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Abstract:
It is my belief that
competition in karate shows to the students that if they want to win, the
only way is fighting, instead in karate-do we learn that you can obtain
victory without fighting. Karate-do is a way of life, not a game. Karate-do
has a very high target, it teaches to the people that in daily life the only
way to win, is together with others and not against others. In Japanese
"hito" means "man" and it is written /\, two lines that
seems to stick together, to point out that each man leans to his neighbour,
and he will fall if this support is taken away. It seems to point out that
human being can go ahead only through cooperation and not fighting. I think
that
the two teachings are completely different, you can't do both, it depends on
what you want in your life. I think this point must be understood, it's not
difficult.
A short time ago I sent to José Patrão an
abstract entitled "Winning without fighting":
"It is my belief that competition in
karate shows to the students that if they want to win, the only way is
fighting, instead in karate-do we learn that you can obtain victory without
fighting. Karate-do is a way of life, not a game. Karate-do has a very high
target, it teaches to the people that in daily life the only way to win, is
together with others and not against others. In Japanese "hito"
means "man" and it is written /\, two lines that seem to stick
together, to point out that each man leans to his neighbour, and he will
fall if this support is taken away. It seems to point out that human being
can go ahead only through cooperation and not fighting. I think that the two
teachings are completely different, you can't do both, it depends on what
you want in your life. I think this point must be understood, it's not
difficult."
It was not meant simply as a response to
everybody who practice competitive kumite. I am convinced that those who
find this type of practice fun should follow their feelings. Although I can
see nothing wrong in this, but I think they should admit that it has nothing
to do with Master Egami's concept of karate. What I wrote expressed my ideas
about life, which were formed above all by the discipline and practice of
Master Egami's karate, and before that of Master Murakami's karate.
I began karate training many years ago. At
the beginning, as always happens, it was just a question of emulation, an
experience which gradually turned into knowledge. And now I am beginning the
process of understanding. I have realized that the process of understanding
only started once I began moving together with my partner in natural
movements. I believe that training is a process of self-knowledge that
happens through relationship with others. Initially I only experienced a
conflictual relationship with others, as I was not able to get along with
myself, let alone with others. In spite of all my good intentions, this
approach turned into confrontation during training. It's normal that it
should be like that.
I think that the journey that karate
represents is an extraordinary one. Everyone needs to train incessantly with
great commitment, humility, and patience, and have total trust in his
teacher, in order to grasp, each in his own way, the meaning of this
wonderful discipline.
When we decided to start practicing karate,
we chose to discover through our bodies the relationship between us and
others, and between us and nature. We only understood this further along in
our journey. At the outset, our wish was to strengthen our bodies and our
minds, and only with time did we realize that we were not doing it to
subjugate others.
We exist thanks to other people, we could
not live by ourselves, and we should be grateful for sharing our lives with
them. When we think about happiness, we should also think about that of
others trying to put ourselves into other people's place. It is just because
we put ourselves into other people's place that our training and practice
lead us in the direction of the understanding of the highest victory, it is
then that we become one with our partner and we win together without
fighting. In training we need to get along with our partner, to become one
with him, to really imagine ourselves in his place, feel exactly what he
feels, and experience what he does. If we cannot do this, it will be very
difficult to achieve harmony with our partner solely through technique, and
everything will inevitably become a question of domination over each other,
that is something different from the way of karate that Master Egami has
shown us. His way leads us towards that "hidden world" where
confrontation, opposition, conflict, duality and submission vanish to be
replaced by words such as welcome, accompany, deflect, dissolve, union and
harmony.
I believe that we should preserve the
teachings and principles of Master Egami through our understanding, through
changing and improving ourselves. We need to improve our ability to interact
with the world around us, with others and with nature. Master Egami left us
his testament in his book "The Heart of Karate-Do", previously
published as "The Way of Karate: Beyond Technique". It is not
necessary for us to change techniques. If technique changes through the
years, it will be because we have changed ourselves, because what we want
from life has changed: to build a new kind of existence together with others
or inevitably against others. Then the gedan barai that we execute will be
able to accompany the partner's energy towards its dissolution without
disturbing or damaging it, otherwise it will break his arm. We have been
used to concentrating energy on one point and consequently also our
attention is focalized in one point. It is desirable that each of us
investigate and discover the perception of a state of globality, a
"wide-ranging" attention that includes the focal point of
technique and the whole partner. In this dimension, which is neither solely
physical nor solely mental, technique is not concentrated only on the point
of contact, but irradiates through the whole body of the partner.
It will depend on what we wish to get out
of technique, and technique will always mirror faithfully what we are in the
precise moment of its execution. We certainly cannot be different from what
we are, nor can we teach what we have not understood, but through training
and the commitment to understanding the words of Master Egami we can improve
ourselves and thus contribute, each one in our own small way, to building
the image of karate that Master Egami wished to spread to new generations:
"A training of the spirit that leads to harmony, through training of
the body."
Thank you.
October 2003
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