The injury that I got while sparring in the class turned out to be a calf bone fracture, and my leg has been in a plaster cast for over a week. This has made difficult many of the things that I had taken for granted – walking, driving, bathing, even turning over in the bed. Martial arts training has been completely ruled out during this period. Or, so I thought at first. There may be few options for me to train my body as the bone heals, but this period of forced rest is giving me an excellent opportunity to cultivate and strengthen what I consider to be the defining spirit of a martial artist. Though the title gives away the name of this spirit as titiksha, what it is and how it is related to martial arts would need some elaboration.

Titiksha is the Sanskrit word for a concept that has an important place in Hindu philosophy (from which most eastern philosophies have drawn heavily, which in turn have influenced oriental martial arts), which roughly translates to endurance or forbearance in English. It is one of the six treasures listed in vedanta (one of the six main schools of Indian philosophy) as being essential for a spiritual seeker. For our purpose, we can go with the definition of titiksha given by Sri Sankara (a proponent of Advaita philosophy) in his work vivekachudamani.

I found it interesting that the kanji for Shinobi (Ninja) also means endure. It is formed by the symbols of heart and knife, and perhaps symbolizes suffering being stabbed in the heart with a knife. Ninja is written with the kanji for endurance and that for person, and can thus be read to mean as the person who endures. A fitting name indeed, for those who commit their lives to the way a warrior.

This now brings us to the question of why this quality is of significance in martial arts, which is usually associated with fighting to change things the way you want rather than endure them. I cannot claim to know the right answer, nor am I sure if there is a single right answer. But what I personally feel, is that the true mark of strength is in the ability to endure, and that it is the only kind of strength that is fully within you. A person becomes truly strong when he’s able to handle anything that is thrown at him. This does not mean just the punches or kicks from his mortal opponents, but includes the situations that life puts him in. Victory or defeat, pain or pleasure, life or death, renown or disgrace – the ability to face all of these with tranquility, not be affected by them; that is true strength, and to attain it is the ultimate aim of martial arts.

This point becomes even clearer when we appreciate that the other strengths that one may acquire are both relative and ephemeral. The strength to subdue an opponent, for example, also depends on the strength of the opponent, and works only on those who are weaker than oneself. This strength is also precarious. A small accident is enough to deprive one of this strength acquired through years or decades of training. Even if we rule out any such occurrence of chance, this strength is drained away by the unstoppable passage of time. The strength to endure, on the other hand, grows with time and, beyond a threshold, becomes absolute.

In my present situation, it is not just the pain of a broken leg that I need to endure; it is also all else that comes with it. The helplessness of not being able to do things on my own, the toll it takes on my work, the way in which it upsets my plans, the trouble it causes for my wife and kids, the itching under the bandage that I cannot do anything about, everything. To accept one’s situation without complaining, without even feeling bad about it; that is indeed something worth training for.

But how does martial arts train one in the spirit of titiksha? It starts with physical endurance. Working your body beyond its normal endurance limits makes us realize that what was once unbearable and difficult has now become easy. By throwing a few more punches when you are already exhausted, holding that stance for a little longer when your legs are at the point of giving way, all those exercises help to extend the limits of our physical endurance. They show us that pain and discomfort are but temporary, and they will pass.

There also comes a time we start seeing the pain and suffering from outside – as being in the body and not in us – without being affected by it anymore. This, I think is an important milestone in the journey towards absolute endurance, or titiksha. In his book “Karate Do – My Way of Life”, Gichin Funakoshi sensei quotes Matsumura sensei, who says:

“I realized that I had been obsessed with relatively minor matters—with refinements of techniques, with the skill of teaching, with flattering the head of the clan. I had been preoccupied with retaining my position.

Today I am a wiser man than I was yesterday. I’m a human being, and a human being is a vulnerable creature, who cannot possibly be perfect. After he dies, he returns to the elements—to earth, to water, to fire, to wind, to air. Matter is void. All is vanity. We are like blades of grass or trees of the forest, creations of the universe, of the spirit of the universe, and the spirit of the universe has neither life nor death”

This is the state of consciousness that I believe can be achieved through continued and dedicated practice of traditional martial arts, with due focus on all its aspects including breath control and meditation; and, having once attained which, will render all external factors powerless to affect.

Needless to say, this spirit of titiksha does not prevent a martial artist from making an effort to bring about a change, fighting, or from doing anything else that he could have done in its absence. The difference that it brings about is that his actions will not be driven by uncontrolled emotions (such as fear or anger), but will rather be based on unclouded judgement of what must be done. The impact of this one difference is, however, stupendous.

One argument I’ve heard that seeks to reduce the importance of proactively cultivating the spirit of endurance is that when people are put in a difficult situation from which there is no escape, they endure it – because that is all they can do. Then why make an effort or undergo suffering just to develop the ability to endure something that you don’t even know if you’ll need to endure, and something that you’ll anyway end up enduring if the need comes, even if you haven’t made any special effort to prepare for it? There are two counters to this argument.

The first is in the quality of endurance. If one is put through suffering that he’s unprepared for, he might very well live through it, but in most cases he would only be suffering that condition and not enduring it. True endurance, or titiksha, as noted before, consists in being able to endure without being affected by it.

The other counter is that even though one might end up enduring a painful experience when he is exposed to it, unless he has the spirit of titiksha, he will be afraid of that experience and he will try to avoid it even when the situation demands that he embrace it. For example, there may be many who are able to endure a limb being severed if it comes to that. Among these, only few will be able to willingly sacrifice a limb in a death match even if they know that it can tilt the outcome in their favor. And fewer still, would do that for the sake of another, or for some greater cause. Titiksha removes fear from the equation and opens the door to many more possibilities. With no situation being more desirable or undesirable than any other, it also frees one from anger or hatred towards others who are often perceived to be responsible for the mess that they end up in. Thus, while titiksha cannot in itself ensure victory, it can help one to bring out their full potential without being held back by fear or confused by anger.

On a closing note, this is my view of what the defining spirit of a martial artist is, and will not apply or appeal to all. So you may agree with me, or have a different perspective depending on your own approach to and philosophy of life, the style of martial arts that you practice, the purpose that you seek in martial arts, and so on. In either case, I’d love to hear about it from you.