Tengu Ryu and the Teaching of Jesus Christ

by Tom Reed, Dojo Cho

I will boil the teachings of Jesus Christ down to three words: love one another. I mean the Philia or Agape* form of love (love for fellow humans; care, respect, and compassion for them). Obviously this is very difficult to do. If it were not, we would see far less crime and suffering in the world, especially in Christian countries. So we should then ask why loving one another is so difficult. I would say that it is because life itself is difficult.

The Buddha taught Four Noble Truths that can help us understand why life and love are difficult. He taught that life is suffering, or affliction. To be alive means that you will suffer, you will be afflicted. This is his first truth (I subscribe to the interpretation of the original Sanskrit by David Brazier in his book, The Feeling Buddha). The second truth is that we don’t want to suffer or be afflicted. We naturally attempt to maintain some sort of contentment. So we naturally react when even the threat of what is contrary to our contentment arises. Third: we don’t have to react if we can learn to pay attention to our tendency to do so. Fourth: when we live with this attention so that we are able to choose a response instead of reacting automatically, we are living a spiritual life.

The third truth is the one that requires our effort. The effort required is to train ourselves to pay attention to our emotional reactions. Our reactions to things that threatens our precarious contentment typically have tones such as negation, rejection, defense, aversion, prevention and even ridicule, if not anger and disgust. They are rooted in fear—the fear of experiencing afliction of some sort. This could even be the loss of status or the rejection from a group.

I propose that by training ourselves in the forum of kumitachi, we can immerse ourselves in the experience of the threat of what we do not want, that is, the affliction of the strike of a bokken, and learn not to react. To do so, we have to develop the skills of centering, grounding and relaxing (the opposites of the rising and tensing energies of reactivity), skills that only come from a process of taking our attention inward; of watching ourselves react, and learning to be with that process—to monitor it. Once we are able to embody those qualities, we train ourselves to stay with them, maintain them, as we are threatened by oak swinging at our head. Of course, good aikiken technique is what we can rely on for our safety so that we can maintain these qualities. Once tai subaki and kenjutsu are at a sufficient level to rely on for safety, and once we have the ability to center, ground and relax throughout the kumitachi, we can practice maintaining the center, ground and relaxation in the presence of threat. The practice of kumitachi then becomes a practice of conscious non-reactivity. And as we get used to the kumitachi choreography so that it no longer poses a threat, we introduce variations to keep us immersed in a threatening situation so that we are constantly challenged to remain observant and mindful. This is the reason Tengu Ryu exists; to provide this forum, this praxis for the development of ourselves.

What self is being developed? This is a profound question. We have a small self, often referred to as the ego, which is a mental construct not too different than a story—a book or a movie—that we begin at a young age and maintain as our persona throughout our life. The Tengu Ryu motto, masakatsu agatsu, refers to this self. We also have a higher or true self. This is the self that can be expressed to the degree that the small self is diminished.

The small self may come into the dojo wanting to adorn itself with something very cool; the ability to wield a sword. If the Tengu Ryu process is successful, this self will lose interest in the cool adornment and begin allowing the true self to be revealed. This is the self (often spelled with a capital S) that possesses unique skills, talents and interests that are at the root of one’s unique contribution to the world. The True Self is not interested in the ego’s image, in violence, or in domination over others. It is not reactive in that it has no need to defend the ego or maintain a self image. These needs are impediments to brotherly love and compassion. By requiring such needs we are prone to fall into judgement of others who differ from the main character in the story of our lives, or from who we want to be. That judgement prevents love. TheTrue Self accepts that life is affliction. While it is natural and “noble” to avoid affliction when we can, only those who have learned to observe thier own reactivity can accept the afflictions they cannot avoid with dignity.

To facilitate the process of diminishing the identification with the small self, I recommend maintaining a meditation practice. The practice of quieting the mind requires that one addresses the tendency to think and to perpetuate our story, our movie; to continue to play the leading role. In that process we learn the nature of our mind via our observation of its workings, and letting go of our identification with our thoughts, and with our story.

What does this all have to do with Jesus? Do you not think that it will be easier to love others if we have developed the skill to control our reactivity?

Do you not think that Jesus developed this skill himself?

Before his ordeal, Jesus spent 40 days in the desert. What do you suppose he was doing out there? I suspect he was in the process, involving prayer, meditation and fasting, of the complete disidentification with the small self, and the complete embodiment of the True Self. I think he was focusing on developing the strength he knew he would need to maintain an unflinching courage, yet remain non-reactive and non-violent.

Obviously sword practice is not required to enable us to love one another. It is just one practice that can assist that ability. It is one that is suited for those who are naturally interested in budo. It is one that facilitates the contemplation of morality and violence as well as our own vulnerability and mortality and the violent history of humanity. It is one that allows us to develop ourselves somatically, embodying our philosophy and intention, and expressing our own dignity, courage, and the embodied grace that evolves from all of these qualities. Part of gracefull movement is the freedom from the somatic manifestations of reactivity. These are muscular contractions that serve to help us feel protected and strong. As we monitor our body, relaxing, centering and grounding, we can release what tensions we become aware of. This, practiced with the intention to detach from the small self, can be profound and life-changing.

I propose that proper practice of Tengu Ryu can lead to a level of consciousness that is more able to love humanity.

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* Dr. Marin Luther King described Agape as “an overflowing love which is purely spontaneous, unmotivated, groundless, and creative. ... not a weak, passive love. It is love in action ... love seeking to preserve and create community. ... In the final analysis, agape means a recognition of the fact that all life is interrelated. All humanity is involved in a single process ... Whether we call it an unconscious process, an impersonal Brahman, or a Personal Being of matchless power and infinite love, there is a creative force in this universe that works to bring the disconnected aspects of reality into a harmonious whole.”

“But solid food is for the mature, who because of practice have their senses trained to discern good and evil.” —Hebrews 5:14

“You will recognize them by their fruits. Are grapes gathered from thornbushes, or figs from thistles?”

— Jesus: sermon on the mount, In Matthew 7:16:

“Love one another with brotherly affection. Outdo one another in showing honor.” —Romans 12:10

"Your task is not to seek for love, but merely to seek and find all the barriers within yourself that you have built against it." — Rumi