Distortion

This blog started as an attempt to express my growth and development within the martial arts. Yet my martial arts growth is going to be affected by both my personal experience, environment and society. As society changes, I change and new discoveries are found within my art, my environment and within every experience. As I continue to harmonize with my environment, I can't help but to notice how out of sync society has become. Now I find myself facing the problem of speaking truth at the offense of those around me. Is it better to let people live happily within their false reality, or should I share the unpleasant truth?

I have been in many different types of dojos and marital arts studios. I am approaching my 29th year of martial training. The things that I have come in contact with over the years would to many seem to be fiction. Yet the more that I train, the harder it is for me to believe that any thing is purely fiction. It also becomes hard for me to believe that anything is purely fact. Because the only thing that we truly have in our short life times on this planet is Faith.

Of course I have faith in God, which is the key to all of my success. But even those who claim to be atheist have faith. Faith is only believing in something that we have never seen before. But when we apply our faith we are able to come into contact with truth.

This is crucial if you wish to become a good martial artist..or a good anything. When the master teaches you a move, you must have faith that the movement is effective. Then you must practice what you have learned with the faith that you will improve. Someone watching martial arts along the side can easily say, "That doesn't really work." Yet the person who practices the technique can feel the power growing within himself. He may never get in a fight within his whole life, but his relationship with the movement has become very real. As real as it is to him, he can not explain it to another person who doesn't practice. This is the same for those who don't pray. If you don't try it, then for you it will never be real. Lack of faith in most cases results in a lack of power.

What is real? Science? Well Science is based off proof and evidence right? Well there is no denying the fact that all "proof" of anything has been handed to us by another. On a planet that is billions of years old, can we really say for certain what is or isn't in our 100 year life span?

You may know that there is a red planet called Mars because you have looked at it in a textbook. We can read all about the temperature changes and possible history on Mars starting from elementary school. Aside from the text books not many of us experience anything that is hands on about Mars. So we have great faith in our textbooks and the people who wrote them. Some more curious individuals take the extra step and actually see Mars through a magnified lens and actually discover that there is in fact a red planet. But in the end when we discuss the findings on Mars, it is a matter of faith in those who are researching it. If you haven't worked at NASA, then you don't really know what is happening on Mars.

So have we been to the moon? Did Michael Jackson molest children? Are there weapons of mass destruction in Iraq? All of these questions are a matter of where your faith is. You don't have to be a kung fu master to know right now the majority of all the information you receive comes from TV. Everything you know and learn about countries you have never been to comes from your TV. What China is planning to do or what North Korea said is fed to you while you sit on the sofa eating chips. How many people can actually visit North Korea? How many people actually take the time to learn Korean? (Aside from Koreans of course) Why has TV become a legitimate source of information when pretty much everything on TV isn't reality? Even if there was a hint of truth it would still have to be filtered through the interests of the supporting corporations. Do you have such great faith in corporations?

We can even take a look at something that is obviously fiction....dragons. Stories of dragons have been told across almost every culture in the world. For people in the past, it was actual fact, not stories or legends as they have become now. Even in areas where there were never reptiles there have been stories of scaly, reptilian dragons. We know that dragons don't exist because we have never seen them right? Yet you have probably never even seen Mars, but you believe it exists. If the Earth is billions of years old and you are probably somewhere from 18-60, then there is no way you can be certain that anything has or hasn't existed.

Still we are adamant about the truths that we have been fed. We are 100% certain about things that no one can be certain about. We are arrogant about the tid bits of information that have been fed to us and we fight over the scattered and manipulated details.

This blog started as an attempt to express my growth and development in the martial arts. By pushing myself I began breaking down barriers within myself and my environment. Now I am confronted with a society that I am not sure wants truth. I can only leave clues and metaphors for what is going on because you must voluntarily step through the door of truth. I have faith in you or I wouldn't bother to make an effort to communicate. But I must end this post with a question,

"Do you truly wish to be free from your distractions?"