This is an excerpt from Karate: Technique and Spirit by Tadaki Nakamura.

Mei Kyo Shi Sui (A bright mirror calmly reflects the world but is not changed by it.

We should always keep ourselves bright, shiny and spotless, like a new mirror. This is not an easy thing to do; we may shine a mirror very carefully and find that we have missed a spot; or, we find that, within a few hours, dust and dirt have undone our work. Under pressure of work and our families, we may neglect to keep ourselves bright and clean. Obviously, this is what we should always do in respect to our bodies and our physical appearance, but I am now talking in spiritual terms. The Japanese word Kokoro means mind, soul, spirit or inner being. We must keep our Kokoro like a shiny mirror.

When we train in karate we are training our spirit. It is easy to deceive ourselves into thinking, “Oh, I’m terrifically hard and strong.” We may become physically strong, but as long as the spirit is weak, the person is weak, no matter how great the power of the body. In these talks, I often come back to the same themes, which may sound simple, but it is my experience that students must be constantly reminded of them.

Look at little things: how we stand in class, how we pay attention, how well do we do little tasks like cleaning the dojo. If we maintain a joyous attitude, we will do little things well. If we do not keep our spirits bright, then we cloud and cover our spirits with our problems, our worries and our fears. Then, when we come to the dojo, this will be written on our faces and reflected in many little things, such as how we stand.

As we cloak and cloud our spirits in anger, fear and frustration, we can isolate ourselves from other people. I can see some of my students literally shrinking under the self-imposed weights they put on their spirits. People will shrink from us if we have walk around with a tightly drawn, angry face. Soon, a person’s training will not be enjoyable, and the dojo will not be a special place for him or her.

On the other hand, if we keep our spirits like a shiny mirror, then, even if we have troubles and problems — as we all do — we can still smile and be calm and enjoy our training. If people learn that we had problems at one time and gave no hint of them and maintained a strong, calm spirit, they will admire us and gravitate toward us. Karate is for training the spirit.

We are not here just to learn techniques or to become physically strong. I know that all my students will achieve those two objectives by the process of coming to class over a period of time.

As I look around the room today, everyone looks strong and healthy. We are here today for one overriding objective: to train the spirit to become calm and strong. Shi sui — stil water. Even if the calm of a pond is disturbed by someone throwing a stone into the water, the stone sinks and disappears; the stone sends out waves that disturb the surface, but these are soon dissipated and there is no trace of the disturbance.

A strong spirit handles adversity like this. We must strive to develop equanimity and steadiness.

I want my students to approach life’s challenges in a certain way. When you are confronted with a problem, or a challenge, or an important decision, first of all, be calm like the still water.

As yourself, “What is the problem here?” “What can I do about it?” Be realistic and do not give yourself impossible tasks. Do one small thinking toward solving your problem. Proceed one step at a time. Be consistent, and always move forward, even if it’s very slowly. Soon, the challenge will be over, and your spirit will have prevailed. This is the spirit of karate which I want all of my students to achieve.” ~ Tadashi Nakamura

The ultimate goal of karate is the inner development of the whole person. Developing all aspects of ourselves, our mind, our body and our spirit are essential to achieving our potential as people. Often we focus a great deal of attention on developing our bodies and our minds but often neglect our spirit. But peace and happiness come through the spirit.

A three-legged stool cannot stand and be steady if one of the legs is shorter than the other. And so it is with ourselves as well. If we neglect any of the legs of the stool we will always be trying to regain our balance.

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