Tag: japanese proverb

猿も木から落ちる | Even monkeys fall from trees

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Saru mo ki kara ochiru | Even monkeys fall from trees

Sometimes it takes a monkey to remind us we are human.

Every so often I make a mistake in the dojo, whether it’s mis-remembering a sequence in a kata or something else and I remember this proverb before getting too hard on myself. Sometimes the notion that sensei are always to be correct even rests with the sensei, not from an arrogant place but rather feeling responsible for the instruction and guidance of those that come to the dojo.

I take the leadership and instruction of the dojo very seriously so the image of the monkey falling out of the tree makes me smile and reminds me to then laugh at myself and not take myself so damn serious. I am, after all, in the dojo for the love of budo (martial arts) and therefore in my happy place of sorts.

 

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Daitoryu Aiki-jujutsu Tora Dojo located at 5 West Passaic Street, Rochelle Park, NJ
For more info please email us @ info@daitoryu.org

七転び八起き | Fall down 7 times get up 8

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Nanakorobi yaoki | Fall down 7 times get up 8

Fall down 7 times get up 8, what? Fall down 7 times, stand up 7 times…right? So is someone bad at math or is there more here?

To my mind, inherit in that phrase is that there will be another fall, expect the 8th fall even though it hasn’t come, you already have committed to accepting it and moving past it. That’s how determined you should be, failure is nothing more than proof you are trying.

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Daitoryu Aiki-jujutsu Tora Dojo located at 5 West Passaic Street, Rochelle Park, NJ
For more info please email us @ info@daitoryu.org