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Truth In Technique  To question. To substantiate. To find truth. How do we do this? We examine the matter and experience ourselves. Examining the matter in the martial arts is precisely how you gain a genuine understanding of truth behind any technique passed on to you. Through stylized, ritualistic ways of training and learning we cannot find truth in our martial arts techniques. Anyone who has ever been in a fight, a real fight where both participants are out for blood with adrenaline pumping, knows that it's completely unpredictable. There is absolutely no way to know what your opponent is thinking much less anticipate his or her next movement. The nature of a physical confrontation has countless variables, which basically means two or more confrontations will never transpire the same exact way. The nature of a martial arts style or kata training is based on a patterned principle and will always repeat the same techniques for prescribed scenarios. Fighting is "alive", free from patterns or restrictive techniques that are said to be the "way". In true fighting, anything goes. So, if fighting does not play out according to rules, regulations, or a fixed way of acting, fighting sports aside, than why train in martial arts systems that have a "way", or a specific manner of pretending to defend yourself? To the classically disciplined martial artist, his or her chosen martial art, be it Judo, Aikido, Kung-Fu, Karate, Tae Kwon Do, and the list goes on, are a means to a way of life. However, some martial artists believe that their respective style or method is the best, or the deadliest, or the way to train for self defense. Some support their beliefs by hundreds of years of lineage or deadly one touch moves. Martial arts, methods, styles, and systems all seem to believe that they hold the gospel truth. Regardless of the advantages or disadvantages of all these martial arts, the one common truth amongst them all, is that there is no one martial art that holds the key. No one martial art is the "way" to understanding the best methods of defending yourself or fighting. This is why we must question. This is why we must examine. This is why we search for truth. "Truth has no path. Truth is living and therefore, changing. It has no resting place, no form, no organized institution, no philosophy. When you see that, you will understand that this living thing is also what you are. You cannot express and be alive through static, put together form, through stylized movement." |