A Glimpse of Nothingness

 

 

Let me take a different tack, I want to talk about students (of all ranks) and their leaving training.

Now I didn’t teach commercially, making my living training students. And although I taught for free my standard were not less than the ones I was trained under. The same examination standard was used for every student regardless of age.

 

But students  come and go, and always for their own reasons. Whether youth reasons or adult reasons even after being a black belt for 20 years, they find their own reasons to leave. You know how many students all of us go through for each black belt we produce. I can recall individuals who left the day before their black belt exam, I can recall individuals who left the day of their black belt exam and I can recall individuals who left the day after their black belt exam.

 

As for youth the standard I followed meant they would train between 7 to 9 years before that black belt examination. Then they graduated school and 100% of them moved on as that is what young adults do. Only 2 of them later returned to training as adult black belts, and that was right for them.

 

My adult program was much smaller, averaging 6 – 10 students. And they averaged over 17 years training if they chose to become black belts, but even they they had reasons to move on.

 

Not everyone there were exceptions and they run my program this day.

 

However the thing to understand your actions touched every one of their lives no matter how long they trained.

 

No one really talks about this, but to mention how many beginners you go through to find a black belt. And no one really talks about what occurs then.

 

But for each one of them you made an impact that will stay with them.

 

I just reread a book that brings just that point up. The book is ‘The Empty Mirrow’ by Janweillem van de Wetering. He was a citizen of the Netherlands, and undertook a trip to Kyoto in the 1960’s to join a Zen Temple and study Zen. He did not speak Japanese and it goes into great detail what a painful  experience that was sitting hours a day meditating. That and all the assorted tasks such as gardening, cleaning, assistint the Temple Cook, etc.

 

It was a very interesting journey covering several years. He did not reach satori for his beginning koan, and in the end he suddenly chose to leave. The Master of the temple made the specific point that what he gained and carried  with him would continue for his life.

 

No one talks about what the training they received (a day, a month, a year or many years) contributed to their lives. In fact the longer I trained youth I  became aware the greatest contribution to them was not that they stayed to black belt, rather that they learn they could learn, each time they acquired a new skill. That would stick with them and they knew with work they could learn anything.

 

It was no different for the adults, they relearned  they could learn, and would not forge that. If they had to make other choices than continue training, they would always remember they could learn.

 

Now Janwelling van de Wetering went on to become a very good mystery writer, I always found his books enjoyable. In my opion he could be best described as a baroque mystery writer, because of the depth of his books, and often he was able intertwine Japanese themes. His most famous books were about a Dutch Police Detective.

 

Then at a later date, as described in his book ‘The Empty Mirror’ he was able to continue his Zen stories in America and also make progress in his Zen studies.

 

The truth is there is a whole lot more than karate going on in a dojo.