Today when I was meditating the neighborhood was quiet. A bee buzzed softly like he’d just been smoked out with the finest pine needles this side of the Mason Dixon. With the soft buzzing in the background, I let my mind wander, and wander it did. My daughter testing out of her Green Belt in Tang Soo Do and moving up to Advanced Green came to mind. To do so she would have to perform a few Katas. She’d practice in the living room, and I thought about the process, about what Kata is and why it is practiced. Even a Black Belt will often practice the more elementary Katas to stay tuned in to their body and to the movements and the proper ways to do them.
The position of the feet and of the hands and arms is a known factor, practicing Kata helps to ensure that the positions are correct. It all got me thinking that living fully is much the same. A person may know the moves or know what it is that resonates with them. They may have studied and read and practiced their chosen forms and have a pretty clear understanding of what their path is. Still, there is always room for growth, always a way to bring more clarity to one’s practice, that’s why it’s called a ‘practice.’ As with a Kata and its function in the martial arts, a person can do various things that equate what I dubbed for the purposes of this piece a “Soul Kata.”
From transcendental meditation to yoga, Tai Chi to Qi Gong, there are all kinds of ways to sharpen the spiritual pencil. Rather than constantly reaching out to find new and different things to add to your spiritual regiment, why not make the effort to more effectively use the tools you already have in your repertoire? If you’re reading this and don’t think there’s room for improvement, you’re wrong. Not trying to be mean, just honest, there is no perfect state in a place that is constantly changing. When Charles C. Goodin was discussing the function of kata he was asked how many movements are in a kata, to which he replied, “The answer is ‘one.’ The only movement that counts in any kata is the movement that you are doing. The one that you just did is over. The one that comes next has not yet begun. Only the one you are doing counts. It requires 100% of your attention and effort. Thinking back or ahead only subtracts from the movement at hand. Doing any movement with 100% of your attention and effort is the practice of kata. Kata is not simply the sequence or pattern. With one perfect movement, the kata is perfect. Kata is not a question of how many but of how well”. The sentiment is repeated in the movie The Last Samurai, when a character observing the way in which the samurai culture, from warriors to women and children, live their lives. He writes in his journal; “They are an intriguing people. From the moment they wake they devote themselves to the perfection of whatever they pursue. I have never seen such discipline.” Take into account that the character delivering the line is a military man, so he knows discipline, also that it’s a movie, the point stands though. So I suppose a soul kata is just the practice of what you already know, just as kata is a practice of movements you already know. Repetition in seeking a perfection you know isn’t permanent is rewarded with glorious moments that come close or are total, temporary, but total. What I have seen all too often are people beginning to learn some new spiritual path, or at least the nuts and bolts of one, and then, once they believe they have it figured out or figure they know the moves, they go on to the next one all but discarding the old. It would be like switching from Tang Soo Do to Shotokan after advancing only one belt level. Not that I equate a spiritual journey with levels, to be clear, this is metaphor. My daughter wasn’t getting any belt unless she put in the time and learned the moves. She would get nowhere if every time a new fad in martial arts came along she got distracted by its shine. The challenge is to not let the shine wear off of the one you have already invested in. One way to do that is to practice and get better until you shine on your own, so bright that it doesn’t matter the name it has or the color of the belt. So much that it’s just there, a part of you. It’s just being the best you can be in each moment, not taking what you have learned for granted or stressing about what you are meant to learn next. Not being controlled by the past but being in control of its manifestation in the present. That manifestation is what determines the quality of the choices available for the future. If you are in that place where you are one with yourself and your own path, the lessons you still need to learn find you. The path opens up before you like a flower and all you have to do is walk it, secure in the solid foundation you have set for yourself through your steady practice.
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Hanna Maxwell
All knowledge starts with self knowledge. Archives
July 2021
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