Hello Everybody,

It is a warm and sunny winter day in Tokyo, and viewing the calm pond from my window makes me think about the opposite nature of things. Nature, which could display deep calmness, can also produce most destructive dissasters. So are people and their ways. They can be extreme. Some are optimistic, others pessimistic, some aggresive, others passive, some cheerful, yet others gloomy. One person may venture into danger, while another remains with the safest and most familiar. This is true for everything, our thinking, speech, action, view, living, state-of-mind, and contemplation. But what is the best way for us as humans and followers of the martial way?

The answer is given to us in various teachings. The common for these teachings is that they indicate a point of balance, both spatial and temporal. There is the right timing for everything and anything in nature. This timing must coincide with a balanced way of living. Natural milk has a balanced mixture of components, while ghea (clarified butter) is high on fat that can damage the body, and lowfat milk found in grocery stores lacks the balance of natural milk and does not provide as good a nurishment. One should be careful not to fall to extremes.

We need to cultivate correct thinking, correct speech, correct action, correct view, correct living, correct state-of-mind, and correct contemplation. In Buddhism this is called hasshodo, or the "Eight Fold Path." For us the meaning is somewhat different, placing emphasis on finding the middle way of each of the eight components of the path. One should keep onself in constant check for following this as it bears direct result on our martial skills.

Finally, I would like to talk about the martial way that combines the Martial Gate and the Reigious (World View) Gate in a single path. The Martial Gate is the physical path of technical skills, while the Religious Gate provides us with spiritual, phylosophical, and mental path. Both complemet each other as omote and ura, in and yo, to create a single Way. Entering these paths must be done carefully, and in a gradual mannar--in a balanced approach. As martial practitioners, our omote, or in, is the Martial Way. But because these gates are complementary, the Religious Gate is already embedded in the Martial Gate, even if one can not realize it. Only when such realization becomes clear, when its existance is absorbed by the heart, should the Religious Gate be entered. Otherwise, confusion will take over, resulting in false conception of the single path. Through cultivating the balanced path of the middle way we can advance safely in the Martial and Religious Gates, until they merge.