Karate-Yesterday and Today
THE Origin of karate dates back more than a thousand years. When Dharma was at the Shao Lin monastery in China, he taught his students physical training methods in order to build endurance and physical strength required to carry out the rigid discipline that was part of their religion. This physical training method was further developed and adapted to become what is known today at the Shao Lin art of fighting. This martial art was imported to Okinawa and blended with the indigenous fighting techniques of the island. The lord of ancient Okinawa and later the feudal lord of Kagoshima, 9on the southernmost tip of Kyushu in Japan banned the use of weapons, thus giving rise to the development of “empty-hand” fighting and self-defense techniques. This martial art, due to its Chinese origin, was called karate, written in characters with the literal meaning “Chinese hand.”
The modern master of the art, Funakoshi Gichin, l who died in 1957,at the age of eighty-eight, changed the characters to mean literally “empty hand.” Funakoshi, however, chose the character for tits meaning in Zen Buddhist philosophy: “rendering oneself empty.” To the master, karate was a martial art, but it was also a means of building character. He “As a mirror’s polished surface reflects whatever stands before it and a quiet valley carries even small sounds,” so must the student of karate render his mind empty of selfishness and wickeness in an effort to react appropriately toward anything he might encounter. This is the meaning of Kara, or ‘empty,’ of Karate,”
Bruce Lee said "consciousness of self is the greatest hindrance to mankind."And although Brucey needed to cut it out with all that chop-sockey crap he did in the movies, he was absolutely right on the money with that statement. Self-consciousness is another word for self-doubt, which is a form of fear and Karate reduces this fear
