Virtuous Karate Way (Zen’i)

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Virtuous (Zen’i [善意] characters/ideograms mean, “virtuous mind; good intentions; good will; positive mindset; bona fides {legal good faith}” ). One must find and achieve moral excellence as a goal of karate and martial arts study to achieve an enlightened state with humility. (the first character means, “virtuous; good; goodness,” and the second character means, “idea; mind; heart; taste; thought; desire; care; liking.”) 

A virtuous karate-ka can have strong predatory drives as long as he or she also commands sufficient (will) braking power to surmount them. Isn’t this the goal of training, practice, study and implementation of karate and martial arts regardless of certain distinctions about sport vs. fighting vs. combatives vs. defense? 

All this is only possible when we have a clear view of the dichotomy of our brains so that we may train and practice to develop those skills that allow us to put on the brakes when the monkey is driving a truck load of nitro straight at us. The battle waged between the human (logic) mind and the monkey (emotional) mind is more nuanced that we might understand and believe. It is this struggle that allows us to realize and train toward appropriate decisions in both actions and deeds by applying the brakes when certain decisions would result in our damage and injury - psychologically and physically and spiritually. 

Lets call this, “Developing Impulse Control,” where we learn to rein in our monkey’s antics by developing direct new strategies to strengthen our long-term decision making and encoding that into procedural zombie sub-routine memory to tip the internal battle of our minds in our favor. 

This is the journey toward, “Enlightenment,” sought after through the study and practice of the disciplines of karate and martial arts and why such efforts lead toward a more humble and enlightened lifestyle. 

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