Tenants of the style
There are many different styles of martial arts around the world, each one with its various strengths and weaknesses. Anyone can learn physical moves but it’s what is done with that information that sets one style apart from another. One of the most important things for martial arts students is to find a martial art style that fits with their personal worldview and philosophy.
All of the Bushi Natahn schools teach the same philosophy: personal safety is important, but you should only use as much force as you need to in order to stop an attack. The legal ramifications of this aside, there are moral and ethicals reasons for this as well. As a hypothetical case study of this point, we focus a lot of time exploring concepts of use of force. Just because I may know how to break to your arm, does that mean that I should? The answer, for us, is not unless I had no other choice.
While we teach students to become proficient in all manners of self-defense techniques, we also emphasize techniques such as de-escalation of aggression and fight avoidance. The fight that you are guaranteed to win is the fight that you never have. Any fight that never progresses past a verbal argument is a fight that you can walk away from. These concepts are buttressed by the Shaolin Creed:
Learn the ways to preserve, rather than destroy
avoid rather than check,
check rather than hurt,
hurt rather than maim,
main rather than kill,
for all life is precious,
and once destroyed can never be replaced
Pillars of Bushido
In addition to teaching self-defense skills, this style also emphasizes personal growth and development of character. We recognize that human beings are flawed and imperfect. However, we should always maintain our best efforts to live a good life and lead others by setting a positive example. As part of our process Black Belt candidates must perform community service before they are permitted to test. The core pillars of Bushido are concepts that we teach our students to live by:
Honesty
Loyalty
Rectitude
Courage
Benevolence
Respect
Honor