written by sensei Brian George (3rd Dan)
VOLUME 2: Issue 1 Issue 2 Issue 3 Issue 4 Issue 5 Issue 6 Issue 7 Issue 8 Issue 9
ISSUE 11
Newsletter date MAY 2000
FUNAKOSHI'S 20 PRINCIPLES OF KARATE.
Has everyone read the last newsletter?
If you have (ha ha) you will know all about Funakoshi's 20 principles of karate. Well you will probably only know the basic statement Sensei made and not the meaning. Over the next few months I will attempt to explain his meaning of each of Sensei's statements. What I would like you as the student to do is to grasp the meaning of Sensei's words and convert them into your daily life and of cause your training in karate.
1) NEVER FORGET THAT KARATE BEGINS AND ENDS WITH RESPECT.
You have to respect the teaching, respect your fellow trainee's and have respect and reverence for life. Respect is a quality that separates a good human being from a thug.
Here is a question that needs to be sked, not by me as your Sensei but a question from yourselves. Why do I train in the Martial Arts?
Can you answer this question truthfully or do you just not think about that side of things and just plod along without a purpose. There has to be a reason why anyone does something, this must be answered truthfully. Do you as a practitioner of karate-do come to your training sesions to learn the art you have chosen because it is somewhere to go that night or do I go to my training sessions because I would like to learn a Martial art. Can you truthfully answer this question.
Bushido, (the way of the warrior) was a strict code of practice for the samurai of old, they lived and breathed this code there was no deviation of this code. We as westerners find a code as extreme as this very difficult to understand and appreciate, but we can try to follow some form of rules that we can run our lives by. This we can call our ethics, just another form of Bushido. We should adopt some of these ethics into our martial arts and train with this in mind to achieve the goal we have set ourselves. I would like to think that this is possible with every student but I know this is too much to ask for. So in conclusion anyone of you that is prepared to think about what I have said and can understand what I mean may get sme benefit from my obserations.
As you should now be well aware of the workbook is up and running, you have a responsibility as the student to work through this workbook. If you are still not quite sure how it works I will tell you again. Each page works through the techniques you need to learn for that specific level you are at, so al you need to do is look at the level and check what technique you are up to and practice.
