To polish one’s skill (Waza o migaku [技を磨く]) in karate takes courage, skill unto itself as a discipline within a discipline, dedication and due diligence toward many myriad things. The myriad things of which some are designated as underlying principles given birth from the study and practice of Okinawan Ti (pronounced “Tee”).
In a recent article read written by Michael C. Clarke Sensei, of the Shinseidokan Dojo blog, one must understand about the “Big rocks” of their system or style. If a practitioner has studied and filled their box with large rocks then they can polish their skills accordingly, i.e. fill up their karate with those aspects and ideas and skills and principles and many other myriad things so that the “Skill” is not just the practice and application of techniques but a wide variety of things that make a karate-ka a true karate-ka, a person of quality, integrity and humility, etc.
Even in those days when such disciplines were about survival in a violent conflict those who studied such things instinctively understood that there is more than the mere application of physical violence to achieve goals and that one who is not balanced in such things will apply such skill in a manner not conducive to survival of the tribe, the clan or in modern times the societal group.
Michael Clarke Sensei stated it best as follows, “I've long understood that the character of a budoka is not measured by rank or title, nor by the number of followers they have amassed...but by their behavior in daily life.” The key here is to address, “our behavior in daily life.”
To polish our skills is about the skills inherent in a good person, what makes them good and what makes them admirable to others in forming a strong and resilient tribe cohesive unity. This same unity can only come from within each of us for without that ability our attempts at tribal unity in survival and social cohesion cannot happen. This is to polish one’s skills.
When we polish a technique or principle in the microcosmic way of karate-do we teach ourselves that ability to polish ourselves and to polish our tribe.
Skill is about humility, skill is about intelligence, skill is about knowledge, skill is about application both physical and philosophical, skill is about how we perceive ourselves and how we perceive others, skill is about emotional intelligence both internal and external and skill is about how we handle our daily lives both internal and externally.
Like the great sword of Japan, the katana, the blade does not become strong yet flexible simply by heating the metal and forming the edge, it takes the actions the likes of that make it fold and layer, layer upon layer, while heating, cooling and forging until it takes on a state of strength that still requires a regimen of polishing that makes it a sword unparalleled in time and space as the most artfully skilled weapon that becomes the soul of its owner.
The skill of understanding, the skill of openness and the skill of applying in life takes daily polishing by self-review, self-analysis, and a self-discipline toward the self that only can be done through discipline, dedication and due diligence to all the atomistic aspects that form the holistic whole of the human condition.
This is not the whole itself in explanation of waza o migaku but a path through the door that when pursued leads us to that state and that state cannot be achieved without constant polishing and buffing and polishing of the heart, mind and body.
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