On the surface the tendency to take each of the eight on its own seems logical. In actuality the eight are separate and distinct for teaching purposes. Like the fundamental principles (fundamental principles of martial systems by Steven J. Pearlman, i.e. the Book of Martial Power) are written distinctly in a separate manner to promote teaching, learning, and understanding.
The eight goku-i (Ken-po Goku-i for short/brevity) are separated and numbered only for this purpose. What is not been made clear to those who study the system and the goku-i is once you learn the fundamentals of the eight you remove the separateness of them and merge, meld, morph them into "one."
The "wholehearted way" of Isshinryu is the "one way" or "one heart way" of Tatsuo Sensei's system. One being the key feature of the entire system. Wholehearted brings the heart of the practitioner, the spirit if you will, into the system separately and with distinct parts that must be assembled into "one whole" system - the one heart system.
The eight into one may indicated that it speaks of the mind, heart, and body. Those three spoken separately. Those three merged, melded, and morphed into the one complete and whole person.
Learn the goku-i - separate and distinct. Learn the goku-i - meld, mold, and morph. Learn the goku-i - the one and wholehearted way of Isshinryu. Remove the child references - numbers, orders, and separateness. The great tai chi is the one which then separates into the two - Yang-n-Yin. The two separate into the four into the eight trigrams. The trigrams continue to separate into the hexagrams - the sixty-four.
The separation into the sixty-four are to teach man how the Universe relates to the Earth. How the Earth relates to humans. The three, Heaven-Human-Earth then learn from the separation of the great Tai Chi how to meld, morph, and merge the separate back into the "one." The way of Humans is to see, hear and thus perceive how all the myriad things of the Universe are connected and return back to the great, the one.
This is the method and purpose of following the way in martial arts. This is the method and way - wholehearted - of Tatsuo Shimabuku Sensei in his teachings through the physical of Isshinryu and the Spiritual of Ken-po Goku-i. Physical training is the yang of the great tai chi while the ken-po goku-i is the yin of the great tai chi - the one, wholehearted way.
The ken-po goku-i is the fundamental principles of the spiritual wholehearted way of all martial systems.
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