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The Art of the Word:

Recently I have noticed on some of the groups, i.e. yahoo groups for karate, a trend toward misunderstanding, misleading, and mistaken words. I call them words for to call them facts is misleading since none of it was thought out or confirmed to be fact.

Example: Subject line “Lost kick and Misc. Kata”. Along with the content in the body of the message the two together gives one reading the thread the idea that there may be something that belongs in the style and is secret, missing, lost, stolen, and so on. Reading the thread and how it was composed got me to thinking about my practice.

I write a lot in this blog and in many group threads on the Internet not to mention my web site and fighting arts booklet. I try hard to write the correct and factual words simply because I firmly believe we should strive to convey correct information especially to new practitioners.

How does this work with my practice. We train daily to get the technique correct and hopefully those who are following the way of the empty hand take what we learn in practice and apply it to life. Writing and speaking the “word” or groups of words that end up forming thoughts and idea’s can lead to either an enjoyable conversation with almost anyone or it can lead to misunderstanding that creates fear, anger, discontent, and so on.

Practice the art of the word in your daily practice. This mean take the time to “think first” and then write or speak. This means to take the time to not only think first but to consider what it is you wish to convey to others be it written or spoken. Edit it, read or think the thoughts again, take a moment to consider what your words are going to convey, edit it again, and then speak or write.

As to the written word since it is so prevalent today in regards to email, web sites, blogs, facebook, text messaging, phones, and so on. Before you hit that send key do all the above. Edit and edit again. Set yourself apart from any emotional feelings, come into the moment, decide what kind of reaction you are trying to get from your audience, understand what it is you want in return, edit and edit again, and finally when you are sure of what it is you are doing, hit the send key.

If you consider what it is I am trying to convey here you will see examples of your karate practice and training such as in the physical self-defense and so on all the parallels.

Think bout it Train in word-jutsu or the technique of the word!