כתבה :

Give up your mind and your mind will stay full.

No matter how technically skilful you are, if you are not able to give up wining, to let go of controlling the situation, your fighting ability, your ability to use the tools you have will be limited.

There is a story about famous samurai in the 16th hundred, Miyamoto Musashi, who used to go around dojo and challenge the seniors, that was a way to test his skills, and once he came into a school and said that from all the students there was only one young white belt that he would worry about, he could sense that even though this white belt did not have much technique, he would give up his life if necessary.

The term Ho-Shin, means to give your mind completely, not to hold anything back, when you give everything away, not only that your physical technique will have all your being in it, all your mental and physical potential, but also paradoxically, because you give everything away your mind will stay full, meaning free, ready for any change in the situation.

We are afraid to commit ourselves because we might make mistakes, but here we say that when we commit one hundred percent, we implement our decision better and more completely, and we are able to flow and adjust to the changing necessities better.

My teacher, Sensei Nishiyama gives this analogy: if you pour a cup of water slowy when you turn it back up there is nothing left, but if you turn it down decisively and at once, when you turn it back up you will still have some water in the cup.

When you make decision, give everything to it, don’t hold back anything, and you will be free, and your intuition and experience will work for you, if you hesitate, have doubt, you will have contradiction in your movement and in your mind, the opponent will have more chance to capitalize on, and you will be stuck, unfree.

Aiko san, my teacher’s secretary, who is very wise and intuitive, she is commited to karate for the past 45 years, told me if you want to control the fight give up control, in Budo (Japanese martial arts), the wish to win is the beginning of loss.

Ai Uchi in Budo means mutual killing, we say that when facing an opponent we must have feeling of Ai-Uchi, if I am willing to give my self away, I have nothing to lose, the opponent feel no space or chance to attack, since my mind is complete, without doubt or hesitation, most opponents will give up mentally when facing a person with that kind of spirit.

In karate we know that the mental and physical potentials of most people is much greater then what they actually apply.

We all know stories about women who demonstrate unusual feats to save their babies, in karate we can systematically learn to use more of our potentials.

Because of traumas and past experiences, and as a protection mechanism of the body we are not using our full potential, in karate on the one hand we develop proper technique and coordination, so when we use our full potential we will do it with good mechnics, and at the same time we learn to remove mental inhibitions, doubts, and give all of ourselves to a task.

We learn how to use intention and breathing to guide our muscles, and we develop a strong spirit, yet we differentiate between spirit and emotions, since being emotional is an obstacle and is different than being spirited.

I can only explain the concept in writing, but the actual method of learning to give everything has to be learned in class, with your body and whole being, than we can turn the concepts into actions.

I believe that this concept can be applied to every area in life, karate can give you the tools.

Miyamoto Musashi said that an expert is a person who is great at his art, but a master is one who can applies the principles of his art to every area of his life.

כתב:  סנסאי אבי רוקח