A little more on Principles...

Matthew has been living in Japan for the past year, learning to see the invisible stuff

When it comes to making sense of karate, or any martial art for that matter, it's very often not the stuff you can see that really matters...it's the invisible stuff! To me, making sense of karate means the ability to absorb the core principles of  the martial 'art' you believe you are pursuing. Like all art, karate depends upon a sense of acceptance rather than denial. Giving in to the meaningless distractions of 'styles', 'techniques,' 'kata', and 'past & present masters', is evidence of someone who has yet to truly 'see' what it is they're looking at.

Nothing you do on the outside can ever compensate for things that are missing on the inside. You may believe, as so many do, that an athletic body coupled with an inquiring mind are enough, but then, what of your karate when your body ages and your memory is not all it once was...what then? If your karate has a 'shelf-life' attached to physical fitness, or a 'sell-by' date calculated by the amount of 'stuff' you can show to others, what value is your karate to your spirit? Shin (as in shin-gi-tai), has long been considered a prerequisite to appreciating karate.

Principles appertain not only to the physicality of karate, but (and far more importantly) to the way you appreciate karate as a part of your life. A friend and fellow karateka once wrote, "You can't see principles", and he's right. But you can see the results left by someone who knows how to live by them. Likewise, when your principles change you have no alternative but to change your mind, and in turn, your nature (shin) too. The karate world has always attracted individuals wanting to 'be someone' they can't be in the real world; it's an aspect of human nature driven, not by principles, but by ambition.

The late philosopher and teacher, Krishnamurti, cautioned his followers against the nurturing of ambition when he wrote, "We all want to be famous people, and the moment we want to 'be' something we are no longer free." Such a principle is often difficult for karate people to accept, after all 'they're different', at least in their own mind. But remember, minds change to suit a change in the principles you chose to live by. While change is inevitable as we move from birth to death, changes made with too little thought, is an unstable way to live.

While many karateka expound the need for certain principles, fewer are willing to live by the principles they defend.....