The piece of cloth that is worn around the waist of most martial artist is the color black which is a symbol. It is to symbolize the making of a warrior.
The color black symbolizes death. That is the deep darkness we all will face when our human journey is over and it is time to cross over into the Spirit realm.
When we train in martial arts, what we really are preparing for is death. We train to prepare how to die. This black belt you earn in the dojo today symbolizes that you understand what it really is to become a warrior and to die like a warrior.
No fear of death is the reasons for training. To lose the fear that will get in your way during serious altercations is what makes you that warrior to be feared by most on every battle field all over this planet. This is why the warriors of ancient times in our past history were so feared and so deadly. Death was an honor for them. They got to pick their time and day to die. The Native American Indians, in my heart, mind and eyes, were some of the most awesome of warriors. I love their saying. “Today is a good day to die.” I ponder much on that saying every day.
Training under hardened conditions that would probably break most is what sets you aside to become a true warrior. The black belt is like a badge of honor that is earned through long hours and years of hard training. No one person can make you a black belt, that is done through yourself. Back in the ancient times they didn’t have color belts that standardized what level you were at. Everyone knew your level by how you conducted yourself, not just in the dojo but in daily life! Most highly skilled warriors always conducted themselves like a gentlemen (or if you were a female warrior you conducted your self like a lady) with respect and manners.
If you have experienced war, you can appreciate peace.
Just by how humble you were was a sample of how deadly you truly were. The more humble someone was the higher their skill sets were for being a warrior. It was an honor to train to become a warrior. You had to qualify to get into some of the elite training sessions and that was done through physically earning that right of passage without complaining, that was to hard to do. Excuses like, “it is to hot or to cold” “my finger just got jammed up”, “I forgot my uniform”, “my back hurts”, “I have a bad knee”, “I feel sick today”, “it is snowing out”, etc..were no excuses not to train.
This humility came out of you through extreme training sessions that were only capable of accomplishment if you had already earned your right of passage to wear or train with other black belts. And that was not easy thing to accomplish.
You had to check your ego at the door. Ego always got in the way of higher learning. The higher level you attained in the combative martial arts schools in the past the more you knew to watch your ego. The shadow self ego would get you killed!
The reason for training in the martial arts should never be to attain a belt but rather to seek perfection in one’s character. We all need to accept that we can be a little better and hard training is the best way to achieve this. In Japan this hardships of training is called Shugyo. By training daily and not allowing any thing to stop your training (injury or sickness) forged the type of warrior you became.
It isn’t the belt that makes the person it is the person who makes the belt have meaning. The black belt is a badge of honor that is earned through hard style training by never giving up and not giving out. It forges the warrior spirit to continue to press forward even after the body has been killed. That kind of mentality is extremely hard to stop. When I was training some of the men and women who protected our last President, they told me that they are taught the hardest type of person to protect their client from is some one who is not afraid to die and will give up their own life to kill the person they are after.
So I think in today’s world people are hung up on the belts and are not really looking deep into what it is that made these martial arts last through out time. Lack of history, lack of culture, lack of research, lack of hardship type of training is what is missing in most methods today.
So, all in all, a Black Belt means you have just crossed the warriors path of understanding of what hard work is all about without complaining or giving up once you have attained a certain level of grade. Black belt means you are NOW ready to train amongst warriors but does NOT mean you are even close to being the best. A person who is a high grade should be able to defend them self. If you can’t you really need to question your own personal motives. Once your questions are asked, hunt for the best answers you can find. Because it is your butt out there that will be on the line when some bad-ass crosses that line to harm you.
Always with much Respect
Guro/Sensei/Coach Peter Freedman
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