GOJU-RYU KARATE PRECEPTS

 

The founder of Goju-Ryu Karate, Chojun Miyagi, was bestowed with the title of Bushi.  Master Miyagi would always, in simple language, explain bujutsu or martial arts, and talk about the way people should live, and about the order of nature.  He was an austere seeker of truth, who, through the training of martial arts, searched for how human beings should be. We should take the following words of Chojun Miyagi to heart as the precepts of Goju-Ryu Karate-Do. 1.  IT SHOULD BE KNOWN THAT SECRET PRINCIPLES OF GOJU-RYU EXIST IN THE KATA. "Kata," or forms, are not simply an exhibition of form, they are concrete manifestations of techniques that can be transformed at any time, to any form, at will, and in which the essence of karate has assumed a definite form.  Realize that the kata are a crystallization of the essence of karate and go back and train hard with the mind of a beginner (shoshin).  You should not neglect this kind of (kata) training as something simple and rustic (primitive), for it is only through them that you will reach Gokui, the essential teachings. 2.  GOJU-RYU KARATE-DO IS A MANIFESTATION WITHIN ONE'S OWN SELF OF THE HARMONIOUS ACCORD OF THE UNIVERSE. As supple as a willow, as solid as Mount Tai (mountain in Chinese poetry), it is when the two extremes of Go (hard) and Ju (soft) are wholly united as one body that the unshakable form of the elemental harmony of heaven and earth will evolve.  This harmony of hard and soft can be equated with the order of nature and the oneness of the universe.  Through the way of Goju-Ryu Karate-Do we will be able to express the harmony of nature within ourselves. 3.  THE WAY OF GOJU-RYU KARATE-DO IS TO SEEK THE WAY OF VIRTUE. In Goju-Ryu Karate-Do, through training the body and the spirit, we try to cultivate the ideal human nature of physical and spiritual union.  Originally, in the way of strategy, there was the concept "to win," but to win on account of virtue is the ultimate goal.  Therefore, anyone who aspires to this way must not forget the Chinese character "Nin," or to endure.  Heighten one's own virtue, master the strategy of winning without fighting, and seek for the ultimate secret.

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