UNDERSTANDING SPORT AND ART (OR "DO")

This is one of my favorite analogies which I had read many years ago. Further to it I extend my understanding.


It has many times been said that Sport karate and Karate-do are not the same thing, whereas there are others that express exactly the contrary. I would like to give my personal opinion on the subject.

Let us imagine two people that like to travel on boats along the course of a river. Both use the same types of boats, the same general equipment and follow the same route for hundreds of kilometers, arriving at the same destiny. They have done this for many years. Both love their activity, and due to this love, they have begun teaching others, sharing with them this activity they so much enjoy.

One of them has organized a group of people for a tournament. This tournament includes the same starting point and the same goal that the original journey had. After this event, his activity has become very successful and now every year tournaments are organized and in different seasons. He has consequently become a very famous instructor and the amount of followers he has generated is enormous. All want to compete and become the one that comes first to the goal.

As the river is dangerous, these new generations of rowers have had to learn a group of techniques to beat the others. To master these, it requires many years of intense training, and work. It is said that this really is a confrontation with yourself and that the mastery of these techniques only represents the mastery of man over himself. But the truth is, the highest expression is to beat the others, to become the champion. It’s obvious the social acceptance that this implies, many see you win. If not, what would the objective be? Though, then again, there are many for which it anyway is worth it.

But the original people were two. What happened with the other one?

The other person that liked to travel along the river in the boat still does so and due to the fact that he loves this activity, he has wanted to share this with others. He has become a teacher. He teaches, exactly as the other teacher, all the secrets of the art of rowing down the river. He has taught how to enjoy the journey, to feel it, to love it, and all the technical secrets on how to do this with the least possible risks. But he does not teach how to compete, not even indirectly. He only teaches how to row down the river along the hundreds of kilometers that the journey lasts.

Just as his colleague, he knows all the secrets of the river and the art of going down the river in boat. But his objective is not the goal; his goal is not the goal. His goal is the journey itself and in this process his students have discovered a world within themselves and through this they have discovered those that surround them. They have learnt from themselves and from their friends, they have learnt about the flora (plants) and the fauna (animals), they have learnt to live a little more.

What is the truth? Is there a relationship between the two activities? What do the general population think about what the two teachers teach and practice? Is art and sport the same thing?

The River Flows….

The river presented is an analogy of the two teachers who taught river rowing with their own perspectives. Also a few questions are put up for contemplation. Lets continue….

…. Now both of them are old and they continue to teach their many followers. They still use similar equipment; they use the same boats, the same oars and the same river. Many people in the general public think that what they teach and practice is the same thing. This opinion based on the fact they use similar equipment and the same river. But the truth is different, so different that there really does not exist any relationship between the two activities, they obey very different internal realities. One is practical and utilitarian and it becomes an external way (road) that needs titles, certificates, trophies, medals, etc.

The other is a way (road) that is non-utilitarian, affective, and integrative; it is an internal way that points to the human sensibility and his capacity to find the most profound truths in that which is most simple. They are diametrically opposed.

One of them is directed towards materialism, towards fanfare, celebration, vanity and superficiality. The other is directed towards sentiment, towards internal retreat, towards harmony and integration with nature and in some, towards ecstasies, mysticism, God, nirvana.

You can apply the same understanding to all the activities in your own lifestyles. There are teachers who instill a lot of competition in the students. They burnout very soon. They are stressed to their limits. If the emphasis is only competition with others, how long can you endure the stress? Maximum till the thirties. Then they stop or become teachers in the pursuit of creating champions.

Instead, if the sport itself is practiced as an art and competing becomes a life long process of fighting all that is ugly within you and not the others, it becomes a path to self-realization. Then even competitions become a process of evolvement.

Remember it takes many losers to who contribute towards a winner. If there were no losers how can the winner be decided? The losers are equal shareholders in the glory. But if you see at the core, winners or losers are not at all concerned with the event, but they are fighting to strengthen their egos. Their egos become the reflection of their self.

Most of our life is spend in defending our egos. Ego requires that one spend most of one’s life offended by something or someone. Such a waste of precious energy can be avoided. Awareness is the only way to conserve and channelise our energies.

In fact, not many people are aware that sports Karate was created out of a necessity. During the world war, many Japanese karate Masters were killed in action. Those who survived foresaw the doom of the ‘art’. They also saw the economic depression. The basic fact remains that any art and science which are practiced for ‘spiritual development’ cannot survive in a poor society. In such conditions the priority for individual is to satisfy his basic physical needs.

Therefore, they retained the peripheral glamour of the art for entertainment. The intention was to retain the memory of the art in the minds of the people. When the times improve the art would gain flourish, and its application can be appreciated. A materially and intellectually rich society then automatically will feel the need for higher and subtler sciences of spirituality. Unfortunately, with the dilution of its essence, karatedo today continues to be taught as sports. From the original purpose of self realization, to be expounded as an art of violence, and now shredded to be taught as sports is a reflection of the human intellect in modern times.

The process along the journey of the river is very individual and endless leading to nowhere. But following the path with a heart is easier to travel leading to now-here.

My own journey of participating and winning National and International championships and eventually winning the World Championships has been an experience to understand that the sport is a part of the art. The art is the path itself.

If somebody has the experience, how can they teach competition with others?