Deshi:  We train very martially here.

Sensei:  How do you know that?

Deshi:  I can feel how effective things are, how hard, intensely, and rough we train.

Sensei:  To the moth, the spider’s web feels like a steel trap.  To the wind, the spider’s web is but a wisp away from destruction. 

Deshi:  Am I not to judge things by how they feel upon me?

Sensei:  Who can do otherwise?

Deshi:  Is there some shortcoming to doing so though?

Sensei:  The shortcoming is in doing no more.

Deshi:  What else is needed?

Sensei:  You need a critical mind, one by which you can orient your self-reflections beyond your subjective preferences.

Deshi:  What will such a mind show me, in this case?

Sensei:  It would give you questions by which you could verify your opinion – from more than one point of view.  Know this: What is true is rational, and what is rational is reasonable, and what is reasonable is reasonable from many points of view. 

Deshi:  Which question am I missing?

Sensei:  You are but a beginner, correct? 

Deshi:  I have trained but three years. 

Sensei:  The warrior is a cultivated person.  His or her craft comes through acquisition alone.  Acquisition requires the passing of time.  How martial can something be if but a three year old survives the technique with but a sense of having been roughed up a bit? 

Deshi:  Then, the technique is not martial?

Sensei:  You should have gone the other way. 

Deshi:  What do you mean?

Sensei:  Rather, you should note how what is martial cannot yet be experienced upon your body, because you are not cultivated enough to survive adequate application of such a technique. 

Deshi:  The intensity tells me nothing?

Sensei:  In this case, it tells you only how much more cultivation your body/mind requires, not how martial our applications are.