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MARTIAL
ARTS IN SOCIETY
Japan's population
is aging rapidly, as is that of other advanced industrialized nations. What
kind of future will this create for us, and what can we best do to prepare?
The best thing to prepare for the future is to not get sick. There is no
better investment than to maintain your health and mental clarity. Too many
people today are going senile in their 50s and 60s, shortly after retirement.
This comes from living a passive and sedentary life. Yet you also see much
older people who are still working every day, whether in the garden or in the
community. The Chinese character for ''to work'' (hataraku) is written with
symbols that mean ''a moving person.'' We must keep moving, or else as you
say, ''use it or lose it.'' If you are too passive and expect to be taken
care of, you may find yourself in a situation where you do need to be taken
care of. People celebrate when a person reaches his or her 100th birthday,
but why don't they emulate the way that person lived to reach a hundred? The
government is trying to build more facilities for older people. This is the
wrong idea. Older people should be encouraged to work and to volunteer to
stay active. The problem is that people don't like working if they don't get
paid for it. Who needs money if what you do helps yourself and is also for
the good of others? Everyone can do something to help others. Everyone is
good at something. To work is natural. Young people should develop more
self-discipline, or they will end up sick and senile before their time.
Two problems
plaguing society today are Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS) and Attention
Deficit Disorder (ADD). They are commonly treated with drugs. Is there a
better solution?
It is a big mistake to treat these problems with drugs. It only hides the
symptoms and allows the problem to get worse where you can't see it. The
reason for fatigue and distraction is that something in their mental attitude
or physical habits is going against nature. Forcing yourself to act
unnaturally will quite naturally lead to fatigue. You can't fix the problem
with an artificial means like a drug. This only makes it worse. The reason
kids can't concentrate is that parents and teachers don't know how to teach
them to do so, or they can't concentrate themselves! Lack of discipline leads
to further problems, which get harder to fix if let go too long.
There is an
increasing interest in wellness and prevention among doctors, and
alternatives to drugs and surgery in medicine. Yet doctors are busy
professionals, and have little time to study these approaches, much less tell
which ones are worth studying. What can we do to gain recognition among
doctors and health professionals about the benefits of Ki and Kiatsu for
health?
If a person is too busy to do something important, they first need to learn
how to relax. In fact they are not as busy as they think. They just make
themselves feel, act, and look busy. One such person spent 20 minutes telling
me how busy he was, and in that time he filled half an ashtray smoking one
cigarette after another. I told him if he has that much time to smoke, he
must have time for more important things. People lose the sense of what is
important. If even the doctor is under so much stress that he cannot sleep
without taking pills at night, then it is definitely time to take a look at
alternative approaches to health!
A major problem in
America
today is litigation, people suing others for real or imagined grievances, and
it is big business for lawyers. Martial arts dojos are not immune, and
insurance does not offer full protection. How can you protect yourself if you
get sued?
First of all, if the instructor maintains full presence of mind while
teaching, most or all dojo accidents can be avoided. If the relationship with
the students is good they will not sue. I also recommend that my instructors
learn Kiatsu. If a student does get injured, and the instructor shows the
proper care, and then heals the problem with Kiatsu as well, the student will
never sue. Legal problems are often the surface expression of problems that
run deeper. I've heard of people who were wrongly sued in professional life,
and then able to win the case through a combination of a clear conscience and
a sense of integrity under pressure.
Violence has
always been a part of our society, but recently it has become a real threat
in schools, with guns in the hands of even children under 10. What can
parents and teachers do to protect their children and themselves?
First of all, you are asking for serious trouble if you make it easy for
people to buy a gun, and leave guns where kids can easily get to them. The
biggest benefit of training for kids is self-control and self-discipline.
There is nothing more dangerous than a kid with a temper. Even the Japanese
yakuza (mafia) will seldom inflict injury on another, even if they threaten
it, because they know enough from experience to consider consequences. Kids
don't consider consequences, and if they get out of control, and lose their
temper they are liable to do anything. It is best if kids and parents train
together, so that everyone understands the importance of mutual respect.
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INTERVIEW
with Master Koichi Tohei & Waka Sensei
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Page
6 of 9
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