Invariable Reality!

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Vacant Thunder

This Side..Other Side

‘Oops wrong side’, I remarked. A Sensei retorted, ‘other side’. ‘There are no wrong sides. There is one side or the other side. The right or left.’ I shrugged and continued my practice. Time passed. I never expected to remember it until a week ago, teaching a class of students, karate. In fact I remembered it ten seconds too late. These young karate-kas were performing a ‘kata’ seven shades less than perfect. I expecting more, reacted ‘that is not correct’ and yelled a diatribe of the faults in their kata, while hastily demonstrating ‘this is not right...this is right’.

They meekly continued trying even harder, but their kata still devoid of that finer element. And it hit me. I had just reinforced what they were doing incorrectly rather than focusing and demonstrating only what should be done. I remembered the lesson of the ‘other side’ rather than the ‘wrong side’.

Action is a much better substitute to words. I broke down the movements and they followed. Once they knew how, what was wrong did not really matter. Negative reinforcements are too ubiquitous in our daily lives. At school, teachers focus on how many questions we got wrong. At work, as a software engineer, I read a daily report of the bug (error) count in software or design documents. We are quickly chastised for bad driving, but never commended for the good. Our lives are slowly revolving on not doing things wrong or incorrectly rather than aspiring to do better. Stop! Don’t fix the problems, fix ourselves. Before beginning a new task, homework, recipe in the kitchen don’t have an attitude that ‘well if its there’s not enough salt, I can add some later’ or ‘I can check if my answers are correct later and then correct it if needed’. Think about getting it right the first time. Plan, visualize and strategize the entire series of events that will happen after your first action, before you make your first move. And once you have gone past this stage, act. Don’t worry about how many questions are wrong, or if the foods too salty.

To me ‘kata’ should really be an acronym for ‘Keep Away Thoughts & Act’. It should transcend conscious thought. The only time to think is the beginning. When we act without thought, we act. An old samurai maxim, from the Chapter 1 of the Hagakure states “A real man does not think of victory or defeat. He plunges recklessly towards an irrational death. By doing this, you will awaken from your dreams”. Kata practice should be like so.

Too often in life we focus too much on what went wrong, rather than finding the solution. We focus on the ‘why’ or ‘how’ of things, further exacerbating it by asking ‘why me?’ Problems are not stumbling blocks but stepping stones. In the fear of tripping over them, we should not forget our way.

LA downtown from the Getty

LA - Malibu Panorama

View from the Santa Monica mountains on one of my motorcycle rides.

Tracing Traditions

To trace the tradition of an art is an effort of many lifetimes, and these words are merely my beginning. Stepping back in time, where history meets mythology, I often wonder if the elders of yester years foresaw this quest, and deliberately blurred any line of separation. That, which always is, which has neither beginning nor end, which is eternal in its very essence, ‘Sanatana’, was their true message. Yet, with a myopic understanding I continue my journey, riddled with questions.

The symbolisms that have ornate karate are seeped in tradition. And I cannot but wonder, if these traditions were art specific or more a product of culture and time. I will not retrace the traverse of Bodhidharma, the prince of Sardilli family (Southern India Pallava Kingdom, 482 A.D), from a kalaripaiyttu warrior to the patriarch of Zen Buddhism (28th patriarch of Buddhism) and the introducer of Shaolin kungfu. Chinese martial arts are the foundation for Okinawan karate, to a large extent. Zen is the sanctum sanctorum of budo (i.e., the martial way*), and the underlying wisdom of “Ken zen ichijo” (i.e., Karate and Zen are one). Zen derives itself from the Chinese word “Chan” which in turn finds its root in the Sanksrit word “Dhyan”. So are Indian traditions and symbols intertwined in karate?

Through my recent travel to Kerala, the home of the ancient martial art of Kalaripaiyttu, I began to realize the striking similarities in martial arts to dance. Kathakali, a dance form, shares the exercises and training routines akin to that in Kalaripaiyttu. The channels of energy, the mindfulness, the balance and grace entwine dance and martial arts. I wonder if the tradition of ‘Kata’ (i.e., collection of fighting techniques) in karate, is derived from the story telling nature of dance? Is it just coincidental that the Sanskrit word for story telling is ‘Katha’? Both are more than a series of steps and hand techniques, and truly cannot be framed in words. The stories are so effectively portrayed that they invoke a higher consciousness and is ingrained in Hindu mythology. Tales of Gods vanquishing demons, the triumph of good over evil, to more subtle romanticisms are conveyed through surreal movements from eyes to feet.

A visit to an old temple highlighted even more similarities. The image of the Goddess performing an advanced blocking technique of karate confounded me; before I realized the parody of my thought process. Later, demonstrating the similar posture to someone more traditionally well versed, the answer was quite simple, it was a ‘mudra’, a hand gesture*. This mudra is aptly called the ‘Abhaya – Vardan mudra’; Abhaya represents protection and dispelling of fear while Vardan signifies the giving, compassion and boon granting. These mudras (and more) are the corner stone of classical Indian dance forms. A logical extrapolation is that these mudras also became a part of Buddhism and found its way from China to Okinawa. Does the karate block (i.e., tora guchi) that I have mindfully done only as a self defense technique have a deeper meaning? The totality of any mudra, the higher power it beckons, the internal energy it generates; still eludes my understanding, and the myth – reality dance continues.

Nataraja (i.e., nata = dance; raja = king), the cosmic dance of lord Shiva, symbolizing the cycles of creation and destruction*. A widely accepted symbol as the God of martial arts is Busaganashi (I have not yet completely traced back its roots, but I believe its from Fukien province in China, and Busaganashi is also known as the Nine Heavens Deity of the Palace of Wind and Fire of the Three Field City). Coincidence?

In a world accelerating forwards, traditions play an important role in not losing sight of who we are and where we come from. Tradition is what separates man from man, and how strangely unites him as well.