In the last blog entry I talked about what a warrior is. With this post I will begin to explore the traits that make up a warrior. I will try to tackle one at a time, beginning with courage.

According to Webster, courage is defined as "mental or moral strength to venture, persevere, and withstand danger, fear, or difficulty." For the true warrior, courage is much more a simple dictionary definition. Courage is an essential trait for the warrior, without which any other trait would be worthless. A warrior must have courage to be able to recognize that even though he is fearful in a situation he must steele himself and do whatever is necessary to survive and thrive. This is not necessarily a physical confrontation with an enemy, but may be something as simple as speaking to a group of people, or demonstrating a technique. In fact, a physical confrontation is often far less intimidating than demonstrating in front of one?s peers. Fear of failure often keeps one from trying new things. Of course when one decides to to attempt what he fears, then he fails by default. So take courage, get outside your comfort zone. Learn something new, try something you have been afraid to try. You just might find a deeper lesson. Gambatte, kudasai!!

The Birmingham Bujinkan Dojo, located in Pelham, Alabama, has recently changed its name to “Bujinkan Kokoro no Bushi Dojo.” Roughly translated, Kokoro no Bushi is heart/spirit of the warrior. I believe this new name accurately describes what we are trying to develop in our students. While I was thinking about changing the name I began to wonder: What is a warrior?

Many people see a warrior as solely one who fights wars. This is a very narrow view, though. From this perspective a warrior is merely a soldier. A soldier can indeed be a professional warrior, but more likely the soldier is a part-time warrior, dedicated to national defense only while he is actively serving in the Army. He may have very little regard for what a true warrior is.

So what is a true warrior? A true warrior, in my opinion, is a person who is prepared to meet life on life’s terms, and survive. A true warrior understands that there are certain ideals which are more important than his life, and he is willing to give his life in defending them. A true warrior seeks always to improve himself. Not just his martial skills, but other skills which are needed in dealing with life. He strives to be the best friend of the good, and the worst enemy of the evil. He lives his life by a certain set of moral principles which he believes in. You might call this Bushido, but this is not entirely accurate because a warrior’s sense of values will be shaped by many things. There is not cookie-cutter, one-size-fits-all set of values. The true warrior’s sense of values will include values instilled by his parents and mentors as well as life experiences which will work to refine that sense. Life experience will play a great part in shaping these values. As the warrior gets older he will inevitably learn that what he may have placed great emphasis on when he was young may not be as significant as he originally thought. At the same time he will also discover that values he may have taken lightly or even brushed off will take a far more important place in their value set. Accordingly, the warrior’s sense of values is ever evolving. If they stop then they become stagnant. In this way a warrior is much like the Bujinkan in general. A true warrior is prepared to defend not only himself, but his family, his country and his community. He must be prepared to defend those who cannot defend themselves. There is evil in this world, and it takes a true warrior to stand up to it and defeat it.

As students of the Bujinkan, I think we should all take a moment to reflect. Are we true warriors? Are we prepared to deal with life on its terms and survive? Are we capable of doing that? Take a look at yourselves. You may be able to do taijutsu very well in a dojo, but will you be able to do it at all if you’ve had to run 6 blocks to protect your family before hand?

Are you a true warrior?