San ma no i (Sahn mah no ee) or Three Exercises

First, what are the three exercises? One, is to "receive right teaching," second, is to "dedicate   oneself to the teaching," and three is to "apply one's own ingenuity to what is learned from the teachings."

I have posted on this already but the third teaching is my focus for today's post. The key to this third exercise for me is its inference to "one's own ingenuity." It speaks to my previous mention of taking what has been taught and learned that is more a traditional teaching method for beginners and take it outside the box and into a more holistic model for practice and ultimately application.

There comes a time when one who practices life martial systems must break free of the dogmatic adherence to some traditional/classical means of practice as passed down from the "master" to achieve true personal original and inventive means of applying and practicing that becomes unique to the individual. It requires taking what has been taught and learned and injecting a persona inventiveness through self-power of creativity to achieve enlightenment, both physical and spiritual.

It involves a great effort on an individual basis to apply ideas to solve problems and meet challenges of karate-jutsu-do - inside and outside the training hall. One must solve their own personal difficulties in a more original and creative way. This is training the mind for the mind leads the body and only by the cohesive holistic means of training in this fashion can one achieve such spontaneity in applications. It moves the student from mimicking to creating originality in the way.

To achieve mastery one must first let go and find the appropriate path to cross the mountain using whatever tools they find along the way be it a fallen log to cross a stream or create a tool from the environment to build a fire to keep warm on cold winter mountain nights.

A student must follow Sensei to build the foundation then take the rest as a means to be clever, original, and inventive to build a true house of personal individual martial ability. This is what Tatsuo-san did in creating his system/branch - Isshinryu.

Be ingenious; be clever; be resourceful; be inventive in your practice and training!

Bibliography:
DeMente, Boye Lafayette. "Japan's Cultural Code Words: 233 Key Terms That Explain the Attitudes and Behavior of the Japanese." Tuttle. Vermont, Tokyo and Singapore. 2004.