How the Ninja Rids Himself of Desire

Stephen K. Hayes is a recognized American Ninja Master. He trained under Masaaki Hatsumi, the Master of the Bujinkan Organization, an international martial arts organization teaching nine styles of ninjutsu. While there is some disagreement about the origins of the Bujinkan and the legitimacy of it's historical ties to the ancient ninja, Master Hayes has been teaching his own style of ninjutsu techniques based on the knowledge transmitted to him from Master Hatsumi since 1980.

In his 1981 book, The Ninja and Their Secret Fighting Art, Master Hayes discusses the importance to the ninja of ridding one's self of desire, and how that lesson was conveyed to him by his instructor.

Chapter 7
The Realm of the Spirit
Pg. 134

"The first step to spiritual power is to rid yourself of desire." Hatsumi Sensei's face held an expression of solemn authority. He spoke with conviction.

I was disappointed almost to the point of contempt. Hatsumi Sensei was supposed to be introducing me to the fourth of the nine levels of development, and he had begun with a cliche that I could have gotten from a cheap Hong Kong kung-fu thriller. Rid yourself of desire. How will that help in the real world? How could one develop the power for which the ninja were famous, without desire?

I nodded gamely for the sake of fitting in. "It's a common thing in the States, desire. Everyone wants a big car, a big house with a pool, lots of money," I agreed amicably. After all, the man was my teacher.

There was an odd pause. The master seemed to be looking for words. He tilted his head slightly and continued his explanation. "Well, yes, those are desires. But those desires are superficial and rather easily overcome. What we are talking about are the desires of the personality. Demanding that things be ways they are not."

"Oh, I understand now. It's wanting to be famous, or rich, or powerful," I said.

Hatsumi Sensei smiled wearily. "Well, yes, those are desires, too, but not . . . this is difficult to explain." The master ran a hand over his close-cropped hair. "Let me phrase it this way. You must clear your mind and being of preconceived impressions of the way things are. Many times there is a great difference between what we want to believe and what is real. We can be so caught up in what we want to see, that we are prevented from seeing what is really there. There are the desires that cloud the mind and prevent it from being in touch with the world."

I slowly realized that I had not been allowing the master's words to sink in because of my preconceived notions of what he was saying. I had read his words the way I wanted to, and had missed the meaning entirely.

Hatsumi Sensei went on. "When I say we desire that something be a certain way, I do not necessarily mean that we want it to be that way. We want to think it is that way. If you think of a certain man as your enemy, then anything he says or does will be examined and found to be an insult or a threat. The identical words or actions on the part of a beloved friend would carry far different meanings. We have a saying: "Suspicious eyes see only evil." The unenlightened will see only what the desire to see."

"We human beings choose to see things as we wish. Few people seem to believe this, though. We decide to be jealous, or angry, or depressed, or happy, or bored, and these choices are often based on our biased interpretations of the thoughts of others. It is amazing how much psychological control many people relinquish to others. If we think that someone else disapproves of us, we are worried. If we think that someone else is pleased with us, we are happy. If we think that someone else holds views contrary to our own, we are insulted. If we think that someone else is contemptuous of us, we are angry. With all these others determining how we feel, it is sometimes difficult to find the actual self."

"These are the desires of which I speak, these mental barriers that prevent us from accepting fully all that life has to offer. If a man wasted his time in emotional indulgence, he will be forever preoccupied and will miss much that could be his."

"Wouldn't an emotionless life be incredibly dull?" I asked.

"We aren't talking about getting rid of emotions themselves. We are talking about getting rid of inappropriate and useless emotional responses. These uncontrollable responses are weaknesses, in that they make us manipulatable by others."

The ninja's most subtle, and perhaps most insidious, method of handling adversaries is the manipulation of the enemy's mind. One of the highest developments of shadow warfare, the ninja's pragmatic psychology, is based on fundamental human weaknesses. By recognizing an adversary's needs and fears, the ninja knows just what to give him or deprive him of in order to bring him to submission. The ninja observes subtle body signals, voice qualities, facial features, and personality quirks in the enemy to know how to manipulate him."

Self Knowledge
Pg. 144

"I asked the Master how to drop the desires - just use will power?

Hatsumi Sensei told me that crude suppression of personal needs was the hard way to rid the personality of it's vulnerabilities, and not very effective in the long run. The best procedure is to openly and honestly examine those things we think we want, and those things we think we wish to avoid. Many times, the mind tries to protect the "observer" in us from the truth. We learn to hide our true feelings beneath a cover that we feel is more acceptable to others and to our own sense of ourselves. We may want to become teachers or priests, not really for the good we can do, but because we are seeking a feeling of importance or superiority over others. We may desire nice clothes and luxurious living quarters, not for the comfort they bring, but for the fact that they make us look attractive to others. We may seek corporate or political power, not for the obvious rewards, but to make up for feelings of personal inferiority. The examples are endless.

In knowing himself, the ninja can come to an honest appraisal of his weaknesses and those areas where he is vulnerable. From there he must find ways of strengthening the potential trouble areas. He cannot just close his eyes and pretend they do not exist. He must satisfy the needs through personal understanding and work the weaknesses out of his personality."

In order to grow as a martial artist, the practitioner must be honest with himself about his strengths and weaknesses and focus on the areas where he needs most to work. But he can also grow as a person by applying the same rigorous honesty to his life, examining his needs and desires and intentions and motivations, and focusing on ridding himself of unhealthy practices and focusing on the pursuit of positive goals. In karate, we understand that we must make sacrifices, suffer discomfort, and work ourselves to exhaustion in our pursuit of skill and ability. In life, the path to our goals is often no different.


Drills-
Beginner: Make an honest list of your physical strengths and weaknesses. Are you fast or slow? Heavy or light? Fat or thin? Strong or weak? Big or small? Graceful or clumsy? Flexible or stiff? There is no wrong way to be. There is only who and what you are. Once you understand where you are starting from you can begin to move towards something greater. By working on your weaknesses you will develop strengths that no one else has. The things that make you unique will be the weapons that only you possess. If you are fat, you may be able to crowd your opponent when grappling. If you are stiff you may be harder to throw. If you are heavy you may be able to exhaust your opponent by leaning in and forcing him to support your weight. If you are small you may be harder to corner and control.

Intermediate: Make an honest list of your technical strengths and weaknesses. Are you a better kicker or puncher? Striker or grappler? Stand up fighter or ground fighter? At close range or long range? With weapons or unarmed? Moving in or moving away? With circular or linear techniques? Identify the things you do well and make them the core of your fighting strategy. Identify the things you do poorly and work twice as hard to eliminate the weaknesses in your approach. If you are good with your hands then draw the opponent in to your striking range, but work on your kicks so that you can attack him when he thinks he is safe. If you are good with grappling then close with the opponent and control his positions, but work on your striking so that you can use impact techniques to create opportunities to lock your opponent.

Advanced: Make an honest list of your mental strengths and weaknesses. Are you easily frustrated? Quick to anger? Prone to panic in stressful situations? Are you calm? Do you maintain your emotional balance? Or do your moods swing wildly from one extreme to another? Do you bear grudges or are you quick to forgive and forget personal affront? Are you slow and deliberate? Or do you make snap decisions and act on instinct? More important than correcting any perceived behaviors is recognizing them. When you understand how and why you act when confronted with stress, you can identify how your mental habits and behaviors affect every facet of your life, both inside and outside the training hall. Only then can you begin to make the changes necessary to live the life you desire.

Why Study Karate?

"Do your best as long as you can. You won't be disappointed." 

- Master Ron Chapél

Why does anyone study karate anymore? In this modern age, with modern challenges and modern weapons, what value can there be in training in an ancient form of unarmed combat? What value is there, in a world of guns, in training in the techniques of the warriors of a world of swords and axes? Why would a modern man or woman spend their time practicing and perfecting a skillset that some think was rendered obsolete hundreds of years ago?

The answer is not simple, and it is not singular. For some, karate is a tool for self protection, like a can of mace or a home security system. You learn enough to defend yourself in a violent encounter with a predator, and then you are done with it. Like learning how to change a tire on a car or program a video cassette recorder, karate is nothing more than a basic skill that they acquire. They aren't going to become mechanics or engineers, but they know how to kick someone in the groin, and run and scream for help. And that is why they learned some karate.

For others, it is a sport. Karate players compete for victory or awards and compare their performances of different kata and engage in block and strike point fighting and the purpose is to “win.” Winning is important, not because it reflects the possible outcome in a real combat environment, but simply for its own sake. Because winning is the “goal.” They learn karate, and practice karate, so that they can continue to compete at a high level with other people who learn karate and practice karate for the same reason.

There is a third group of people for whom karate is a social experience. It is like belonging to a club and they can hang out with a group of people who all share a similar hobby, and they can discuss their separate opinions on the focal subject. They show up to class early and they hang out afterwords and during training time they talk about their lives and the things that are on their minds. They train so that they can train with others, and they advance with their friends who do karate because they do it all together.

Some people view karate as a spiritual practice. They ritualize the physical training, and focus on the mental discipline and meditative practices of their arts. In some less common cases they may even include elements of ancestor worship and “enshrine” former Masters for either tributary or religious purposes. The pursuit of technical perfection is not for the purpose of application, but because the pursuit itself is a form of spiritual cleansing and improvement. Karate is a path to enlightenment, and the practice is a vehicle for transcendence.

For some, karate is a hobby. Like collecting butterflies or building model airplanes, karate is for the hobbyist a strange mix of escapism and obsession. As an avocation karate is a leisure activity for these students. They enjoy the physicality of the practice, the aesthetic trappings of the art, and the traditions and culture of the karate school. They come to class and train outside the school because it is something fun to do in their free time.

Then there are others who do karate for fitness. Maybe they don't find running stimulating or they don't have the equipment for weight lifting. Maybe they find that after they left school, it was more and more difficult to find time in their day to engage in pure physical activity. For whatever reason, instead of joining an athletic club or a gym they chose to join a karate school. They practice to get their sweat up, they train to build and tone muscle, and they supplement their karate liberally with calisthenics and aerobic exercise. They train to stay healthy and get stronger, and they keep training to maintain their fitness level.

Some do karate for the discipline. Often, when they bring their children to karate schools, one of the most important things parents are looking for is for their child to “learn discipline.” Committing to the rigorous and repetitive training necessary to succeed in karate requires the practitioner to focus his mind and return again and again to the hard work of actually doing it, despite the challenge and because of the task. They practice because the act of training the body is a method by which they learn to strengthen their will.

Finally, there are those who turn the practice of training in karate into a Way. For them, it is more than any one thing, there is more than one motivation and more than any one goal. Karate isn't just hobby, or mental practice, or athletic activity, or physical performance. Karate is a path, leading throughout one's life. It guides and informs the practitioner, not only in the ways of violence, but more importantly in a method to achieve success in all things. The “secret” to karate is that hard work and dedication are rewarded with accomplishment. The lessons of karate; establish a solid base, stay fluid and be ready to adapt, avoid conflict and be judicious in your use of strength, all apply to more than just fighting. The mental and physical discipline leads to a long and healthy life. The focus on constant and unending improvement drives the practitioner to do more, to be better, in every facet of his life. Karate is not just “a thing to do when you aren't doing anything else.” Karate becomes the thing you are always doing. The thing that everything else is influenced by. Karate becomes everything, at all times, because the practitioner realizes the great lesson of the practice.

You will never understand all of karate. It will take all of your life to learn it, and even if you could live ten thousand years you could not know every part of it. We do not train in karate to Master it. We train in karate to master ourselves. Because ultimately, all of us will only ever train for a short time in a small way. If you train your whole life your motivations will probably change and evolve over time, but whether you train for fitness, or as a hobby, or because you revere the old Masters your training will always improve you. It will always make you stronger, and healthier, and more capable. In the end, we train in karate because it makes us better. 

Every step down the Way of the martial arts is a step forward. And because the Way has no end, there is no limit to how far you can go.

Drills -

Beginner: Practice your karate with an aim towards improving your physical performance. Get faster. Improve your flexibility. Develop your core strength. The more you improve your health and fitness, the more karate you will be able to do. As each of us age, our bodies will begin to corrupt and fail. Work on developing your physical abilities now, and you will live longer and more fully.

Intermediate: Develop your mental discipline. Practice your patterns again and again. Focus on perfecting the movements. Train through the exhaustion and pain. Train until you want to give up, and then force yourself to confront the frustration and the fear and then overcome it. Discipline your body and you will discipline your mind.

Advanced: Apply the lessons of karate to your life outside of the studio. When you are confronted with adversity, practice perseverance. When you are confronted with aggression, step off the line of attack. When you are weak, appear strong. You are not only learning about kicking and punching. If you choose, you are learning about life.