Work of Art

Our system can be viewed as an "art." To my view the "art" of karate-jutsu-do is that ability to blend the mind, body and spirit into one cohesive unit of function and application. It involves the ability to achieve a blend of "sight, hearing and touch" to extract what is to be learned and encoding it into your "DNA."

It is taking many individual parts and making them "one" whole. To achieve balance in the life we live we have to achieve an equilibrium of the mind, body and spirit, i.e. Heaven, Earth and Humanity. Humanity is that which makes us "human." Equilibrium of the mind, body and spirit is that perfect blending where one cannot be discerned from the other - a challenge.

I read the following quote in a book on writing. It seemed that writing fiction can be a good metaphor for the art of martial practices. This quote speaks of the connections in metaphor.

"The work of art is always produced by a certain man in a certain time and place, and it is always related to its author's other works, his contemporaries, his sources and traditions, his intellectual, political, economic, and aesthetic climate. Background materials that can help the modern reader grasp the ideas or catch the flavor of a literary work of the past serve a valid and necessary purpose." - Damon Knight, "Creating Short Fiction: The Classic Guide to Writing Short Fiction."

As I contemplate my studies and practice I realize that this quote speaks volumes as to things like "kata." Kata are those collections of techniques that those who created them used to save their lives and possibly the lives of others. They worked and they wanted us to learn from them. This is exactly how the "Greek Warriors" passed down knowledge and experience to their descendants. The Roman Warriors also used kata like drills to train their soldiers and they. like the Greeks, were world known and world feared as warriors - this says something, yes?

We as martial artists must remind ourselves and remain aware that although our systems may be born of a person of a certain time and place, of his works, his contemporaries, his sources, traditions and customs, his intellectual, political, economic and aesthetic climate/environment.  His idea's  and work for that past era are relevant and must be "changed" to fit our world today. Even in those early years, 1900 to 1960's those professional martial practitioners were changing and adjusting technique and kata to meet the needs and demands of that day, time and place - we should do the same.

Even those who participate in MMA, wrestling, boxing and other combative endeavors could benefit from using kata to pass along what is effective and what works. This type of method could make available to the non-MMA participants those aspects that could be translated into self-defense and such.

It is worth the effort to remind ourselves, martial artists, that what we practice is good. It is also worth the effort to remind ourselves that it may need to change to meet the needs of the current time and place, the current moment, the now.