There are a lot of worthy principles to be found in Funakoshi Gichin's Niju-kun (Twenty Principles). "Trouble is born of negligence", "Transform yourself according to your opponent", and "Imagine your arms and legs as swords", are teachings that within them have a lot of things to teach us about karate. Funakoshi's adages are excellent examples of how to live prepared in karate. Their meanings in Japanese are even more exquisite than they are in English, although I believe that these words still have equal resonance in people all over the planet.
But out of all twenty principles there is one that speaks to me louder than any other. It is the sixth of the twenty sayings, "Kokoro wa hanatan koto o yousu", translated as "The heart needs to be freed."
Freedom.
The word on its own conjures all kinds of images and emotions. It is the thing that people in oppressive nations dream of. Prisoners, having it taken from it, know keenly the loss that they have suffered. It is the thing that sends people travelling across the face of the earth to find for themselves. It is the dream.
Freedom, the cause. Freedom, the vision.
Maybe we don't really appreciate what freedoms we have in the western world. We associate it with "rights" and we become petulant and argumentative when people "mess with our rights." Maybe we don't even know what it is. Maybe we have been so bombarded by the noise of television, the internet, and yahoos on talk radio to think for ourselves what it means to be free.
Some eternal bachelors stay unmarried to "be free". Others marry the spouses of their dreams to be "free" of a life of loneliness and a life without someone to share their experiences with. Some couples are "free" of children. Others have kids to see their freedom extend beyond them into the next generation. In work some people want to keep their "options open" and move freely from one job to the next. Others are able to dedicate themselves to a particular craft, career, or company so that they may be free to move upwards in their professions.
It is safe to say that for a large part, freedom is relative. What might be considered freedom for one person is not the same for another. What is also quite important is that people need the freedom to discover for themselves what it means to "set them free". Maybe some people would disagree with me. That is fine, I hope that they are "free" to do so.
What does "freedom" mean in the contexts of karate, though?
This might be a controversial thing to state so openly but in my mind when an adult student has taken their shodan (first degree black belt), they need to be freed.
I have been told by many people in the karate world that I am most certainly wrong in this statement. They tell me that, "First degree black belt only means that you are a beginner". It is true that they are beginner black belts. But they are black belts.
Adult black belt should mean, "You have earned your wings. Welcome to the sky."
Taking your shodan is a tremendous challenge, or it ought to be anyway. When an adult student takes their black belt they have in essence, earned their wings. Maybe they are lousy at smooth consistent flight but they have most certainly earned their place and right to start flapping. True, they are beginning to fly, but they need to have the allowance and space to do so.
Your teacher should be your flight partner. They should suggest to you how and where to fly, much more than telling you what to do. They should have properly trained you up to this day, and knowing it was inevitable, taught you what shape your wings were taking.
In the karate world, you may have particular strengths based on your personality and character, as well as your natural physical abilities. Maybe you will stretch out your wings as a top tournament competitor. Maybe your strengths grow in teaching karate to beginners. Perhaps the sky opens up in front of you as it relates to researching the scientific or historical nuances of karate. Or perhaps your best strengths for the growth of your karate lie in the socializing of the art, the civilizing balm of karate between people participating in this martial art.
Maybe your karate sky opens up in places between different horizons. At any rate, the massive expanses of the deep blue sky has room enough for all the eagles and hawks of karate.
Intuitively, instinctively, reflexively we know when we are free. We know when we are free to soar. We also know when someone wants to clip our wings, stuff us in a cage, categorically define us, and try to make us a pet, slave, or worse.
We know full well the sound of the rattle of the jailer's keys.
In the karate world we need to be cautious to whom we give power over us to. We needn't blindlessly resist instruction from those trying to teach us, but we need to enter into teacher-student relationships based on trust, mutuality, and respect.
Bad cases occur in situations where the teacher tries to control the student too much. Like an over- protective hysterical mother-hen, the teacher squashes any sense of self-worth the growing student has in his own karate. Filling the student with self-doubt, and thus self-hatred, the controlling sensei need only cluck-cluck his tongue, and shake his head side to side to fill the student with shame and embarrassment. The student is taught early on that he can never surpass the master, let alone step outside the master's shadow.
Other bad cases exist in situations where sensei is the source of all information of karate, and the only voice to be heard. There is pressure both real and imagined that should sensei be shown to be wrong, mortal, or mistaken that the student would be cast out in biblical fashion, Eden would be shut down, and the avenging flaming sword of God would bar the cast-away from ever entering again.
If you are an adult black belt who has been cast down in Luciferian style consider yourself fortunate. You are not in a Dante-like infernal imagination of epic proportions, but rather are in the world that Chaucer best describes as "up-so-doun". It is the reality of reversals. It is the reality of the world turned inside out and you are learning the best lesson you will of your karate life. You may have been stretching out your wings and reaching out beyond the cage gilded for you unexpectedly found yourself on the outside of the aviary. You have realized your truer place in the universe.
International Shotokan karate will go through some radical changes in the next several years. The old guard, the masters of the Best Karate series, the karate-sensei of Herculean description and stature, are waning.
It is a classic tale. Living legends age and become part of the rich backdrop of the present. They become part of a historical heritage, still participating more in the conscious efforts of their prodigy, rather than taking the head of the dojo themselves.
In short, they are dying out and those left behind must decide what next steps to take. There have been mistakes on the part of these original pioneers of karate. They have neglected to replace themselves. Maybe they subconsciously thought that karate would die with them. But it will not. There is much more beyond the span of any single human life.
So the question remains, are they preparing you for the sky? Are they showing you topography beneath you that you did not know existed? Are they flying ahead of you, encouraging you to see what they have seen? Are they broadening your flight, making you stretch your wings further than you knew you could?
Or are they trying to get you back in the cage?
The father of karate, Funakoshi Gichin, knew what he was talking about ages ago.
The human heart needs to be freed.
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