Sensei's Message

The reason many karateka with the right attitude and philosophy are successful is very simple. They can concentrate, focus their energy, meditate, and clear the mind of negative and unnecessary thoughts (especially during training!) This allows them to set goals, take action, and consistently work toward their goals until they are accomplished. While working on the current goals they will plan the next and so on. People who develop these abilities are able to create their own future.

The alternative is people who do not set goals, but instead let things happen to them. They always have plenty of free time on their hands and plenty of thoughts will accompany them, but unfortunately not very positive ones. Just as positive thought will bring positive results, also negative thought will bring negative results. The positive seeds of thought create positive seeds of action and positive seeds of action will create positive habits, and the continued process will lead to success after success.

What hinders the mind? If we do not use our mind, do not think or set goals, negative thoughts will reside in absence of positive thoughts: negative thoughts such as envy, jealousy, or thinking about the bad things of the past and future.

What enhances the mind? Using it positively, setting goals, setting deadlines and taking action. This will create success, health and a happy life. Keep your mind cultivated with the positive thoughts and it will bare fruit of success for you.

I will share with you a personal experience about positive and negative action, and the end results.

When I was a kid, there were two different pieces of land close to our house. Let say Piece A was really bad and piece B was in OK shape. One year a new family bought the land that no one thought much of. It was really bad- a lot of junk piled up. The new owners cleaned up the land and put unlimited hours to bring it to a workable shape.

What caught my attention was, one day I saw on the land a huge tractor was being conducted by a young man. He was directing the machine in a very confident and controlled manner. I noticed how carefully the driver was doing his job, turning the dirt over. How he took the land over horizontal as well as vertically, prepared for the sun shine. The family diligently worked without a day off. Eventually, this land was turned into a state-of-the-art orchard. Beautifully landscaped, surrounded with flowers, and in some areas a variety of fruits and vegetables. All of that was surrounded with stunning trees. The farmer built the most wonderful orchard around.

Later on I realized the small man behind the tractor was the son of the old man who owned land A. The son not only was skilled on the farm, he was also very good in school and well respected in the community.

Let’s go to land B for a while. Initially, a better piece of property much more prepared for farming. However the land was often inactive. The only activity we saw was that one day I noticed some excitement because there was a car up side down in a ditch. We discovered that the son of the owner of land B had put the car in gear without a driver and let the car go to see what would happen. Miraculously he avoided injuries, but the car took off and did some spinning, hit a few areas, caused financial damage and finally turned over into a ditch.

At the end of the season land A was worth a fortune, while land B had a lot of weeds, trash was piled up, and animals were residing in it. The property was damaged as a result of the accident, the car was destroyed and had to be towed by a towing company with added expenses.

The purpose of telling the story is that cultivation of the mind is like the cultivation of the land. Like the land, you will reap what you sow. The man in the land A worked daily with his family to clean the land, turn it over, plant the vegetables and the flowers and trees. They also continued doing so as it was necessary.

While for land B there was no plan, no positive activities, the only happenings were disaster and bad luck as the owner put it. The only activity that took place was negative. The outcome was debts as the result of carelessness. The land was counter-productive and an eye sore for the neighborhood.

The mind is like that land- if you do not use it correctly the negative thought will grow and it will bring negative results. Like the land, when you do not plant the flowers or vegetable, instead the weeds start taking over.

Karate is an excellent way of cultivating your mind, fitting the body, uplifting your spirit and calming your emotion. In Karate we focus on living the moment: we set goals and visualize the outcome of our activities. Train an average of 2 to 3 times per week.

To conclude our story; one day the owner of land B went to the owner of land A and said “My friend, the lord gave you a very beautiful orchard.” The owner of land A said ”Yes, I am thankful for the seed, season, sunshine and the water, but you should have seen it when he had it all to himself!”