Happiness is.....being a modern day Samurai.

In the Times supplement last Saturday there was an article called ‘The nine secrets of contentment’. The article was essentially about those aspects of living that makes us truly happy. I have been struck at the similarities between ‘The nine secrets of contentment’ and the ‘Seven virtues of Bushido’– a Samurai moral code. I’m rapidly coming to the conclusion that the Samurai must have been a happy contented bunch of guys! Let me explain….

The nine secrets of contentment that psychologists have recently identified are: having a social life, altruism, having a belief system, having a goal or ambition, moderate wealth, listening to music, planning a holiday, being totally absorbed in a hobby and sex. The seven virtues of bushido are: rectitude, courage, benevolence, respect, honesty, honour and loyalty. Associated virtues are filial piety and wisdom. Let’s dig a bit deeper to see how they match up…

A definition of happiness: a state of well-being and contentment and a pleasurable or satisfying experience.

There are many other personal definitions of happiness that have been quoted by various people but what they all have in common is the need for personal action to bring about happiness and the requirement to act in a virtuous way. According to Aristotle happiness is, "the virtuous activity of the soul in accordance with reason": In other words happiness is the practice of virtue.

This brings us back to the Samurai who very much led their lives according to the seven virtues listed above. So, looking at the nine modern secrets of contentment let’s see which virtues are required to bring them about:

1. Social life. To have a social life we need friends. According to research, the more close friends we have, the more stable our happiness. Ten close friends are an optimal number. The definition of a friend is: A person whom one knows, likes, and trusts and is regarded with affection and loyalty. To keep good friends one has to be a good friend. This requires you to show them respect, loyalty and honesty – all Samurai virtues.

2. Altruism. This is about doing good deeds and having unselfish concern for the welfare of others. Research shows that we receive a deeper and longer lasting feeling of happiness when we do good deeds for others compared with getting a quick blast of pleasure e.g. taking part in a fun activity. Altruism requires benevolence (charitable kindness), respect (consideration for others), possibly courage (e.g. work of the voluntary lifeboat men and women) and honour (carrying out the commitments you’ve made to help someone)

3. Belief system. Research has shown that having an internal belief system had a positive impact on happiness. This didn’t have to be a religious belief system necessarily. A strong belief in your work, a hobby, a cause, family and home or a creative outlet had a similar impact on happiness to a religious belief system. It’s about believing in something bigger than yourself. Depending on what your belief is then any or all of the bushido virtues may be required to follow it.

4. Goals and ambitions: research suggests that having specific goals can contribute to happiness and if those goals are altruistic they also contribute to good health in old age. Apparently, what is most important is the journey you go on to reach the goal rather than the end point of achieving it. On the journey you may make new friendships, learn new skills and overcome fears and barriers. These achievements may be more rewarding than achieving the goal itself. Working towards goals in a purposeful and rewarding way which requires the application of many virtues e.g. rectitude (honesty, integrity and morality), courage (to move out our comfort zone), loyalty and respect (to people that help us on the journey), honesty and wisdom.

5. Moderate wealth. Apparently the optimum salary most likely to contribute to a person’s happiness is £45,000 ($75,000). Beyond this emotional happiness does not improve. What’s the point in pursuing ever more money and material wealth if it doesn’t make you happy? It’s just time wasted that could be spent pursuing activities that do lead to happiness, perhaps more altruistic ones? Many a rich person has discovered that the path to happiness is through philanthropy (and therefore benevolence) rather than selfish greed. Frugality and self-sacrifice were the order of the day for Samurai.

6. Listening to music. It is thought that music taps into parts of the brain that produce feelings of euphoria. Even sad music can be cathartic. In fact, people are generally happier when their lives include a degree of culture such as music, works of art or performance, aesthetics etc. These things add to the quality of life experiences. The Samurai knew this only too well and pursued excellence in many arts such as flower arranging, calligraphy, Noh theatre and the tea ceremony. Art provided peace and respite from war.

7. Planning a holiday. The important thing about this is the planning rather than the taking of the holiday that makes us happy. Apparently we are happiest in the 8 weeks before the holiday starts. Clearly our anticipation of having a good time is better than the reality! What is important about this is that planning a holiday represents respite from work – it is part of achieving a good work/life balance. I’m pretty sure that Samurai didn’t plan holidays or think about work/life balance but they did need to achieve a life/death balance – balance the perils of war with activities of peace and calm, hence their dedication to art and recreation.

8. Being totally absorbed in a hobby. Psychologists describe the happiness derived from being totally absorbed in a hobby as a ‘flow state’. Martial artists recognise it as ‘mushin’. In this state you don’t notice time passing and the ego falls away, freeing you of all thoughts of daily problems and preoccupations. The Samurai would have achieved a state of mushin both in battle and in recreation as they pursued their artistic endeavours.

9. Sex. Sex enters strongly and positively in happiness equations. Sex within a loving relationship is most strongly equated with happiness and wellbeing so the virtue of loyalty (as in faithfulness and fidelity) is highly important in sexual relationships.

To be a Samurai was to be virtuous. A Samurai had the discipline to meditate, practice the arts, and live a life of humility and service to fit the demands of a daimyo’s life. To be calm in the heat of battle and to achieve excellence in the arts were the requirements of the day. All this was at the heart of Zen.

If, as Aristotle suggested, happiness is the practice of virtue, then the Samurai must have been happy with their lives. Certainly carrying the burdens of guilt, deceit or total selfishness on our consciences will not lead to happiness.

Perhaps living the life of a modern Samurai or ‘warrior’ is a good thing – a path to happiness.

Are you happy? Are you virtuous?

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Ippon kumite and kata applications

A bit of a brain teaser this one but if you can make sense of what I’m trying to say then I would welcome your feedback……..

This may seem like a strange question to ask for someone who is very close to grading for shodan in karate! My question is: What is the difference between ippon kumite and bunkai?


I thought I knew the answer to this until last Saturday when I went on a black belt/brown belt course with my organisation. We didn’t focus at all on kata or bunkai but spent a lot of the time practising ippon kumite. It was made clear to us that what was being looked for in our demonstration was a clear understanding of the application of basic kihon moves to a one step attack showing particular heed to distance and timing.

Well, that explanation tightened up my understanding of ippon kumite a bit but didn’t offer any new major revelations – I already knew what ippon kumite was about.

Here’s a definition of ippon kumite: Ippon kumite is the practice of not allowing your opponent more than one attack. In other words, due to the evasive and blocking actions of the defender the opponent is prevented from continuing his attack. A counter attack may or may not be necessary. It's all about shutting down your opponent's attack quickly. Ippon kumite techniques are generally learned against a range of pre-defined attacks.

Here’s a definition of bunkai: The analysis of moves extracted from a kata. In other words, a study of the applications of movements taken directly from a kata or an analysis of the meaning of the kata.

These two definitions don’t sound too similar until you delve a bit deeper.

Old karate master, Chotoku Kyan said, “First learn the movements of karate, learn how to strike, block and immobilize, learn the kata and you will then be ready for kumite.” The implication here is that kumite is the application of kata movements. Dan Smith Kyoshi of Shorin Ryu Seibukan adds, “…the kata is designed to always provide an ‘ippon’.”

So if ippon kumite techniques are built from basic kihon techniques; kata are the assembly of kihon techniques into set sequences and combinations, and kata provide us with sets of ‘ippons’ then isn’t the analysis of kata (bunkai) just the analysis of ippon kumite techniques within the kata? Are bunkai and ippon kumite essentially the same thing?

All the bunkai I have learned are effective against a single step attack (bar one*) and are therefore essentially ippon kumite techniques. However, many of the ‘ippons’ I have learnt have not necessarily come directly from a kata. So does that mean that all bunkai are ippons but not all ippons are bunkai?

Not many people will talk about ippon kumite and bunkai in the same breath (or even write about it in the same book) suggesting that they are different things. In fact, some people who consider themselves bunkai experts may even be very dismissive of ippon kumite considering it to be too stylised and people who are proponents of ippon kumite may not even refer to specific kata in their teachings of it.

So, what is the difference between ippon kumite and bunkai? Perhaps they are just different sides of the same coin or perhaps bunkai is a process and ippon kumite a practice? Perhaps bunkai just assumes more realistic attacks and ippons use more stylised 'karate' attacks? I’m just thinking aloud here.

What do you think about this condundrum? Ippons and bunkai – same or different?


* I have learnt a kata application from Bassai Dai which requires the attacker to throw two punches. In Iain Abernethy's Bunkai Jutsu book he suggests that one should not assume that the attacker will act in a pre-determined way and throw a second (known) attack in response to a block. If your bunkai application requires a second predicted attack then perhaps the interpretation should be looked at again.

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karate - is it about fighting or self-defence?

I recently wrote a post on my Countdown to Shodan blog about solo training and in my opening sentence I suggested that martial arts were essentially about learning self-defence. I was surprised, therefore, when I received a comment from Charles James (a person whose opinions and advice I respect) in which he said: “A martial art is not about learning self-defence. Martial arts are about fighting. Fighting is not self-defence.”

I can’t help thinking that Charles and I are actually of the same opinion of what martial arts are about but have slightly differing definitions or interpretations of the words ‘fighting’ and ‘self-defence’ and therefore appear to be at cross purposes when in fact we aren’t.

In the interests of clarity I have researched a bit deeper into the meanings of these words and how they apply to martial arts, particularly karate.

The words fight and fighting have been defined as (respectively), 1.“To attempt to harm or gain power over an adversary by blows or with weapons”, and 2. “…a purposeful violent conflict meant to establish dominance over the opposition.”

Self-defence is defined as: 1. ”the act of defending one's person when physically attacked, as by countering blows or overcoming an assailant.”

Another definition is: 2. “Physical self defence is the use of physical force to counter an immediate threat of violence. Such force can be either armed or unarmed. In either case, the chances of success depend on a large number of parameters, related to the severity of the threat on one hand, but also on the mental and physical preparedness of the defender.”

In some ways these definitions of fighting and self-defence seem very distinct from each other but in other ways they overlap. Fighting may be about ‘gaining power or dominance’ over another person but so might be self-defence. The best way to defend ones-self may be to dominate and control the other person.

However they differ greatly in the intentions or motivations of the people involved. The aim of the fighter is to win and will continue attacking their victim to that aim. The aim of a person being attacked is to survive and get away. This difference is crucial to understanding what martial arts are teaching you.

On the recent Iain Abernethy course that I attended he touched on this very subject. He said (paraphrasing) that a fight required two (or more) people having the mindset of wanting to hurt the other person and ‘win’ the fight. In other words a fight is consensual. Rivals fight e.g rival football supporters or rival street gangs. He then said that in self-defence only the attacker was consenting to the ‘fight’ and the defender was ‘fighting’ against their will. In this situation the altercation is non-consensual.

This now gives a clearer distinction between fighting and self-defence. In karate are we training people to hurt others and win an altercation? Not in my club. Surely the emphasis should be on training people to survive an attack, using only sufficient force necessary to stop the attacker and get away.

However, we do fight in martial arts as well – it’s called sport and it has many rules to make it safe. Fighting is an appropriate term to use in this context because a sparring/wrestling/boxing/MMA fight is consensual and the aim of each competitor is to win.

I think the introduction of sport into karate has blurred the distinction between learning techniques for fighting and learning them for self-defence. A punch is a punch and a kick is a kick whether you use it to attack someone or to defend yourself. However, the difference in intent is huge!

I think that instructors have a responsibility to clearly distinguish to their students, particularly children and teenagers, what it is they are learning to do at that particular time. They need to know that in martial arts terms, fighting is a rule bound sport that takes place in a controlled environment and is not something they should participate in outside the dojo in street/playground environments i.e. they never consent to or lead an altercation.

Students also need to know when they are participating in ‘classical’ karate which is about self defence. As part of self-defence training they should also be taught the importance of avoidance, awareness and conflict resolution. These are not necessary for ‘fighting’ but are essential for self-defence. Students need to be aware that sports karate and classical karate have different objectives even if they appear to use similar techniques.

Two or more people fighting in a public place, causing alarm to other members of the public is called an affray and is a public order offence in most countries. To be an affray the fighting has to be mutual. If one person unlawfully attacks another who tries to defend himself it does not amount to affray. Here the first person is guilty of assault. The defender is guilty of nothing.

So, is karate about fighting or self-defence? Well, by the definitions I have given it is both. Sports karate is fighting because it is consensual and the aim is to win. Classical karate is about self-defence and the aim is to do the minimum necessary to disable the opponent and escape. The opponents have different objectives – for the defender it’s about survival, not winning.

So what do you think – is martial arts about fighting or self-defence?

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Thoughts and discoveries about karate training part 2 – learning the basics

This is part 2 of my review of posts I have written over the last year or two. In this post I look at how I am learning to understand my own body and my attempt to master control over it through training the basics of my art…

Every martial artist comes to appreciate the importance of training in the basic or fundamental ways of moving for their art. In karate the basics are generally thought of as the range of different punching, kicking and blocking techniques along with the various stances that can be used. We generally refer to this as kihon training. Most kihon training is done as whole class teaching with the students standing in rows, punching and kicking the air, moving up and down the dojo in various stances or working in pairs punching and kicking against a pad.

However, during the last couple of years training and through researching and writing for this blog, I have come to the realisation that basics are even more fundamental than kihon training. It’s about how we actually move our bodies at all, how we balance, how we align our muscles, bones and tendons, how we coordinate and time our movements and how we internalise and remember our techniques. In short, it’s about understanding and mastering our own bodies and minds.

My general approach to my own personal training and development in martial arts is to identify my weaknesses (or have them pointed out to me, which is what generally happens) and then follow through with that at home to discover why it is I am making a specific mistake and what I can do to correct it. For example, some of my most fundamental problems have revolved around leaning and having a fairly shaky dynamic balance.

I explored my leaning problem in If I had a pound…. and concluded that the leaning was related to my balance problem. This lead me to research into what balance actually is, how our bodies control balance and how we can utilise that knowledge in martial arts. This led to one of my most popular posts so far – Martial arts – a balancing act.

However, there is no point in researching or writing about it unless I’m going to practice what I preach, so I do actively try to think about the principles of balance when I’m training in order to stop my leaning and wobbling. I think I’m making some progress in this respect and my instructor has not told me I’m leaning for several months now. I still occasionally wobble when turning but I realise immediately why this is so and take steps to correct it – I’m finally starting to understand my body!

Still on the topic of body movement and alignment I became fascinated by the principle of nanba aruki after reading something about it in a book (Empty hand, by Kenei Mabuni). Initially I found it hard to believe that a couple of hundred years ago Japanese people used to walk with the same arm and leg moving backwards and forwards together (nanba aruki walking). It seemed so counter intuitive.

I set out to research the subject and discovered that the principle of moving the same arm and leg together so as to pivot around your centre line was inherent in all martial arts systems and led to greater efficiency of movement. The maxim, ‘Don’t force, don’t twist and don’t disconnect’ comes from the application of the nanba aruki principle. I now see nanba aruki in action in pretty well all my karate techniques and use it as a bench mark to decide whether I’m executing techniques correctly or not.

Of course there always has to be an exception to the rule and in karate this is the gyaku zuki punch (reverse punch) which definitely does not utilise the nanba aruki principle. I wrote about this in Gyaku zuki – odd punch out? I’d read somewhere (possibly in Kenei Mabuni’s book) that this punch was a modern 20th century addition to karate, introduced when karate became a sport. However my own research suggests that the reverse punch has very much been a part of karate for a long time as it is present in several old kata. Odd punch out or not, the gyaku zuki remains an important weapon in the karateka’s arsenal and is practiced extensively during kihon training.

Another fundamental principle of movement that we need to master and is notoriously difficult to do is the principle of hard/soft. By that I mean tensing muscles when you need to and relaxing them when you don’t. We gradually come to appreciate as we train that punches are harder and faster when muscles are not all tensed up.

I wrote about this problem in karate – hard not tense and suggested that one way of learning to relax during the execution of techniques was to participate in a softer style of martial arts and that for me this is sword training. To get clean, fast sword strikes you have to relax and let the sword do the work. I am trying to adopt the same thinking in karate i.e. let the fist do the punching (not the bicep) but it remains a work in progress!

And finally, how do our bodies remember how to do all these basic, fundamental techniques and ways of moving? I tackled this subject in the post, Muscle memory – it’s all in the mind! I described how the learning and remembering of new skills was a staged process in which, through repetitive practice, led to the development of new neural pathways and the laying down of ‘memory maps’ in the brain – a process that can take months or years to complete depending on the complexity of the skill. These memory maps can then be executed quickly and subconsciously whenever we meet a stimulus giving us the impression that it is our muscles that have remembered what to do when in fact it is our brains.

I feel I have come a long way in understanding how my body moves and how I can align my limbs and torso to maximise efficiency yet generate maximum power in technique. However, I’m also aware that I still have a long way to go – like I said, those memory maps take a long time to lay down and become stable! When I watch my instructor moving with such speed, grace and fluidity I feel like a dancing elephant in comparison but I can also see that I have made progress and there is no reason to why more progress can’t be made if I continue to train – in the basics.

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Home protection....don't get burgled !

I was approached recently by the Home Alarm Monitoring website who suggested that some of their blog articles may be on interest to me and my readers. Well I went and had a look and did find some of them quite useful. You may find some of them useful too so here are some links to a sample of their articles. They are all written in a '10 ways to.....' format and they are all on a home protection, burglary prevention theme....

10 tricks burglars use to tell if you are home

10 ways to protect yourself during a burglary

10 tricks to make burglars think someone is home

10 types of self defense anyone can learn

10 great ways to avoid a stalker


Hope you found them useful!