Budo

These rudimentary notes, were accumulated along my
stay in Japan of 70/73, with the intention of serving, some
day, to be part of the material, to be published, some time
around the year ..........? They reflect a lots of conversations
maintained, in a quite serious environment and with sincerely
interested people, in the deep study of Budo, with some
Masters of several Arts but specialy with Don Draeger, perhaps
one of most serious Ocidental Budoka , which, during 25 years
settled down in Singapur, where he established the magazine
" Martial Arts International ", of which I was a correspondent.
The world of sensations, that these notes hardly emerge, was
brought to me by the familiarity, with Mtr. Hayabuchi Iai-Do
9th Dan , National Monument of Japan for his knoledge in the
Arts of Kembu, Sho Do and Kabuki,( died in 1998) and whose
memory and spirit will accompany me for the rest of my days.
These notes are like the route drawn in a small map of the
Oceans, so they have a tiny dimension, when compared
with the real dimension of the World of the Budo ... "

Sensei Alex DaCosta


" There are two mountains .... where there is light and wisdom,
the mountain of Nature ...... and the mountain of the Gods,
between them stretches out ... the gloomy valley of men...
When once, one of them .......... looks at the top,
he feels a sign...................... an inextinguishable nostalgia,
he, who knows that............. does not know anything...
for those, who do not know ... that, they know nothing...
and for those, who know .......... that they, know everything .... "

Budo

The Great Masters taught that man does not live, in the past,
not in the future, but he lives in this moment ...(here and now)
BUDO = Way of the warrior ( includes all M.A.), it associates
closely the spirit and the body in a transformation or total
change. It is not possible to practice Budo for amusement or
pastime. We cannot approche BUDO lightly, it is a serious
decision. As soon as our feet touch the Dojo´s surface,
we are committed forever.
The Westerners need to understand and to analize, with a
critical spirit and to draw conclusions. Qualities that become
rapidly an enormous impechement, if we maintain this
attitude. An agitated and very occupied person cannot
understand or listen to the "silence". We can not learn if we
imagine that a discipline is, " by itself ", the finality of
all the things. If we oppose the body to the spirit, the
technique to the spiritual , if we believe that we will be able
to keep for us, everything that was been given to us :
" a received idea, will become a wall before the horizon " .
Every teaching presupposes stages (levels), but it is not
" to reach a goal ". The objective is to reach that moment
where the change operates, where the movement
produces movement, where man becomes his own Master.
Therefore the traditional teaching, puts the importance on
"practice", avoiding the verbal explanations, for reasons
that are obvious ... (words are obstacles).
What does it mean, the search, of the efficiency, at all cost ?
Such discussions, that oppose the “white” to the “black”, forget
that the body is a debate in itself, that we will not be able to talk
about real efficiency without the total power of the body and the
spirit. once we carry out this power, even a little bit, the man
notices, by himself, what is the sense of the "Way" and of the
"Search". Any discussion becomes a superhaste.The modern
myths of Supermen, the Invincible ones, they are a
dangerous invitation, stretching the arch of the energy to the
point in which the rope breaks, moment in which the man
"implodes" totally. Even if such Men become, commercial idols,
which are imposed to the wonder of the public, they will remain
on being disarticulated, animated by unreal energies and
powers, that because of not having been really assimilated, it
will turn, fataly against themselves...The "energy" is ... what we
do with it. It can become a fountain of life or a fountain of
death, of creation or of destruction. It does not exist a
particular wisdom in Budo, but Budo does not escape, to the
Universal Wisdom, which finality is not, nor the retraction
neither to dissection of the "Being", but realy, the plenitude and
harmony. To "Be", it is in this sense, to know, and to know, it
is to add energy to the energy, life to the life, love to the love.
This is the " Universal Way ". Those who really look for
" the way ", realize that, what is true teaching :is the "hard"
practice (witch is, the apprenticeship of the essential techniques),
it must allie with the "gentle" practice, like the movement must
be the expression of "breathing". If the practice is unilateral,
there will be, blockage and sooner or later the " road accident ",
(the diviation from the right direction ), will hapen...
Budo expresses life, it is therefore why, many Masters adapt
the received teachings and create new personal synthesis.
Such synthesis leed, frequently, to "perfecting", to "clarify" and
to "simplify" the fundamental "nucleus" and not gather new
techniques, to other techniques. If many Masters practice
different disciplines, (Iaido,Judo, Karate, Bo, Kyudo, etc.), it is
because, they are fascinated to find in the different Budo, the
same basic principles. The great tree of tradition, has a trunk
and inalterable roots, but the branches, they express, at the
same time Life and the "Become". The emanation of all realities
(the famous ”here and now”) it joins, with respect and deep
reverence the Universal Laws. When the feeling of the sacred,
is born, it is nothing rare at all or mystical, it is an everyday
life´s fact, a glance that includes the individual inside a "Whole".
Such feeling is born of the participation of the complet “whole
being", in this Universal fact, with which it links, it feels in deep
harmony. This harmony, is not another thing than, life itself.
The life integrates itself in the "become", what expresses the
law of the rotation and also the vibration of the continous and
discontinuous. The dialectic reasoning, the mechanic, the
quantitative thing ... everything that is the emanation of the
Western modern culture, breaks the natural "become" of the
things, it breaks the expontanious order. Conceptual and
abstract systems, have substituted this order.The rule, the
implicit "play" of life, have no longer place any more, the gentle
hierarchy stays away, (and by this fact), counter-nature is
produced and only conflicts result. It is significant to see how
the idea of "play", meaning, apprenticeship of the things on
their own, which exists in Budo. The custom, (that all Great
Masters, from Musashi to Ueshiba, practiced), of walking from
school to school, facing adversaries, to measure their efficiency,
this custom only has a time. What happens, when the Master
feels that he is the strongest ? He leaves the struggle, the
competitions and searches to know more. The meditation,
(abstinence), and the retirement, very often, during several
years, they substitute the fighting. And sometimes the
"enlightnement" is produced : that means the perception, at the
peak of the volunteer effort, of a non-will, even bigger and more
efficient, but this time, it does not look to cut the enemy, since
there is already, no adversary,"the other, became the Oneself "
The reality is not but a efect of mirrors, reflecting exactly what
we put infront of them. The " Enlightnement of the Masters " is
the expression, this time, of a vision of totality. Fundamental
experience, putting out all the oppositions, the interpenetration
of all the things, the indiscribeble movement of " becoming ",
the institution of one atemporal space-time, imperceptible
sliding of energies that are at the same time : light, vibrations
and sounds, all that, translating a strength so powerful and
sudden , that only the word Love in it´s most absolute sense,
can answer . The Orientals, very little inclined, to talk about
even simpler things, guard deep secrets of such experiences,
and precisely in Japan, there is a whole secret power of Budo,
and numerous Masters, who have taken refuge in the
Mountain, continue their lonely retirement.
.
......