Blog Article/Post Caveat (Read First Please: Click the Link)
In recent postings some have provided their personal insights into the terse tome called the ken-po goki-i [拳法極意]. Every single interpretation, except those that strain logic and imagination and are mystical in nature, is beneficial to those who would study it. I would say that every day, every single day, when I read something in regard to the goku-i (ken-po goku-i for short) I find something new to consider, something new to mediatate over, and often something new to add to my understanding of it. It comes down to a certain personalization of the goku-i not just for karate but for the self.
There are many perceptions and versions of the goku-i, but this one that follows is mine. Take a gander and remember that from the first post to the last there will be a divergence in thought, understanding and belief and to my mind from my studies of the English translations of the ancient Chinese classics like the bubishi, I Ching and Tao Te Ching, etc., this is the very nature of its teachings.
I liken the eight lines of the goku-i to the much discussed Zen Koan's of the ancient Zen masters where a word or sentence or story is told and the student's training is about meditating on that presented by the master until he or she has what we American's call, "An Oh Shit..." moment or that enlightened moment of understanding. It is brief but its benefits are life long.
Take a look at what I have provided over the last few decades and let it sink in even when you feel it is outrageous or off the mark or just plain brilliant for the true objective to all of this it to get the novice karate-ka, or person, to think, mulling and searching for their own reality through their own special beliefs.
p.s. remember, another hint that maybe the goku-i is a personal perception of the individual is the saying attributed to Tatsuo-san, Isshinryu creator and master, "All bottles are good; they all serve a purpose!" We all need to go our own way and the goku-i is the terse koan of karate that helps us achieve those objectives and goals.
Here is an offshoot of recent studies toward the yin/yang of chaos/order of some interest to the more philosophical side of martial skills:
Chaos (Konton [混沌]): Chaos; confusion; disorder; chaotic; uncertain; disarrayed.
Order (Kiritsu [規律]): Order; observance; discipline; rules; law; regulations.
Konton to kiritsu [混沌と規律] Chaos and Order
In the dojo one builds skills through a process that begins with our natural tendency toward order because order provides us our comfort zone. The comfort zone is that which brings about a feeling of safety and security in a world filled with chaos.
In order, as you will begin to visualize, to achieve true security and safety we have to deal with the chaos of conflict and violence so as a professional who already knows you have to insert chaos into training and practice to be successful in self-protection. Once a karate-ka achieves a certain level of expertise in the order, the orderly learning and application of the system of choice like Isshinryu, of karate they introduce the practice of chaos or what some refer to as a reality-based adrenal inducing training and practice program.
Chaos training it that huge leap across the divide that separates order from chaos. Like the symbolic representation of the intertwining serpents of taoist yin/yang the interconnectivity and blending in of chaos and order provides a balance, i.e., we ride the border between the ever-entwined pair to achieve the skills and abilities to achieve, maintain and enforce boundaries created and set that help us avoid and deal with conflict and violence.
In the universe, our world, order cannot exist without chaos and chaos cannot exist without order because the two apparently diametric forces feed off one another as depicted in the following:
- Order and Chaos are the yang and yin of the famous taoist symbol: two serpents, head to tail.
- Order is the white, masculine serpent;
- Chaos, its black, feminine counterpart.
- The black dot in the white - and the white dot in the black - indicate the possibility of transformation:
- just when things seem secure, the unknown can loom, unexpectedly and large.
- Conversely,
- just when everything seems lost, new order can emerge from catastrophe and chaos.
- Meaning is to be found on the border between the ever-entwined pair.
To allow one or the other to force one’s journey off that border line of the symbolic entwined pair of serpents leads us to death and destruction, the end of the universe and our world. The human species survives through its ability to gather and work as one group, a civilization if you will of communities and families that come together for the common good and fight against the incoming tide of chaos and the chaotic.
To achieve this we create rules that speak to our values and our values glue our beliefs in a way that sets the foundation of our ability to ride the line that twines the shores of chaos and order to ebb and flow in peace and harmony for the furtherance of human survival even at the higher levels of harmony and enlightenment.
It is and has always been said, "Virtues are simply ways of behaving that are most conducive to happiness in life. Cultivate judgement about the difference between virtue and vice, a beginning of wisdom.”
Embrace order to allow chaos into our lives for chaos can be tamed enough to allow the comfort and harmony found in order. Chaos is not to be avoided like some plague nor stopped through the inoculation of some desire but embraced as a part of life. Order begets order through the taming of chaos; chaos begets chaos when order fails. Yin/yang or balance within chaos and order. Mull this one over, let the mind meander and enlightenment reach our harmonious mind, body and spirit in the light of day and the dark of night where the between presents the beauty of a sunrise and a sunset.
Peterson, Jordan B. "12 Rules for Life: An Antidote to Chaos." Penguin. May 2, 2019
For reference and sources and professionals go here: Bibliography (Click the link)
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