Some years ago I heard someone at church refer to apologetics without evangelism as being like spending all your life polishing and maintaining a fire engine but never using it to put out fires.
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Similarly, we like to claim that we train martial arts so that we never have to use them. Now, I understand what the folks that use that cliche are talking about - there is a tendency for martial arts practice to diminish our desire to get into physical fights and hurt other people. We train so that we never have to use satsujinken - the killing blade.
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But what about the other side of the coin - katsujinken - the life-giving blade? What about the constructive, beneficial skills that budo builds within its practitioners?
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Isn't it kind of pointless to practice martial arts all our lives so that we never have to use them (to help other people and to build a better world?)
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Let's stay in the dojo and hone our swords - but then let's get out of the dojo and be a beneficial, constructive force in our communities.
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God knows, the world needs katsujinken right now.
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Patrick Parker
www.mokurendojo.com
