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Even with a good method, concrete progression is never guaranteed.   A lot of hard training does not offer assurrence for success.

Initially one needs a good dose of perspicacity to be able to adapt the proposed elements in the method.  We are not robots and the application of a method, as good as it may be, as a universal mechanic, will never be sufficient to allow us to progress to a higher level.  It is thus necessary to train with perspicacity.

zhan zhuang (ritsu-zen) practice in the forest

It is also necessary to be armed with patience.  Nothing can force a qualitative change to globally come to be.  Our bodies posess their own rhythm for the acceptance of certain profound changes.  The mind also understands certain things only at the time of its highest availabilty.

Time thus plays a determining role here.  This elastic element lengthens as well as narrows according to the experience in personal practice.  It is not the notion of the passage of time that assures progression, it is the capacity to effictively overlap it in the whims of the extension and compression of our perception.

Finally, one thus needs a great perseverence to maintain the constant change that is the mark of a efficient and profitable practice as well for our budo in every aspect of our lives.

Over the course of our exploration as martial arts practitioners, we often seek comfort in one form or another; that is to say, we seek the implicit approval of our master or professor, the social recognition of an “official” diploma, the transitory pride of a competition medal, ect.  We often only need to not feel ourselves in the our progression in the work of budo.

Yet our road is a solitary enterprise.  Even if we constatnly need another to evaluate our progress, ultimately we are alone on our course and will be the only judge when it inevitably draws to an end.

This solitude, especially its acceptance, is necessary for real progress.  However, few people can really face and endure it.  We often depend too much on the approval of a master or a form of admiration from students.  It is always curious that a person, as an adept in martial arts, feels the need to give power to another person, to allow themselves to be dominated by another under the pretense of saying they progress.

Our training is a personal affair.  Certain people never achieve their independence in their practice and on the route traversed, to their detrement.

We are alone in each training and alone are able to appreciate its quality.  The pain and pleasure that we derive from the practice is a good personal experience.  When does one become mature enough to travel on their way alone?  In a perfect world, it would be left to the professor/master to celebrate the independence of his students solo voyage.

However, too often professors/masters cultivate an artificial dependence for their students.  On the other hand, many students prematurely claim this independence without a proper base of training essential for real independence.

Finally, it is here that we move towards the business of maturity.  Maturity brings the realization and acceptance of the solitude of personal advancement.  This same maturity is what guides a professor/master to wish to see his student born into independence.

Although, as followers we know viscerally this reality which is solitude, it is good to remind ourselves from time to time.