{"id":185,"date":"2018-03-31T16:02:00","date_gmt":"2018-03-31T16:02:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sageartsstudio.com\/Online_Training\/?p=185"},"modified":"2020-04-05T18:07:50","modified_gmt":"2020-04-05T18:07:50","slug":"the-challenge","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sageartsstudio.com\/Online_Training\/blog\/2018\/03\/31\/the-challenge\/","title":{"rendered":"The Challenge"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
<\/div>\n\n\n\n

One day a hungry old man entered a small village and noticed a sign proclaiming the name of a local Iaido school.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Knowing that it was customary for a dojo’s Sensei to accept all \nchallenges the old man decided upon a very dangerous plan. If he could \nentice the Sensei into a duel and be defeated but not killed, he would \nthen by tradition be offered food and drink, as well as a place to sleep\n for the night.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Summoning up all of his courage the old man approached the dojo and \nthen walking boldly in he proclaimed his intention to challenge the \nSensei to a duel. In response a senior student stepped forward, \nintroduced himself, and said that his Sensei was at home resting but \nthat he would gladly accept the challenge in his place. The old man \nrefused and instead asked that a student be sent to the Sensei’s home to\n tell him of the challenge.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Upon hearing his students report of the events that had just taken \nplace the Sensei immediately put on his swords and hurried to the dojo. \nWhen the Sensei arrived he and the old man politely bowed to each other \nand in turn introduced themselves, after which the old man re-issued his\n challenge, but explained that it was not his intention to challenge for\n ownership of the dojo as was sometimes the case, this duel was merely \nto be a test of each man’s skill with a sword. The Sensei accepted and \nbecause of the nature of the challenge and they agreed to fight using \nonly wooden bokken (practice swords) so that if a customary fatal cut \nwas made neither man would be killed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The old man in truth had no skill at all with a sword, he was simply\n seeking a meal and a place to rest and this plan had seemed to offer \nthe best prospect for success and so as he stood facing the dojo’s \nSensei across the tatami mat he just held the wooden sword very casually\n at his side. The Sensei upon observing how open the old man was to an \nattack and how unbelievably foolish his defensive posture appeared, \nsuddenly began to believe that this duel might not have been such a good\n idea after all. Slowly in his mind he began to wonder about the old \nman’s skill and in turn he began to doubt himself and his own chances \nfor victory.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He knew, however, that his own reputation and that of his dojo was \nat stake and so he took an aggressive posture. For what seemed a very \nlong time the two men just stood there facing one another, neither of \nthem made even the slightest move. The old man for his part could not \nunderstand what was taking so long, but he knew he had no choice in the \nmatter; all he could do was wait for the Sensei to attack and claim his \nvictory. The Sensei on the other hand had by now thoroughly convinced \nhimself that he did indeed face a true Iaido master, but even so he knew\n that he must do something very soon and so he started to move towards \nthe old man, determined to press home his attack with all of his skill \neven though he felt sure now that he had no chance of winning.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The old man seeing the look on the Sensei’s face and sensing that he\n was about to be attacked in full force quickly dropped his sword and \nfalling to his knees he broke down and confessed that he in fact had no \nskill at all with the sword, going on to explain that he had not eaten \nin days and that he had hoped merely to survive the challenge and then \nbe offered a meal and a place to sleep for the night. Upon hearing this \nSensei was suddenly overcome with the realization that by allowing his \nown doubts to fill his mind and by fantasizing about his opponents \nabilities he had almost defeated himself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He decided then and there to change the name of his sword style to “Mu Nen Ryu” – The School of No Thought.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

The Moral of the Story<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Sometimes the biggest obstacles and threats exist only in your \nmind, only because you give them power. Perception is colored by \nemotion, reality and perception are often very different things.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

– Study this<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

One day a hungry old man entered a small village and noticed a sign proclaiming the name of a local Iaido school. Knowing that it was customary for a dojo’s Sensei to accept all challenges the old man decided upon a very dangerous plan. If he could entice the Sensei into a duel and be […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":187,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[68,70],"tags":[73],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sageartsstudio.com\/Online_Training\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/185"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sageartsstudio.com\/Online_Training\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sageartsstudio.com\/Online_Training\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sageartsstudio.com\/Online_Training\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sageartsstudio.com\/Online_Training\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=185"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/sageartsstudio.com\/Online_Training\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/185\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":826,"href":"https:\/\/sageartsstudio.com\/Online_Training\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/185\/revisions\/826"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sageartsstudio.com\/Online_Training\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/187"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sageartsstudio.com\/Online_Training\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=185"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sageartsstudio.com\/Online_Training\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=185"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sageartsstudio.com\/Online_Training\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=185"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}