Eyes

The Ken-po Goku-i, or gokui for short, talks about the senses both directly and indirectly. When the gokui states that a person must see all directions, the directions in question can be literally the multi-directions the eye perceives of the environment and all that resides within "as far as the eyes can see." What it does not do is provide us with explanations and training on how we utilize this most important tool for the mind. The following two quotes from Dr. Suzette Haden Elgin, Ph.D. books on the gentle art of verbal self-defense tell us more about how the mind uses our perceptive filtering through the sense of "seeing in all directions."

"It is not your eyes that are doing the learning, but your whole body. And it's not what you see that teaches you. Seeing is only the tool that you use for obtaining the information. What you learn from is feedback you get from your own body as you try to match the body language being demonstrated. ... No set of detailed written instructions will replace the feedback you get from your body as you try to follow someone's instruction - right before your eyes - to "hold your hand like this."

AND

"If your preferred mode is eye or ear, you may find this more difficult that the person who strongly prefers the sensory mode of touch will. But you can do it. It will just take you longer." Quote in reference in learning how to use your body language in communications as to the three sense modes of people - in general.

This and other information written by Dr. Suzette Haden Elgin, Ph.D., provides us the knowledge that learning, thus teaching, relies not on any one thing but a combination of things. The eyes are assumed to be the learning tool for people and now I discover that they are merely a tool by which the mind along with other factors perceives and interprets the entirety of communications to achieve understanding.

The entirety of communications can be understood as what the eyes process, what the ears process, what the body process through touch and in a small way what the nose processes as to smell and the tongue processes as to the taste. In MA instruction the most command and most advantageous are eye, ear and touch sense teaching. You may need to adjust the primary tool to process to eye, ear and sometimes touch depending on the preferred sense mode of the student.

Just remember one thing as a Sensei, it is not just what you say in words. It is what you say in words along with the tone and more importantly your body language as processed by the eyes, ears and in some cases by touch - direct touch and touch sense by distance.

Just remember one thing as a student, it is not just what you hear in words. It is what you hear in words with their tone and body language as processed by your eyes, ears and in some cases by touch - direct touch and touch sense by distance.

The idea is to reach a syntonic state of instruction-to-learning by building a bridge between the two of understanding, knowledge and awareness. Sometimes just being aware of what it all takes and encompasses is adequate to maximize teaching and learning.

In addition the learning we achieve through our senses, especially the eyes and ears, is hugely influenced by our perceptive filters. Another aspect of the gokui and our training is to achieve the ability to adjust the filters allowing for the possibilities to enter. If we cloud ourselves in a veil of dogmatic doctrine the unexpected will have nothing to draw on from the mind to overcome it. There are so many possibilities that are presented directly and indirectly through the study of the martial arts with emphasis on the gokui.