Our talents are not permanent. We may be born with great potential: to be strong, smart, resilient, determined and generous. But we don’t get to have those qualities unless we cultivate them. We don’t get to keep them if we neglect them.
If someone gets a car or a house but doesn’t take care of them those things will run down and fall apart. Then they won’t have them anymore. The car becomes a pile of metal. The house decays. It has happened millions of times. It is natural. Cities, countries and people all work the same way.
If you take care of your good qualities, cultivate them, place yourself under conditions in which those good qualities are encouraged, are required, then you will become stronger, smarter, more resilient. You and your talents will blossom.
If you place yourself under conditions where good qualities don’t matter, they will wither and dissipate. You will feel weak and helpless. You will wonder why the world is harsh, why people hurt you.
Sometimes people think the qualities they have are theirs for life.
For example, some may think the abilities they cultivated in their first years of dojo training will stick. If they get complacent or distracted and don’t train, those good qualities will vanish. Then, at the decisive moment, they will not be able to do what they need to do. They will not be who they once were.
It is possible for them to recover the good qualities they had. To see that those qualities are dependent on conditions. It is possible for them to get back into training, rebuild their skills, maintain them, and avoid making the same mistake again.
Like water which takes the shape of a vessel, we are shaped by the conditions in which we live.
Unlike water, we can choose our conditions. We can even create them.
A good dojo provides good conditions. In a good dojo we cultivate our talents, our body and mind, in the company of like-minded people. We get what we need to fulfill our potential.
Without a wholesome, demanding training, including work, school, family and more, we easily get lost. We wander, seeking happiness from sources which cannot provide it.
The way we live is who we are.
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Post copyright © 2024 Jeffrey Brooks
Image: Nathan Dunlao via Unsplash
“One of the best books I’ve read in years, inviting and compelling. Jeff Brooks moves effortlessly from martial arts to Buddhism to consciousness studies, self-transformation, and related fields in this wide-ranging and Illuminating study that has much to offer both novice explorers and veteran practitioners. A splendid achievement.”
— Philip Zaleski, Editor, The Best Spiritual Writing series
True Karate Dō is available on Amazon in paperback, hardcover and Kindle Edition