DISCOVERY OF KATA

In the tradition of Karatedo the masters transmitted to their students the knowledge of their lineage, from generation to generation. Following the tradition of the “Art” the teachers taught some bodily movements and along with it the intricacies as well as the subtle understandings.

These groups of bodily movements came to be known as “Kata” in “Karatedo”. The efficiency and functionalism of the “Art” was lost to excessive rituals which had surrounded the teaching and performance of the techniques.

The techniques and kata’s were not invented. They were discovered by the ancient masters ---or call them rishi, Buddha, enlightened monks or scientist ---who wanted to unravel the mysteries of the universe. They wanted to find answers towards the liberation from miseries and sufferings.

They discovered these bodily movements, while they were in their meditative states of heightened awareness. Using their body as a tool/ instrument to conduct scientific experiments was their way of understanding the “Laws of Nature”. The discovery of the techniques/bodily movements must have been quite accidental. It must have began with very simple queries about the nature of an incredible “sensation” of well-being that those masters experienced in those states of meditative heightened awareness, when they held certain bodily positions, or when they moved their limbs in some specific manner.

Their “sensation” of well-being must have been so intense that their drive to repeat those movements in their normal awareness became the focus of all their endeavors.

In all dimensions, they succeeded in their experiments and found themselves the possessors of a very complex series of movements, that when practiced’ yielded them tremendous results in terms of mental and physical prowess. They taught them for generations on a personal basis, following elaborate rituals and secret ceremonies.

The essence of the teachings was probably lost to mankind because of these elaborate rituals and ceremonies. Or maybe it was lost due the violent history of the insecure humanity that this profound science of the inner came to be known as a “Violent Art”. The Martial Arts came to be known as an “Art to kill” others and gaining victory against the enemy outside. But whatever the reason, the fact remains that the “ART” radically departed from the tradition & science.

It was the understanding of the ancient masters that there is an inherent amount of energy existing in each one of us. They believed that this quantity of energy was sufficient to accomplish something which those masters deemed to be the obsession of every man on the Earth: breaking the parameters of normal perception.

As I understand, breaking the parameters of normal perception means going beyond the sensory perception. We all are connected to the world around us through our senses and sensory perceptions. Our incapacity to break those parameters was induced by our culture and social milieu. Our culture and social milieu deployed every bit of our inherent energy in fulfilling established behavioral patterns which didn’t allow us to break these parameters of normal perception.
Going beyond sensory perception, breaking those parameters is the unavoidable issue of mankind. Consciously or unconsciously everyone wants to break free from the suffering. We are obsessed with breaking those parameters, & we fail miserably at it. Hence the profusion of drugs & stimulants and religious rituals & ceremonies among modern man. Blind faith following & herd mentality is rampant in the so called civilized & progressive world.

Our most basic ingredients for such miserable failure are due to the fact that we tackle it in a haphazard way. Our tools are too crude. Even if we have the best of technology but our tools to implement the technology are up to the mark the technology will not fetch the desired results. It’s like trying to bring down the wall by ramming it with the head. Man of today, never considers this breakage in terms of energy, or vibrations. For the masters success was determined only by the accessibility or inaccessibility of energy.

Since it is impossible to increase our inherent energy the only way is the redeployment of that energy. For this process of redeployment of energy begin with the specific bodily movements & the way they affected the physical body. Due to this fact of the law of nature, emphasis was put on superb physical and mental balance & well-being.

But why so much emphasis was put on the physical aspect of man? The ancient scientists were supposed to be a spiritual man, wasn’t he? The fact remains that they were not spiritual at all. They were very practical beings. It is a well known fact that these masters were portrayed & known as eccentric or even insane. Perhaps that is the reason why people thought they were spiritual. They seemed insane because they were always trying to explain things which could not be explained. Explanations beyond the sensory parameters, is the fourth (or the unknown) dimension. Language is developed only to usage in three dimensions which the senses perceive. In the course of such futile attempts to give complete explanations that cannot be completed under any circumstances, they seemed very disconnected.

Redeployment of energy is a process which consists of transporting, from one place to another energy which already exists within us. This energy has been displaced from the centres of vitality in the body, which require that displaced energy in order to bring forth a balance between mental awareness & physical prowess.

Modern man leads a very sissy life style. Just to conceive facing the unknown – much less enter into it- requires guts of steel & a body that would be capable of holding those guts. What would be the point of being gutsy if you didn’t have mental alertness, physical prowess & adequate muscles?

Therefore the first step towards the redeployment of our inherent energy is rigorous execution of techniques through the physical body.