September 26, 2019

In 1970 when I began my karate practice, there was a great deal of romance and mystique associated with the martial arts, as if they offered a message of salvation, a type of journey to higher ground. I have often wondered what contributed to the spirit of many endeavors of that time, an emergent, ordained zeitgeist of transcendence. To put it in context, it was an interesting era with powerful geopolitical influences reverberating from the echo of the second World War, the existing Cold War, Vietnam, and the real possibility of nuclear annihilation. Yet with all these foreboding forces, there was a resurrection of the human spirit like a prayer of hope for the “good”. I often think of how Morihei Ueshiba’s creation of Aikido, Doshin So’s Shorinji Kempo, or even the pop-culture television show Kung Fu fits into this reactionary motif. This phoenix of spirituality rising up from human dissonance manifested in a "vibe" and if you got it, well…you were "hip". It bucked the establishment and the cultural hegemony that mesmerized the status quo in a type of medicated mediocrity where one day fades into the next and the soul surrenders to fear and the institution. If you were there, you know what I’m talking about.

In extreme circumstances, there emerges a primal "barbaric yawp” as the human spirit exalts and yearns for its higher nature. It is a marvelous phenomena to witness when the purpose of life returns to the individual or the collective and the transcendent vision becomes clear again. Karate-do, aikido, kyudo and many other “ways” offered a road map back to an existence that embraced intuition, perception, and mindfulness. For many of us back then, they were not attempts at self-defense tricks or simply utilitarian in nature. Rather they were all different iterations of a similar human yearning for meaning and a connection to the thing that runs through all things; a totally different way of viewing our humanity. To “wake up”, to be reverent, to be humble just as a function of your being were qualities required in order to knock on the dojo door in the hope to be invited in. It was understood that it was precisely those qualities that would allow you to endure. In other words, with a pure approach, you had to go to “it”, it did not simply come to you — and there lived the magic of transcendence.

How different it is today when enrollment is enticed with a free dogi and all answers can be found on the internet, the collective consciousness but a few key strokes away. Saotome Sensei has a great calligraphy that hangs on the wall of the dojo. It reads, “When you climb the mountain step by step, the mountain moves into your heart.” I’m of the opinion that when we get quiet, we all know this already, and the dissonance that we feel in the world today is only due to the contradiction.

Deep in our nature lies the truth. It was never a thing given, but found... on the top of a mountain.