In some places, where our friends have trained for many years, dojo life is over. Classes banished to cyberia. No more daily renewal through training with groups of friends. No way to challenge our bodies and minds with contact, conditioning, the urgency of sharp attention under pressure.
Their shared quest for self-mastery, polishing and refining our lives in the company of strong, committed people, has been cancelled.
We know that some determined people, who have lost the opportunity to do group training, persist and take their personal training deeper. Instruction is available. Examples are available. There are opportunities to train well, every day. It is still possible for them, on their own, to keep their art, their methods and their aspirations alive: practicing in seclusion, making right effort in the midst of the strange, changing world.
Someday visitors may come to these old empty rooms and see the wood floor, the austere decor, the tall windows, the pre-tech training equipment, the high ceiling, and say “I wonder what went on in here?” Maybe those rooms will be filled with living, breathing training spirit again, and there will be no need to ask.
In some parts of the world, dojo training continues. We appreciate training together.
We hope our friends around the world will be able to return to their dojos soon. But for now it is encouraging to hear that the inner fire of practice continues to burn bright, transforming and nourishing every practitioner who has the determination to persist.
For them every day is still a training day.
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Post Copyright © 2021 Jeffrey Brooks, author of
The Good Fight – The Virtues and Values of the Martial Arts – available on Amazon.
Photo by Julia Volk, via Pexels
thank you every day . I hope all is well with you and looking forward to that day again .
I can’t think of a day, over the 25 plus years I’ve trained, next to and in Sensei Brooks Dojo where something I experienced or learned in training has not influenced me.
Arigato.