Walking a Path

Canadian culture, and by extension US culture, suffers from a staggering lack of patience. I would go so far as to say that it borders on narcissistic. A few months ago I was standing in line to pay for my groceries when a women behind me asked if she could cut ahead of me because she only had, “a few items” and was in a hurry. I said, “fine” and let her jump the cue, but then two minutes later a man behind me asked to do the same thing. This time I politely said, “no” and the man was clearly shocked at my response.

In both instances I thought about why these people felt somehow entitled to jump ahead. Perhaps it’s the advertising, media, sales and services that we are constantly inundated with that have made people believe they have a sense of entitlement and that they can have anything in an instant. Perhaps it is the age of technology and information that we live in where the simple “click” of a mouse produces instant results.

The answer, of course, is that none of us can have what we want in an instant and this especially true in the dojo. People need to come to terms that many endeavours, such as Karatedo and Kobudo, that they requires a tremendous amount of time. You can’t simply throw-out the clock and think you’ll master them tomorrow. Yet how many beginning and even senior Karate and Kobudo students fail to grasp this basic idea? They come to practice when it suits them and even when they do, they are loath to put in the effort thinking that somehow they can pick up the skills of Karatedo or Kobudo through osmosis.

Instead, students need to build a solid foundation, and think about polishing their skill at every opportunity (技を極める). Karatedo, and Kobudo contain in them the kanji michi/do (道) which implies that at their heart they are a journey, not a goal. When you take a long-term view towards training in Karatedo and Kobudo you are not going to quit after the first month (at least I hope not). You will persevere because your practice has been grounded on a path and your teacher (hopefully) is guiding you along it towards self-mastery and personal responsibility.

Good training.