Welcome to the January issue of Bu Jin's Online Newsletter

Ichigo Ichie

"Well, he's sixteen days old only once in his life!" my wife remarked with a smile, as we marveled at the growing stack of photo packets cluttering the table. The number very nearly matched the age of our son. Like other new parents, we were fascinated by this amazing new being in our lives, and were achingly eager to capture every "first," knowing that we would never be able to re-live those special moments again.

Common experiences like this bring home a profound point - that each passing moment is unique. Unless the circumstances of our lives happen to be such that we are made acutely aware of life and death, we usually take our "continuum of moments" for granted.

I'm sure you have noticed the numerals representing the first day of this New Year -- 01-01-01. While they may look like binary computer code to the techno-budoka among us, for me the numbers happen to fit well with the concept of ichigo ichie.

"Ichigo ichie" is a long-used Japanese phrase that refers to the concept that each instant or encounter is the first, the one and the only of its kind, never to be repeated. This concept threads its way through many Japanese arts, from sado (tea ceremony) to shodo (calligraphy) to budo.

It is said that the illustrious sado master, Sen Rikyu, teacher to shogun and well-positioned samurai alike, embraced the concept of ichigo ichie as a guiding principle in his life. He reportedly approached each tea ceremony with an attitude of giving the very best of himself to every guest, for he realized that each encounter was a singular moment that could never be recaptured nor repeated in exactly the same way.

If we apply the concept of ichigo ichie to our martial arts training, we may conclude that, like Sen Rikyu, we would like to "put our best heart forward" in every encounter. The example of Sen Rikyu teaches us that regardless of our chosen art, we would do well to come to the mat with an unencumbered spirit. We would approach each training partner with respect and gratitude, regardless of rank or ability. We would approach each form with the intention of giving it our best effort. We would remove our personal labels, shed our daily roles, don our dogi, and train with clarity.

If we apply ichigo ichie off the mat, to our daily lives, we wonder how we can possibly give our best in all the millions and billions of seemingly insignificant moments along the continuum. The answer is we probably can't. But like computer code, the moments string together to make a greater whole, and like code, if there's an error, then we have a glitch. The Way in which we choose to conduct ourselves in even the smaller moments of life does, in some way, seem to set the bar for our future actions. With ichigo ichie, the implication is that our behavior in a given moment has a significant, if not lasting, impact upon our lives and the lives of others. Just something to think about as we begin a new moment.

May our actions promote peace in the coming year.