Strike of innocence

25 June 2009

Our shoes worn off
still on the path – completion
just one breath away.


Strike of innocence

Written after discovering the personality of Mas Oyama / Choi Bae Dal, the founder of Kyokushin Karate:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Up2Jt_ErIc&feature=related

There is an area of absolute innocence in every single being – which never gets destroyed, but just covered, wrapped up in clouds of ignorance.

A truthful strike or attack in martial arts shall be such that you hold to that place of innocence, by going deep inside yourself, letting your attention dissolve into it. Then any attack, any blow, any movement of your sword or jo are gestures of salutation: from your rediscovered innocence, to the innocence in your “fighting” partners. By saluting innocence, ignorance is weakened and dissolved.

Each step on our path to enlightenment should be made in salutation to the innocence and the unblemished purity inside ourselves and the others, and with the intention of putting down ignorance – inside all our partners in growth.