Posts Tagged ‘Martial Arts’
How To Be Ninja
Author: shinobi-ninja
When I tell people that I teach ninjutsu people want to know “how to be ninja”.
That is a question that I get asked a lot. It often comes as a joke, just before a loud, “Hyyya!” with a really bad attempt at a karate chop. They think there are secret ninja words that can make them invisible or cause their opponents to run in fear for their lives. This is not how to become a ninja.
I can’t really blame them for their ignorance. Its like most things in our corporate/media formed world. People think that when you learn how to be ninja you wear black clothes and sneak around “taking people out.” If they really wanted to know how to be a ninja all they have to do is find a good ninjutsu school that has a direct lineage to Massaki Hatsumi and enroll.
To learn how to be a ninja really means to follow a discipline that dates back 900 years. To learn how to become a ninja means committing to discovering the powerful parts of yourself that society has buried with all the training on how to be mediocre. When you learn how to be a ninja you understand that the powers that be in the world have a strong interest in making the population believe in the limitations that keep them dependant on the powers that be for the basics, and for life itself!
So part of learning how to become a ninja is understanding that you live in a community, a village. As a member of that village you have an obligation to add to, and not subtract from, that village. In todays society we have become disconnected from each other, We have learned to faction ourselves off. So now we have a society that has no real sense of mutual responsibility.
My friends and I were watching video of the horiffic earthquake, tsunami and nuclear disaster in Japan. In some of those videos it showed food stores. There were long lines of people waiting for rice, water and just the basics to live. They stood patiently for their turn. They understood that they were all in it together.
I just imagine what that would be like if it happened here in the states. I spent the winter in Michigan. There was a forecast for 8 to 10 inches of snow overnight. On my way home I stopped to pick up a box of cereal. The shelves were bare of bread, milk, eggs and many other supplies.
I asked the cashier why they were so low. She looked very worn out. She said that ater 5 o’clock the place was swamped with people frantically trying to get food, just in case they couldn’t get out for a day or two. She also told me that people were shoving and complaining about everything. They were rude. They were mean. They had lost their compassion and apparently, their minds.
The Japanese people understand a very basic concept. They understand that strong individuals make strong communities. The ninja were a poor and persecuted subset of that culture. They not only understood the concept of strong indiviuals equal a strong village, they leveraged it to become the most feared and respected warriors in Japan. And they have become legends throughout the world.
Become a ninja
Not everyone will want to learn to how to be a ninja. They won’t see the value of learning the techniques and principles for being truly successful and self-actualized. To become a ninja you need to learn them, how to do them, how to master them and how to teach them. It is our obligation to further the lineage. We need to spread the training and opportunity to learn how to become a ninja, to learn and master the ninja words and how to be a ninja.
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