Your Will Upon a Stone

By Michael Copperman

“If you concentrate your will upon a stone, it can pass through it.”

I learned this Japanese proverb at the age of five, in my father’s Aikido dojo, hearing it read aloud from the little black book called shokashu by a sensei in a black hakama and gi, and then repeating the words in my own little boy voice. The proverb was supposed to speak to how willpower could harness the power of ki, or living energy, but I took the verse to heart and focused on the things I cou...