This Guest Post is by one of the adult yudansha in our dojo (Hikari Dojo), Peerawut "Peter" Kamlang-ek.
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Nice Karate Dream
This is a story.
A student joined the dojo for the very first time and he
loved it since his very first day. He felt like this dojo was for him, he
looked up to his Sensei, yudansha, and other students because they seemed like
good people… he was the most beginner. That night himself as a Shodan from the future
showed up in his dreams and told him, “I’m glad you feel like you like Karate,
you should try your best, stay for a long time and train, just remember the two
most important things are character and skill, everything else is just a
distraction.” The young Karate student nodded and acknowledged.
He trained for several years and was promoted to Shodan,
that night himself as a Sandan showed up in his dreams and spoke to him again, “I
want to say congratulations but I think I should just say, good job... you
continued to train, just remember the two most important things are character
and skill, everything else is a distraction, especially rank.” The young Shodan
agreed and trained even harder.
Several years later when the Yudansha was promoted to
Sandan, the very same night himself from the future showed up in his dreams again…
this time he said, “You don’t need to know what rank I am, I just want to
reassure you that I am still practicing Karate and the two most important
things are still and will always be character and skill.”
“What a nice dream!”-- he thought.
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What does rank in martial arts mean to you? I know a person
who doesn’t even know where his black belt is... I’m dead serious. The other day
a student at our dojo was promoted, I walked up to congratulate him and he seemed
very uneasy, bowed humbly (not to me, just to the comment) and said thank you.
This might sound bad to some people, but I don’t think anyone at our dojo cares
about getting promoted at all...what I mean is it is not our goal. We just want to move at an optimal level and are
hardcore about body mechanics. If there was a list then maybe rank is at the
bottom, skill will precede that by many numbers, then
what do you think is at the very top?.. You guessed it! Character! Character should always be number one.
As a matter of fact, I take it back, rank is not even on the list.
I have met many respectable people who are humble and downplay everything and I have met too many people who have very little and blow it
out of proportion.
I wish everyone a nice dream tonight.. and it doesn’t have
to be about Karate!
Oyasuminasai!
Peerawut Kamlang-ek
