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Det finns många teorier om hur ninjutsu uppstått.   Varje japansk historiker har sina egna bevis och teorier, och det är svårt att peka ut en exakt tid, plats eller person som alla skulle acceptera som födelsen för ninjutsun.  >>> läs mer <<<     A message from Hatsumi Sensei (inte nytt, men mycket tänkvärt)

Sedan Jan 2002

A Message from Hatsumi Sensei
by Mark O'Brien
 

This year Hatsumi Sensei asked me to talk to people as I travel around and share some of what he has been saying in Japan. So, I am taking some time out to do that. One item Sensei asked me to talk about was his visit to the London Tai Kai. When he returned to Japan, he had quite a few things on his mind.

One thing that happened to him at the London Tai Kai is that there is a guy, one of the old timers in the SAS, the British Special Forces. The guy is about eighty or so years old and his name is Joe [Vaughn], and he has been through hell and back. He has been on all kinds of combat missions and has quite a bit of combat experience. Mr. Vaughn is not doing very well health-wise; he is on some kind of breathing apparatus, (I think he has only one working lung). He had many things to say in respect to Sensei.

When Sensei went up to shake Mr. Vaughn's hand, to say hello and acknowledge his presence there, Vaughn jokingly put Sensei into an Omote Gyaku as Sensei reached his hand out. Sensei said that at that point in time, the feeling that Sensei got from this was exactly what he remembers of the feeling he got from when he first was learning from Takamatsu Sensei. Hatsumi Sensei said he was very glad to have that type of reminiscence, to feel the kind of feeling that Takamatsu Sensei used to give him when they were training together and Takamatsu was teaching him things.

He added that around the world there are lots of people who put their lives on the line at various times on their job; the military, the police force, these are people who understand the type of feeling that he is trying to teach through his martial art. Sensei mentioned that there are people in other fields that have this same kind of feeling - like artists. They do not apply it in the same way, it's not used in a combat situation in what they do, if they are a dancer or whatever, but it comes through in what they do. He spoke about when he teaches; he is not teaching us how to kill, but to live. By learning to kill you understand how to live, how to avoid the pitfalls of being killed, how to escape being killed and learn how to live and survive.

Hatsumi Sensei spoke about how you need that feeling. During much of his teaching time, he says the form is not so important; the feeling is more important. For most of us training with him, we are often wondering what that feeling is exactly. He says the people who have put their lives on the line, been in combat situations, know very well, and understand this feeling. They can see what it is that Sensei is actually trying to teach when he teaches.

Hatsumi Sensei mentioned that when he travels outside of Japan for a Tai Kai or visit somewhere, he is very much aware that the world is still a dangerous place. He knows that people who live and stay in Japan do not see the violence and unrest that exists in the rest of the world. This is because Japan is basically a peaceful nation and has an outwardly polite society. There is very little disharmony, because that is just not the way things are done.

However, around the world there is definitely an amount of unrest. Even in places that seem stable on the outside, there is always the potential for possible chaos and instability. Sensei spoke about the fact that in our art, awareness is a big part of what we do and what we are trying to cultivate. This awareness lets you see beyond the surface, so you are aware of the potential for possible problems before they are visible.

This concept is called Banpen Fugyo (a simple translation is "a thousand changes, no surprise"). Although the world is constantly changing around you, you should have awareness to the point that nothing is surprising; you are not surprised when something happens to you. You have an awareness that lets you see things as they develop, as a progression of where things are now, to where they potentially could be.

The idea of potentiality is a big part of the "zero feeling" concept that Sensei discusses. Zero is an area of potential. When you are at that position [zero] you can go to a lot of other places. Along with Banpen Fugyo, the other applicable concept is Fudoshin, the idea of the immovable heart. The idea that even though things are disruptive and chaotic around you, you always have a steadfastness of purpose. Your heart is able to follow through and accomplish your goals whatever they might be. It is directness in your purpose, not being swayed by what is going on around you. You may have to swerve a bit to avoid things, but you are heading towards your goal whatever that may be.

Hatsumi Sensei has spoken about the concept of hara. He related the hara to the old days idea that the samurai arts were arts of the hara. The hara is the stomach or seat of power in your lower abdomen. Sensei spoke about how it is with your stomach that you digest food, the food enters through your mouth, it goes to your stomach, and the stomach absorbs the nutrients. These nutrients are then utilized for the growth of your body. He explained how this is one form of nourishment, and how we should use our hara to nourish ourselves in another way.

Sensei talked about how people relate to the world by either intellectualizing (thinking about what they hear) or emotionalizing (using their hearts), reacting in an emotional state, and that those two combinations are not necessarily bad. He said that it's good that people analyze some things, but for a martial artist we have to go one step further. The third step (another form of the Sanshin) is to use the hara. How exactly, he didn't really explain in detail.

What you are supposed to do is take your life experiences and the things that happen around you (i.e. the things you hear, etc.) and you have to take them deeper inside your hara as a means to judge things, to see beyond their surface. This all relates back to awareness.

Sensei gave an example like the Internet. You can see and hear things through the Internet and just intellectualize or emotionalize them and be taken in. But for us, the idea is we take all of our experiences, put them down in our hara, and take nourishment from them. We take our experiences and learn from them, in some way we look at them through our hara.

As I said, Sensei didn't really explain this in detail, but he did make references to the fact that animals live instinctively, and that the hara is the instinctive side of human beings, and gut feelings are related to the hara. So, basically you are supposed to take all of your life experiences, put them in your hara, utilize them, and grow from them. Get nourishment from them so they help you to be a more complete human being.

Hatsumi Sensei spoke about the fact that if we all just trained, there wouldn't be any questions. He feels that most people who ask a lot of questions and get caught up in dojo politics, ask which way is the right way, and similar questions; these are the people, who when they are training, they are not putting their experiences in the hara. They are not using the hara to grow. He added that you should take your sad experiences, happy experiences, your anger and sorrow, all the different emotions and feelings that you experience, and put them into your hara and use them to grow.

Through the training, you are going to have sweat and tears. If everybody just trained, we would all have that common ground. Through our common experiences, we would be able to see eye to eye, rather than continue some of the arguments that people get involved in, such as politics and other unimportant items.

The purpose of the Bujinkan should be to act as a force for justice in the world. People that are good, those who are universally just (whether it be a warrior, a judge, a person in law enforcement, or someone who is a good person), there light shows through. People in the Bujinkan should be like lights in the darkness. There is enough chaos and disruption in the world. We, as martial artists, do not need to be adding to that, but instead should be adding to the cause of harmony and the cause of justice. People in the Bujinkan should be working towards helping promote justice and peace in the world. There are enough things promoting chaos that we need to be a force that promotes harmony and peace.