THE ZEN MIRROR

Life & The Scenery of Life

By Jeff Brooks

Imagine yourself five hundred years ago. The Emperor has handed you a message. It is urgent. You need to deliver it across the empire, half a world away. If you succeed, he tells you, you will receive a great treasure. If you fail you will die.

In this case you will take your mission seriously. Under this circumstance you will do whatever it takes to succeed. You set out. Along the way you will encounter all sorts of terrain. There will be lush regions. You will be tempted to stay, to enjoy the comforts there, to delay.

You will have to cross hostile terrain. You will come upon difficult, dangerous regions that are inhospitable to life. You will be tempted to give up. To turn back.

If your comfort is foremost in your mind, you will never complete your mission. All will be lost, and you will die. If, however, you never lose sight of your ultimate goal, if the urgency of your mission is always clear in your mind, no matter what your outward circumstances, you will never be distracted by the changing scenery around you. You will notice your environment, of course. It will matter. You will have to adjust to accommodate its demands. But the immediate conditions will never be as important as fulfilling your mission.

Our lives as practitioners are like this. There will be attractions along our way that may distract us, and tempt us to wander from our path. There will be times when our practice will feel barren and arid, not satisfying, not delightful, not even interesting. We will be tempted to delay or to give up.

If we recognize the ultimate purpose of our training – the purpose our practice serves us daily, and the ultimate reward that it offers us, the complete fulfillment of our potential and our mission as human beings – we will never be distracted by the shifting scenery of our lives.

Free from those conditional distractions, we can traverse the paths of life freely, energetically, firm in our conviction that what we are doing is right, and utterly essential.

We wish all practitioners complete fulfillment of their goal.

Jeffrey M. Brooks

Jeff Brooks (9th dan), began martial arts training in 1978 and opened his first karate dojo in Northampton, MA (1988 through 2009), while also conducting self-defense seminars, professional programs in combative skills and served as a regular contributor on Zen and karate-related topics to FightingArts.com.

Jeff then moved to South Carolina  and started a career in law enforcement, serving as a police officer, then  detective, defensive tactics instructor, firearms instructor, PPCT instructor, Deputy US Marshal, and Deputy Sheriff. After retirement, he founded Mountain Karate in Saluda, NC.

In karate Brooks received his 5th degree Black Belt from the Nagamine honbu dojo, his 7th degree black belt in 2004, and his 9th degree black belt in 2022, in recognition of his formation and leadership of Yamabayashi Ryu. He studied with leading teachers in Okinawan, Japanese, and Chinese traditions, in the US and overseas, including Katsuhiko Shinzato (the translator of Shoshin Nagamine’s Essence of Okinawan Karate Do, and formerly a student of the Kishaba brothers’ karate and kobudo); Sogen Sakiyama, Roshi (direct student of Miyagi Chojun, and practitioner of Goju-ryu karate); and Shoshin Nagamine (Chief of the Motobu District Police, Mayor of Naha, and founder of Matsubayashi Shorin Ryu).

Jeff Brooks has written hundreds of published articles on martial arts, and Zen and has been cited widely online and in print. He wrote speeches and presentations for high profile public figures in politics, media, business and the arts.

He is author of several books including “True Karate Dō”, available on Amazon.com