The Road and The Way
The Karatekas journey towards becoming “that self which we truly are” is a journey into the psyche, which involves listening to feelings and emotions as well as thoughts. All psychic events are guides to discovering our inner selves, but making sense of feelings and emotions may not be the easiest of projects. Some feelings and emotions are direct responses of the inner self to the outer life. Others result from the repression or denial of some more basic emotional response. Still others may come up just because some part of ourselves has been asleep too long. Some emotions are celebrations; others point out homework. Some seem negative; others appear to be positive. Feelings and emotions – all of them – are guiding and driving forces. They can also be like nudges, or even kicks, from some aspect of the inner self which is saying, “Wake up! Pay attention to me! Let me out, let me be!”
Self-actualization is a search for the center of our being, which ironically is meanwhile directing the search. In a way, self-actualization takes place by itself, for there is an innate urge towards living out our inherent nature. Through Traditional Karate do training, living out our human potential means consciously connects with the core self. Doing so depends on being willing to listen to the messages of the Self, which take the form of psychic events: feelings, emotions, intuitions, thoughts, and images. To listen to these messages is to explore the psyche and seek out something not yet known – the inner Self. It is also to discover ways that the psyche and psychic events can impact on the body, and ways that the body can influence the psyche.
Self-actualization is a search for the center of our being, which ironically is meanwhile directing the search. In a way, self-actualization takes place by itself, for there is an innate urge towards living out our inherent nature. Through Traditional Karate do training, living out our human potential means consciously connects with the core self. Doing so depends on being willing to listen to the messages of the Self, which take the form of psychic events: feelings, emotions, intuitions, thoughts, and images. To listen to these messages is to explore the psyche and seek out something not yet known – the inner Self. It is also to discover ways that the psyche and psychic events can impact on the body, and ways that the body can influence the psyche.