The Synchronicity of Do and Jitsu

In walking the martial path, one refers to Do, or the way of one's life.  When one refers to how a life is lived, they refer to Jitsu, or a series of techniques.  These two concepts are ostensibly separate, yet interrelated, as mastery at one presupposes a degree of mastery in the other.  How shall a person who lives badly perform well?  How can one who performs badly live well?  As such, a martial artist should not worry overmuch on this distinction or its relevance.  Instead, it is advantageous to concentrate on integrating the two domains fully such that one becomes a manifestation of the other.  One's techniques can build a good life.  One's good life emerges from proper form and good habits.

On Whether to Extinguish One's Fire

Anger, in the elemental philosophy of conflict, corresponds to fire.  As fire varies by its intensity, duration, and consequences, so does one's anger.  Annoyance or irksomeness has characteristics of embers which are easily and unpredictably scattered to create larger blazes elsewhere.  A small burn corresponds with shouting, posturing, gesturing, and general displays of displeasure.  Finally, a firestorm corresponds with violence in its power, speed, and merciless energy.  However, like all elements, fire has a weak point.  It burns out quickly and consumes everything it touches indiscriminately.

Fire is not heavy, but is severe in its own way.  It is quick, light, and devastating.  It also spreads linearly.  Wind can spread its intent in other directions or blow it out, water can either evaporate itself or extinguish fire, and earth can either block fire or be melted and forged.

With this in mind, some of the martial persuasion immediately oppose the elemental cultivation of fire as a martial practice.  It is said to be the most difficult element to harness and maintain over time and can be used to evil purposes whereas the other elements tend to direct one's character toward morally sound judgments with little reflection.  Fire on the other hand embodies a moral calculus of power and respect.  Those who wield power brand respect into others.  Weakness is despised.

While the decision to repress and ultimately extinguish one's fire can make sense in a perfectly just, fair society with little chance of warfare, the moral calculus of the battlefield requires an understanding of fire as an element for mere survival.  Killing an opponent in cold blood is not a task well suited for the sensitive and merciful.

In balancing the excesses of fire as an element, one should meditate on harnessing one's firestorms of martial power into controlled metaphors of fury: the flamethrower, the butane lighter, the welding torch.  Unlike the other arts, which can often embody strength through expansiveness, such as earth's size, water's fluidity, and wind's trajectory, fire is most powerfully implemented through its judicious limitation and precision of application.  A quick palm heel to the face which dispatches an opponent is best limited, directed, and restrained to avoid producing unintended consequences such as a fury of damaging strikes which deal more damage than intended.  In life and death struggle, unintended consequences tend toward the favorable; in civilization, they can result in a lifetime's imprisonment.