As time passed he became more and more frustrated. Finally he was talking to himself out loud, “All these years and you can’t get this one move! That’s incredible!You’re inept! You can’t call yourself a martial artist!” Suddenly, the student heard his name called. The voice seemed to come from the trees, maybe even the heavens. He looked around and saw no one. Again he muttered to himself, “Now you’re really losing it!” But a few minutes later he heard his name called again. This time he recognized the voice, it was O’Sensei. As he turned and looked up he was startled to see that without realizing it he had been training right under his Sensei’s balcony.

O’Sensei invited the student to come up to his room. When the Sensei opened the door he pointed to the refrigerator and told the student to get a cold drink. As the student sat down he noticed that his Sensei was writing a Japanese character on rice paper. The Sensei then handed the student the paper, the single character was beautiful, but since the student could not read Japanese it made no sense to him.

The Sensei began to tell the student the following story.

A young boy had been born a samurai but much to his father’s dismay he had never shown any interest in the study of the sword. Each day the boy would just play or daydream. One morning the boy was told that his father, a famous samurai general, was terminally ill and would soon die. Shocked to find that he would soon lose his father the boy searched for a way to make his father proud of him. Finally he knew what he had to do, he would master the sword before his father’s death.

With this plan in mind the boy went to a sword sensei and asked to be accepted as his student. The sensei was an old friend of his father’s and was pleased to accept the boy as a student. The boy asked the sensei, “How long will it take me to master the sword?” “With hard practice, about three years,” replied the sensei.  “Oh no!” the boy protested, “I don’t have that long! If I study twice as hard how long will it take me?” “In that case, about ten years,” replied the sensei. “No! Sensei, you don’t understand, I will train day and night, harder than any student you could imagine! So, how long will it take me to master the sword?” “Now I see,” the master said.  “In such a case it will certainly take you thirty years to master the sword.” The boy couldn’t believe what he was hearing. It was obvious that the old sensei was crazy and there was simply no use training with him so the boy went on his way.

As time went on the boy actually developed an interest in the study of the sword, not just to prove himself to his father but for himself. He returned to the old sensei and asked to become his student. The sensei agreed to train him under one condition, “You will never mention the sword, and you will never question my methods.” The boy eagerly agreed and so he became a student. When he showed up for training early in the morning the boy was sent to the kitchen. There he was put to work as the cook’s helper. He helped prepare food, served the other students, and cleaned up after every meal. It was the same for breakfast, lunch and dinner. For months he didn’t even see a sword. One day the boy protested to the sensei. “I know I made a promise,” he said, “But after all, I came here to study the sword, not to prepare food and clean. When will my training begin?” “You’re right,” said the sensei, “Get your things together and we will take a trip into the mountains to continue your training.”

High up in the mountains they came to a small cabin. Once there the sensei told the boy that his duties were to keep a fire going twenty-four hours a day, bring water up from the stream, prepare three meals a day, and to slide the sensei’s meals into the cabin through a slot in the door. With that the sensei went inside the cabin and shut the door. 

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For weeks the boy hauled water, kept the fire going, prepared the meals, slipped them into the cabin and cleaned the dishes. Never once did he see the sensei. Finally he could stand it no more. He wrote a note of protest and slid it under the cabin door. There was no sign or answer from the sensei. Disgusted, the boy grabbed the note from under the door and as he was about to throw the paper into the fire he noticed that it was blank. So the old sensei had read his note and ignored his protest. The boy walked down to the stream. As he walked his anger grew and he muttered to himself about the crazy old sensei. “He must have lost his mind,” the boy figured. As the boy climbed the steep path back up to the cabin he carried the water in two buckets on a pole over his shoulder. All of a sudden something struck him alongside the head. The boy fell to the ground, the water spilled, and in a daze he looked around. No one was to be seen. From that day forward the boy would be attacked at anytime without mercy. Finally he saw that it was his sensei attacking him with his shinai. From behind a tree, a bush, a rock, from out of nowhere, the sensei would attack and then quickly disappear. The attacks were relentless.

Eventually the boy was able to block the blows. Finally he could block the blows without spilling the water. Soon he could dodge the blows with quick shifts of his body. One day when the boy was walking up the trail he stopped. Every cell of his body knew that the sensei was hiding behind a tree up the path. The boy walked in a big circle, and as he came around the tree the sensei stepped from behind it and bowed, “Now you are ready to learn the sword.” The sensei and the boy returned to the dojo and within a short time the boy had mastered the sword. The boy, who had by now grown into a young man, had learned the lesson of patience. He went on to become one of the greatest swordsmen of all time.

Now back to our young student at Karate Camp. He had been working hard on his kata. But the harder he tried the more frustrated he became. This caused the technique to not only escape him but actually made his performance worse. Will power is not enough. Training in the martial arts requires great patience. “Patience” was the Japanese character that O’Sensei wrote for his student. And “patience” is the lesson the old master in our story was teaching his disciple.

In the Japanese language, and in the martial arts, the meaning of patience includes perseverance and indomitable spirit. This would indicate that the student must develop a good-natured tolerance of delay. Calmly face a challenge. And when you meet a challenge do not build a case against yourself. Do not become discouraged or frustrated. Relax, stay calm, keep your sense of humor and simply continue. To the true martial artist the words “Try” and “Impossible” do not exist. A martial artist will never cease, and never give up! This is the lesson of “Patience!”

~ Submitted by Sensei Sanford