Thousands of years now, maybe longer, the human kind is in search to find answers to questions, which rarely nobody knows where they come from.
We call it consciousness, the ability to be aware of ourself.

Through history people (mostly men, why is that so?) tried to find ways to answer these questions.
The result is known widely. Many different opinions, many different directions and therefore many fights between schools, which one has the „better“ knowledge.

The same of course is in Budo, or Bujutsu, and Zen. When schools quarrel about facing the wall during sitting or not, then for me that means enough.
It does not matter. Why? This is the topic of this article.

One very asset of the success of the european mind is its purposefulness,
We want, we think, we plan, we do, we succeed. Veni, vidi, vici is maybe the most famous outcome of that way of thinking.

Psychology proofed that only a few minds have the ability to go beyond. Crossing over, to a new field of expertice, to a new way of thinking.
This rare people do that because of what reason? (Not to mention that in a perfect world it is not a few it is anybody)

The key to go beyond is very simple to find, but yet not given the value it should have.
Creativity.
Many people missunderstand creativity as an ability to make something, which nobody had thought about before.
Well to be honest, thats simply wrong.

Creativity is the internal need to find a new way for answering annoying questions, which are inside of you.

You see thats the point.
You find something, in my case Bujutsu, and out of the blue you start it. You have no idea what for, you just do.
Suddenly, two decades later, you find yourself still doing it. Maybe, like me, you found a way to make it your Job.
Perfect you might say.
Well, it is, I can admit but it is not always as satisfying as  believed.
The reasons why doing something on daily bases for more then twenty years are manifold.
But this I can tell you.
The fun, in its basic essence, is gone after less then five years.
Fun is very sketchy.
Instead of fun, interest grows. To a degree where questions come to your head you have never imagined before.
„Hey I just was in for the fun, where the hell are you coming from? Leave me alone I do not want to think to much.“

Or do you really think you are alone with this thinking? 😉
And another very  delicate feature steps in, boredom.
You did this and that for so many times, booooring.

Inside yourself there is your awareness. This is what is bored.
But there is another part, attention.
THE  very quality, which brought you here in the first place.

And these two are struggling  really hard.
You are just an audience.

After 20 years I can tell you that sometimes boredom wins and sometimes attention. Ying – Yang
But when you stay on your way you will find out that as deeper you are in the matter as more strange the questions become.
You realize that normal answers do not fit anymore.
And then philosophy starts.

The difference to Europe is that ZEN comes at the end, not at the beginning.

How do you realize that you have master in front of you? (Stay with me thats important now, do I still have your attention?)
It is not  that he or she can do mysterious moves, or even can fly.
No it is the dept of explanation.
ONLY that,
If you see a master simply ask.
How you are answered makes the difference.
Apparently unimportance becomes the center of explanation.
The master can exlain in a way that your attention is caught about a topic you never thought about because of its obviousness.
AND, thats important, he or she also can translate that explanation in actual doing.

When I first met my master, Toyoshima sensei, I already had quite a long time of trainng.
Instead of doing fancy techniques we did steps. Only steps.

And he explained a simple step in profoundness, which made me feel and think like never before.
A simple step.
One evening at his house, where I always stay during my visits, he was hungry.
Well, lets say it was night already.
What to eat?
„It is Gyoza-time he said and we started to cook“ in the middle of the night, not to mention the amount of Sake inhaled.
I never made Gyoza before so I awaited instructions.
Well the recepy, to be honest, is very easy to remember, even for me.
But there comes the point where the consistency of the meat inside this Gyoza must reach a specific level.
And the words he used to explain how long you have to work on the meat proofed it again.
He was always in attention.

„You remember when you are outside it is really cold and your nose is cold and closed.
‚Then you enter a warm room and you get a tissue.
It is not the moment the tissue comes to your nose, it is the moment your hand touches the tissue. This is how the meat has to be for perfect Gyoza.“

So, what you gonna do after such an explanation immediatly?
Right, you try to recall.
Inside your memory somewhere must be that situation, therefore that feeling.
And here we are.
Ladies and gentlemen the eagle has landed!!!
A real master explains things to you so that you tap into your feelings and not into your mind.

After some time your awareness shifts from mind to feeling at all.
You world has changed.
This shift releases a lot of painfull questions in your mind.
But gives space to new annoying, too.

At that moment the asian philosophy kicks in. It is a philosophy of need.
It is a philosophy, which comes at last.
Not at the beginning.

Who understands that does not waste time in searching for answers, which do not matter.
Who understands that realizes that a long path of work already has to lie behind you before you start that new area.

And he also realizes that someone telling otherwise…well…. you will see yourself.