Do Raku : It can be translated by “the pleasure of the way” or by “playing on the way” (1)

This Japanese expression, barely know by the ones who practice, aims at reminding that the main part in the practice of martial arts remains, above all, the pure pleasure in living it out.
Practising with enough amateurishness in the move to venture to take oneself seriously, to be big-headed. That’s why so many people who practise martial arts, even the high-graded ones, who are blind and deaf, charge with all their pride and with the weight of their obsession at a dead way where they will end up one day crashing without having understood what had happened.
One must live the Budo steadfastly, with no haste, in one’s everyday life as well, without any concern of a progress plan, if not a career path. Simply with happiness, experiencing it deep inside without wishing to explain that without it life would not be as pleasant as it is, that it is the companion of a way of life.
Finding pleasure in practising... with no obssesive and inhibitive aim.

I really wanted to draw your attention to the genuine treasure such a state of mind conceals. Do-raku... above all ! As for us, at the “Budo Research Center”, we are going to live the martial arts as an essential need of our existence, like this air we are breathing, without asking ourselves why or how. We train, we breath, we live. Together. The same pleasure to walk together along the Way. We do not ask anybody anything, we do not belong to anybody. The “CRB” (Centre de Recherche Budo = Budo Research Center), for the ones who do not know us yet, is autonomous, free of its choice, as was the Ronin of long-ago. We will feel again and again this Do-raku in our Dojos, closely-knit by the effort, the trust, the friendship of their Sensei and their Sempai, and of the Kohai who would be willing join us.

Never mind the ones, experienced ones or beginners, who will leave, for thousands of reasons, without having given themselves the time to join our “main core”. Indeed, a lot of people come and go every year without talking to anybody. It’s a shame... for them.
Which way will they manage to settle down on in order to find the “pleasure of the way”?

Roland Habersetzer, 8th Dan Karatedo

translated by Christine