1 + 1 + 1 = "1"

This is a post on working outside the box. Taking things for training, practice and life outside the comfort zone. A method of understanding that just because the mind says its impressions are this or that, that you cannot create a whole new way of mental impressions toward new innovative ways of thinking.

Normally when we are asked to add one item with another and a third we say we have "three" items. I am posting here to say that in some instances when you add things up they simply equal one thing.

Fundamentals + Kata + Kumite = a martial system with specificity toward karate. I say this only because some marital systems may not actually utilize one of these three. This is where these three, for karate, equal one - karate, one system.

In the fundamental principles of martial systems Stephen J. Pearlman Sensei provides an entire book of principles that when added up equal "one." This is where we break things up to achieve knowledge and understanding. The break down in the process comes from a misunderstanding that when you achieve that knowledge of the many it is assumed one has reached the end, not the beginning.

We have ten "kyu" levels in karate-jutsu-do. Those ten when trained individually are added up or accumulated over training/practice time into "one." That one for a lot of us is "Sho-dan." Sho-dan indicates that a person has achieved knowledge and understanding of the many fundamentals of the system and by achieving this level of "one" now embarks on a journey of a higher level of the many to once again achieve a higher level of "one."

Much like the movie with Billy Crystal when speaking to the character of the Curly about the meaning of life. Curly says to Mitch, Billy Crystals character,

Curly: Do you know what the secret of life is?
[holds up one finger]
Curly: This.
Mitch: Your finger?
Curly: One thing. Just one thing. You stick to that and the rest don't mean shit.
Mitch: But, what is the "one thing?"
Curly: [smiles] That's what you have to find out.

When you begin that new journey as a fledgling black belt it is up to you to figure out what that one thing is as you progress through the ten levels of yu-dan-sha. Her lies the rub. Many don a higher level belt. Some times of paneled colors red and black or red and white. The donning of said belts is not indicative of whether that person truly and fully understands what that "one things, just one thing" is.

Sensei: Do you know what the secret of a black belt is?
[holds up one finger]
Sensei: This.
Deshi: Your finger?
Sensei: One thing. Just one thing. You stick to that and the rest don't mean shit.
Deshi: But, what is the "one thing?"
Sensei: [smiles] That's what you have to find out.