The frog, well and ocean
The frog in the well does not know the ocean
‘i no naka no kawazu taikai wo shirazu’
井の中の蛙、大海を知らず
The frog lived in a well, and with time it became confident that it knew its world. Only after a long time, once it hopped into the oceandid it realise how vast its universe actually was, and how long its ignorance has been.
But how could the frog have known that its world was only a small part of the universe?
The little Japanese story above allows us to reflect onand challenge our own reality in noticing and facing that we are living in a well.
You can probably remember a time where you hopped from a well into the ocean. Remember that feeling of discovery, of your vision being amplified, of your humility in face of the immensity of the universe. Maybe you were even scared.
What did it take to recognise that you were living in a well? What effort was needed to hop?
The most interesting thing in that phenomenon, if I’m allowed to modify the lesson slightly, is that no matter how many times we leave a well, we always end up in a bigger well that we believe to be the ocean — when do we really get to the ocean?
If the new ’ocean’ after a hop means seeing all possibilities and potential, we then only know that the spirit of always learning and looking for a new ocean has to be always present, as possibilities and potential are infinite.
Aikido, intimately and intrinsically, means self-improvement. Regardless of what Aikido brings to you and your life (health, social interaction, fighting, martial spirit, self-defence, distraction, etc.) we all have to agree that in one way or another that Aikido means ‘tomorrow better than today, today better than yesterday’ — of your technique, character, discipline, body control, philosophy, understanding of the laws of the universe, and much more.
What is the best way to self-improvement, then?
When we start Aikido, the first class consists in learning to control our own bodies, which can be frustrating enough! The first lesson already shows you the way to your first ocean. You suffer in moving the right feet when sensei says left. All that is really happening is you trying the water of a new well. When you decide to come back the next week, you give your first hop.
This happens repeatedly, generally guided by a sensei and senpai who have made the same hops. It turns out those hops are basic, and not all the hops are the same for everyone. With time, some of these hops will not apply to you. And then, it becomes harder to leave your current well. Hops become less frequent. It’s harder to recognise (and accept) we only live in a well.
How do we change it?
I believe the secret is to never believe you have achieved the ocean, but always recognise that we always hop between intermediate wells and our vision of the universe is limited — and to revisit your consciousness every now and then.
Our wells are many: different techniques, styles, feelings and emotions when physically doing something (like training in Aikido), even the way of learning and attitude are only wells. All is only a well. You can always hop to a more fruitful, intriguing and vaster one.
Etiquette, knowledge of techniques, flow, relaxation and physical preparation. What is your next ocean? Maybe there is not a name for it, maybe it’s only an emotion, a state of mind.
I believe the hardest thing is to recognise that we only live in a well. This is the first step of self-improvement. Then, to act to follow the way to the ocean, to explore and learn from a new ocean of possibilities.
Great martial artists, like Morihei Ueshiba, have transformed themselves constantly in their lives seeking the ocean. Including your sensei, mentor or senpai, whoa I guarantee weren’t born knowing Aikido and didn’t get there without (painful) self-transformation.
If you want to be good at Aikido, or at being a better human being, how are you looking for your next ocean? What are you doing to seek and face the unknown? And how ignorant are you currently?
I don’t have all the answers, but the experience of hopping to a bigger well and exploring a new ocean is extremely satisfying to me— despite the difficulty of recognising in myself and in my environment the limitation of a well, and to take the action of hopping on to the next. Maybe those difficulties are what make us learn — and the universe is full of them!
Ganbatte!
Vini
