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seeking the truth through karate-do
- philosophy or fact |
| Many may say what has this got to do with the
study of karate-do. What has my tzuki or keri have do | | with
truth or the search for truth. Amongst the earliest things that I learnt in karate
was that fear can only be | | overcome
by cold truth. What are we afraid of ? For those who diligently practice of karate-do,
this | | simple statement speaks
volumes. If we train with the sole purpose of seeking perfection of technique,
| | we seek to overcome our
physical weaknesses. However physical perfection alone is not enough |
| as there are those intangible imperfections
that need to be eliminated changed, or just improved | |
upon. The first one and the most common one being fear. This is in our minds and
is not a physical | | object
that we can expell when needed. Yet by training and facing fear whilst doing kumite,
we face our | | fear
and try to overcome it. By constant and diligent training we build our confidence
to a level where we | | overcome
our fears. |
| Another
is the virtue of patience - In karate in order to overcome the trait of impatience
we practice | | patience
by training our mind & body to wait in order to achieve perfection of timing
of the technique. | |
A good fighter's face is imperceptible. In order to portray an impassivity in
the face and eyes, we must | |
seek to control our emotions. In order to discern a feint, from the real thing,
we seek to know truth from | |
falsehood. The spirit knows no fear and in karate we seek to make our spirit strong. |
| We go about this by
learning to seek within ourselves the truth. Through our search for truth, |
| we learn about our fears,about our weaknesses and
our strengths, and by understanding them | |
learn how to use them for our betterment. This search for the truth within our
own selves comes | | with the understanding
of the physical training of the body. The more we train the more we understand
| | our shortcomings. The acceptance
of our shortcomings by itself is the acceptance of the truth about | | ourselves.
By training ourselves to overcome these shortcomings, we seek perfection of charectar.
This | | perfection of charectar
can only come about when we seek, understand and accept the truth whether it
| | be about ourselves or the world at
large. |
| About
the author |  |
Sensei Anand Ratna is the Authorized Representative
of the JKA in India and the Technical Director of the JKA | | India
Branch. A JKA 6thDan he is amongst the very few Non Japanese holding the A kyu
JKA Judges license | |
in the World. At the National Level he is a member of the Directing Committee
of All India Karate-doFederation, | |
the Coach of the National All Style Team, a member of the Referee Council
of India and the official examiner | |
for the Shotokan Ryu at the Federation Level. He is a qualified Judge at the Asian
Karate Federation level. | |