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In Experiments / Ideas, Knowledge Base by andy

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The gojokun is the set of five statements that form the heart of Taido ’s philosophy. Through the years, several different English versions of these five statements have existed. I will present a few of them along with some analysis. With any luck, this article will get to the point of what can be a very frustrating mission statement.

The primary problem with the original 5jokun is typical of Japanese philosophy. It can’t be translated into English words that the western mind will readily “get” without taking a good deal of artistic license. Since English and Japanese operate on different operational principles, they convey different kinds of meaning in different ways. There have been three of four attempts to my knowledge at a literal translation of the 5jokun, but none of them have meant very much to people who weren’t already experts.

Even in Japanese, the 5jokun is pretty vague, and in my opinion sacrifices applicability for the appearance of depth. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing if you are talking about poetry, but I like my “guiding principles” to be clear and direct. What’s the point of having five simple rules (5SRs) if they don’t mean anything? Yes, I know they mean something, but most students don’t really know what that is, and aren’t going to be able to figure it out without a lot of conjecture and uncertainty.

Part of the difficulty here is that we can interpret the 5jokun in various ways, none of which would be present in a literal translation. There are translations biased to different applications of each principle, but this requires students to study several interpretations to understand what Taido is really all about. Here again, we end up defeating the purpose of the 5SRs when we need to extrapolate four or five versions of each.

Anyway, let’s take a look at each major English version of the 5SRs and see if we find some meaning amongst the madness.

Thesis

Here are some official versions:

WTF-era “Official English Translation”

1. Keep your mind as clear and calm as the polished surface of a mirror. This way you will see to the heart of things. Having the right state of mind will help you avoid confusion.
2. Be composed. Body and mind should be as one. Bear yourself correctly and you need never fear insult.
3. Invigorate your spirit from the source of energy deep in your abdomen. With the right spirit you will never fear combat.
4. In every action, follow the correct precepts you have been taught. By doing so you cannot act wrongly.
5. Be adaptable in your techniques and maintain freedom of physical movement. The right technique will prevent you from being dominated.

This is pretty literal. As a result, it doesn’t sound like English when I say it. It has clumsy construction and odd-sounding “fancy” words in place of simpler words that are easy to understand. It also sounds as if the author was trying a little too hard to sound philosophical. But wait, it could be even worse…

An Older Version from America

This is what I learned as a child and wrote about for my shodan test. Rest assured, I didn’t have a clue what this meant until I had given it a lot of thought.

1. If the mind is tranquil and searches for the teachings of the true state of affairs, one will acquire the righteousness of never being perplexed.
2. If the behavior is dignified - the mind and appearance - one will never be despised.
3. If the feelings are concentrated, vigor comes from internal nerve centers. If one has right feelings, he will never be threatened.
4. In every action follow the correct precepts you have been taught. By doing so, you cannot act wrongly.
5. The techniques change appropriately from offense to defense. One who acquires correct adaptability to these techniques will never be restrained.

Wow. What a nightmare. No wonder nobody in America seems to remember these, though John Roberts and I once found that it’s a lot easier after a few cups of sake. This is a fine example of a totally unusable text.

Co-thesis

Here are some unofficial interpretations:

Lars’s Interpretation

Here is a deeper interpretation by Lars Larm, former head instructor of the British Taido group (among other things).

1. Your mind should be serene and see all things as they really are, and if the state of mind is correct then you will not be misled.
2. Your appearance should be correct and orderly and the body and the mind should be unified. If your appearance is correct then nobody will look down on you. your kamae should be mutaimukoo no kamae, in which the physical and mental kamae are unified. If your kamae is correct then nobody will make light of you.
3. Be filled with ki and let your energy spring up from the tanden. If your state of ki is correct then you will never tremble with fear. be brave by gathering your energy in the tanden-keiketsu points, and breathe properly. Then you will become strong enough to defend yourself. (tanaka)
4. Behave according to the proper code of conduct. If your behaviour is right then you will not make any mistakes. move according to the proper principles of movements. If your movements are correct then you will not show any suki.
5. Adopt your techniques according to the circumstances and move your body freely. If your technique is right then you will not be dominated. cope with your opponent’s attacks by changing your position in the 3 dimensional space, and use proper techniques of Taido . Then you will never be beaten. (tanaka)

[sic...]

For all but the first point, Lars lists an alternative which is more combat-specific (which I have put in italics), and two of these are as translated by Yuetsu Tanaka. This is helpful for instructional purposes, but it loses a lot of the power of the 5SRs idea. That’s almost a page of text to convey five ideas. Although I like the conclusions Lars draws here, I would be more satisfied by a shorter version that could be quickly memorized and reiterated during practices.

One important thing Lars does is to relate the gojokun to the five suki, or openings, that Shukumine warns us about in Taido Gairon. The five suki are mind, preparation, energy, decision, and technique. By looking at the 5jokun in light of these openings, we can get a better perspective on how this philosophy relates to use in actual combat.

My Combat-Specific Version, from sometime in the 90s

1. Watch your opponent carefully. Guessing will lead you to be deceived.
2. If your mind and body are properly prepared, your kamae will show no opening for attack.
3. Use your breath to increase your power and stamina.
4. By practicing many techniques, you will never find yourself in a defenseless position.
5. Use continuous techniques to adapt to your opponent’s movements.

Wow again. That’s really taking a lot of license. I include this version here only to show what happens when you extrapolate deeper meaning out of a clumsily worded translation. I wasn’t far off the mark on any of these points, but it doesn’t come close to the thoroughness Lars was able to achieve by interpreting from the original Japanese version.

Tech Taido Version

This is how I broke it down a few years ago for my students at Georgia Tech:

1. If our minds are clear and calm, we can perceive reality.
2. If our minds and bodies are united in our purpose, we can exceed our expected limits.
3. If we employ proper breathing and mechanics, we can move well.
4. If we practice well, we can be sure to act appropriately.
5. If we are adaptable, we can always find a solution.

What I had hoped to accomplish with this interpretation of the 5SRs is something that my students could look at and say “Hey, that makes sense for combat as well as more peaceful aspects of my life.” I tried to make sure that they could understand how each point could be applied to a variety of different venues (and even tested their ability to do so).

I was pretty happy with this version, even though I knew it wasn’t expressing 100% of what’s written in the original Japanese. However, basing my judgement of quality on the ability to create a positive outcome, I wasn’t concerned with preserving any of the original “flavor.” Instead, I opted for something that would improve my students’ understanding of Taido and enrich their practice. But then I took that idea to an even greater extreme.

Taido’s 5 Principles in Operational Language

In most of the interpretations above, each principle is stated as an if/then, as in the original Japanese version, but I find this to be a rather abstract way of expressing prescriptions for action. If we are really trying to state the Five Simple Rules for Taido, can’t we just lay them out like, well… rules?

After learning about E-Prime and operational language (a mode of English which always states everything from a subject-verb-object perspective. Most [good] scientific literature is heavily dependent on operational language in order to make sense and avoid inaccuracies), I started thinking that my interpretation of the 5jokun could use another overhaul. I feel it’s helpful to state the ideas as directives, so we can better intuit their immediate applicability. Here are the 5SRs in operational language:

1. Relax in the Present
2. Focus your Intention with your Actions
3. Learn how to Use and Care for your Body
4. Study and Practice Deeply
5. Adapt and Go with the Flow

This gives us a set of simple instructions that we can enact now, at this moment. Each point is simple and useful. We can see from these rules exactly what we must do to be more effective in anything.

Some Kind of Synthesis

So what do all these have in common? Let’s try to boil each of these five ideas down into a value that the rule attempts to express.

1. a calm, meditative Awareness
2. an Integration of mental Focus and physical Action
3. an Understanding of the body’s Energy systems
4. skill in Judgement, attained through Practice
5. Adaptability, Freedom, and Creativity

These five points seem to sum up the desired end product of each version of the 5jokun above. Whereas the operational version gave us 5SRs, the above list gives us 5 goals to shoot for in everything we do.

Perhaps it would be more to the benefit of our students if we simply taught them what we wanted them to know. I mean, what’s the point of rote memorization and occasional chanting of these vaguely-worded philosophies? I feel it would serve everyone better to simply remind students at appropriate times of the values they are expected to cultivate by certain practices. This way, students can internalize the desired concepts readily.

News Flash: Students can learn more easily if they know what they are supposed to be learning. Up to now, we’ve been making them memorize the rules and telling them that they have to understand the concepts the rules imply. I’m suggesting that we begin by telling them the concepts and asking them to experiment with applying them.

Conclusion

Goal-directed learning is student-centered. By phrasing the 5jokun in terms of the 5SRs or as five values, we give students an idea of where they should be heading. This puts their practice into perspective and allows them more freedom in experimenting (thus bringing new, creative ideas to Taido) while still being certain that they are working within the framework of Taido’s value system.

While there are still many factors in Taido’s educational model that could use a lot of re-working, adopting a workable version of the 5jokun such as those provided above will be one step in the right direction towards a more effective method of teaching.

Content of this page created by Andy Fossett exclusively for Taido/Blog.

Tags: Experiments / Ideas, theory

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