Blog – Page 17 – No Brain No Gain

When I was younger, I did Karate. At the end of the class there was a little ritual called “Mokuso”. What we did was kneel down and shut our eyes and be silent for a couple of minutes. Quite apparently it was supposed to be meditation. Unfortunately it was a relic for every Karate teacher I ever trained under, even the Japanese masters. One Japanese 5th dan said in his broken English, “I don’t know what this is about, so you just be quiet until it’s over”. Now the thing about Karate that I find exceptional is that it is a martial art where the aim is to not get into a fight. I will expand on this in a later post, but for now, I would like to explain why this makes meditation a must for karate. One of the things about Karate is that a lot has been lost as the years have passed. It has evolved from a martial art to a sport and a “way” – a path you follow. The Japanese are really keen on having a path to follow throughout life. It is my belief that one of the things that was lost as Karate evolved was anything other than the physical techniques. Meditation? I don’t need that; let’s jettison it. All it took was one teacher who didn’t see the value in meditation and it was passed on (except as I said as a peculiar ritual that everyone did) but no one understood why they did. This, in my view is completely wrong. The fact that meditation was included in the training shows that it was considered important at some stage in the history of Karate. But why? It’s the obvious. Meditation gives you clarity. Meditation gives you focus. For anything that requires the development of techniques, a clear, focused mind is essential. As I said, Karate is an art where the idea is to train for self defence situations, and yet never have to use it. The gravitas that meditation gives you is part of that whole. There is nothing that meditation can’t help you with. I don’t believe in doing anything that is of no value. Unfortunately, I think that is the way many people look at meditation. Everyone has busy lives, it appears. “Wow, I have so much in my day. What can I cut out of it without making an impact on my life? Hmmmmm, meditation? Well sure. I can’t see how doing nothing for 20 minutes a day can help me when I have so much to do. I just can’t afford the time”. Wrong! If you think you haven’t got time, you need meditation more than anything. It will give you many things that will allow you to be more productive. It stands to reason; If you are more focussed you are more productive. Often the reason you don’t have time to get things done is because you do not have enough focus on them when you are doing them. So give meditation a go. I have tried to meditate in the past but found I simply couldn’t do it until I learnt a method that suited me. I will explain it in another post. Image source: mawieser, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=45827361