Hombu dojo of 
Shorin-Ryu Karate
    U. S. A.

Making Friends with Life’s Dichotomies

The deck is a laboratory for life; kata, the conduit. The quest is to better your opponent, yourself. The battlefield is both real and imagined; against the external attacker and the internal battle in one's own mind. To succeed one must simply keep moving forward - at times through a subtle shift and others with a full-out charge - and face what's next with full conviction. In trying to vanquish our opponent we make friends with life's dichotomies: to find the ease in what is difficult and to recognize that what comes easily is merely encountering the difficult at its most basic level. 

And, of course, that the more we know, the less we know. We begin to discern between the pursuit of perfection and the pursuit of excellence. Embracing the notion of perfect imperfection gives us the freedom to embrace the journey fully and appreciate that what we do is who we are.

We come to understand there is no crowning achievement, but a series of spirit-polishing victories and retreats. Every arrival is a beginning; a new level of play in this marathon. The battle is revelatory. The quest bears gifts; gifts that render the journey a worthy end unto itself, a way; karate-do.