Bottles

Shimabuku Tatsuo Sensei taught Marine and other military on Okinawa so we talk about our service members. Shimabuku Tatsuo said, "All bottles are good. They all served a purpose." This story came from me but it was his quote. - Advincula A. J. Sensei Isshinkai post #27618

On many an occasion after a dojo workout we would have a drink or two with Shimabuku Sensei. On one occasion, several American students at the Honbu Agena Dojo we were drinking. Some were drinking beer while others were drinking Awamori a potent alcoholic beverage indigenous to and unique to Okinawa.

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Shimabuku preferred awamori and at this event, some Americans were mixing awamori with pine juice (Pineapple soda). Shimabuku asked us which bottle was best. Some picked up beer bottles while others awamori bottles and one or two who did not drink alcohol picked up the pine juice or other soda bottles.

Shimabuku stated, "All bottles are good. They all served a purpose." While he never said why he asked the question about the bottles, I thought he was relating it to karate styles, that all styles of karate were good.

Read also "Ken-po Goku-i and Bottles"

All Bottles are Good

When I read the story about how this particular quote came to be I sometimes wonder at other possible underlying meanings. I mean to say that since all bottles are good regardless of size, content, etc. then maybe Tatsuo-san was trying to teach the students that dogmatic adherence to a strict way of practicing and teaching Isshinryu was not important and the real importance was teaching a system along with a philosophy - a philosophy as derived from each unique individual from the study of the ken-po goku-i. 

Isn't it true that any system or style of karate is good simply because they all do serve a purpose? If you agree then whether one practices Goku, Shorin or Isshin matters little but in reality the practice of the art itself is what requires our attention toward importance. Maybe this is why they refer to traditional/classical Okinawan karate as "Ti (pronounced tea)/Te (pronounced tay)." 

Tatsuo-san had only a limited amount of time to pass along the more metaphysical essences of his study of Ti so he tried to pass it along by awarding a copy of the gokui (short for ken-po goku-i). Keeping the essence of the Okinawan Ti practice may have been far more important than sticking to a "specific, unyielding, method of holding a hand for shuto strikes, etc."

All bottles are good as all karate systems, styles and branches are also good, they all serve a purpose and are all descendants of Ti. 

The Great Tai Chi - "One" Theory

In my pursuit toward knowledge and understanding I have come to a conclusion, for the time being, that the great tai chi that is the singular, the one unitary energy of all things can be explained as splitting into the yin-yang as follows:

The point of the splitting of the unitary energy (great tai chi) of life (into yin-yang) is as follows: first, they remain continuous and intertwined, the two energies (yin-yang) preserver their endless harmony and are always one in their dialectical interaction, yet distinctly two. 

Judgement is the structure of movement. Judgement comes from knowledge and understanding to the dialectic nature of the universe. Understand that the physical/mechanical/inanimate is yang while instinctive/mental-spiritual/animate instincts are yin. To know this and to understand is to achieve the ability to provide judgement in the nature of the universe. 

All things began as one and became two while the effort to reach enlightenment of humans is to achieve the ability to bring the two back to the one, a holistic meaning of life for the yin is the yang is the yin is the yang in a separate yet unitary movement which is judgement and creates the structure of life, the universe, man, and heaven and earth. 

Why is man's blood red then blue then red again, the unitary function of a dualistic monism action called life. Blood circulates like the heaves of both Sun and Moon. Where the sun is blood red and the moon is a cool blue the blood with it life giving oxygen travels like the sun and moon giving life to the person and then in the extreme changes to yang or blue with the bodies poisonous wastes returns to the heart to exchange the waste into oxygen, the extreme that is yin. 

The lungs through our inhalation/exhalation exchanges poisons into life feeding oxygen to the blood that circulates like the sun and moon. The inhalation is like drinking while the exhalation is similar to spitting so it is also hard or soft with changes that reflect the way of the universe. 

To understand the complexities of the ken-po goku-i is to understand the universe, the great tai chi and the yin-yang so that life and all its things can be balanced with equilibrium so as to not disrupt the cycle like a heave weight to one side or the other to fall heavily.  

For the eyes and ears to differentiate between good and bad to the exclusivity of one or the other is to unbalance the mind causing it to fall is if pulled down to earth by a great weight. To feel the heat or cold to the exclusivity of one or the other is to also cause an unbalancing of those things that require the dualistic relations of yin-yang. 

Kata of Gokui or Gokui no kata ....

The ken-po goku-i is a kata and contains kata and its essence is derived by a kata. The western interpretation puts the gokui into a form, kata, then they number it from one to eight (my version has a ninth one), also kata, where those numbers tend to place a thought that the gokui is meant to be followed in sequence, if the numbering is actually meant to be there which in my view it is not, which means a rhythm or cadence which is indicative of "kata."

Live itself contains many such kata or forms that come from the simplest form or kata of existence, the yin and yang. The kata here consists of a rhythm and cadence that takes the practitioner, us humans, back and forth through yin and yang or the opposites that make up each side with a seed for the other being inseminated in the process giving birth to the opposite in the same patterns or forms each and every time - kata. 

Our actions during the actual process of yin and yang provides the actions that give the seeds that are buried with each the energy, chi or ki, to germinate the seed and make the seedling sprout and then grow overtaking the others as they diminish until the entire process, kata, is completed and the process begins again - life and reincarnation if you will. 

A Quote of Worth

I have come across a quote by Nahum Stiskin that I adjusted slightly as it represented to me an ideology of meaning for karate. The adjustment I made is small, here it is: "Karate (all martial systems) is the effort to regulate the movement of the body in such a way as to increase its inner harmony and composure. The cleansing of the heart involves (through practice of Martial system and study of ken-po goku-i) separation of oneself from a disorderly mental life and attempt to understand the meaning of existence in order to obtain inner peace and a sense of well-being."

Yin-yang as to the body speaks to the ebb and flow of the blood and chi or energy. As you progress in knowledge of the ancient classics you find all things of the heavens and of the Earth depend and exist on the yin-yang principle. It is the essence of all things. We see this in our breathing, i.e. breath in is yin while breath out is yang with varying degrees of yin and yang dependent on the breathing technique. 

Harmony and composure of the human body is achieved through mastery of the bodies balance of yin and yang. The body moves constantly form state to state, i.e.  a softness and hardness that is also yin and yang. 

Read the goku-i (ken-po goku-i) to understand how the connections, the threads of the cosmos, create a holistic wholehearted way of life that is represented in the microcosmic world we call the dojo. 

Points to ponder .....

The Spiral/Helix [螺旋] Theory of Martial Systems

The goku-i exudes essence that is duality represented by the yin and yang symbol. Most are not aware that although the symbol is presented in a flat two dimensional form the meaning is actually a three dimensional representation of yin-yang that is spiral and helical in its constant changes from one end of the spectrum to the other. This is why you see the spiral and helix in all life, the universe itself. 

The spiral is a two-dimensional structure; the helix is its three-dimensional extension into space: the periphery near to and the center far from the eye, center is dense, movement is from periphery to the center, all things begin at the periphery and move toward the center, and it consists of six or seven coils; ea coil = a stage in life.

The microcosmic universe experienced in martial art practice and training is meant to be more than the dual dimension of the physical and mental as represented by yin-yang. The goku-i is meant to reach toward a third form that is often spoken of as spirit where this spirit connects the two, physical and mental, into a more holistic form as we see in the three-dimensional extension into space. This is the essence to the ancient classic teachings. 

To explain would take a book, i.e. ergo the "Looking-Glass God" by Nahum Stiskin. In a nutshell the dualistic monism of reality being represented as yin and yang can be symbolized by both a spiral and the helix as denoted in the first paragraph. Apparently this spiral/helix representation is in every phenomena, thing and being so it would go that looking at our martial systems there should be some form of the spiral/helix present if things are as they should be.

I believe that in all martial systems we have duality in a yin and yang form. Fundamentally martial systems are both "hard and soft" which is duality in a monistic fashion, i.e. a system of both hard and soft is "one" system and as an example the Okinawan system of "Goju" demonstrates that at least in its name. 

The spiral in this case, martial systems symbolism, would be practice of both the physical and the spiritual where the physical is yang and the spiritual is yin and the goal is to find both extremes and join them holistically into one so the fluctuation remains closer to the center realizing that neutrality is impossible but the ebb and flow from that neutral point is of importance.

The helical aspects comes from the symbolization of the practice of martial systems toward progress. We travel a path toward proficiency and enlightenment which puts us in a forward motion while the practice of the physical and spiritual ebb and flow across the center causes us to spiral around the path creating a spiral and helical effect. 

I am reading this book, The Looking-Glass God," for the fourth time and find new facts and such at every read. It is well worth the effort to find a copy to read and study. 

月 The character/ideogram means "moon; month." The individual character means, "moon; month."

In the ken-po goku-i reference is made to the moon. The moon can be thought of as a cup that fills with ambrosia, is emptied, and then refilled. The moon sends down the dew, the ambrosia, the drink of immortality that refreshes life. The moon is in a constant state of emptying and refilling; you see it fill every month, and then unload its ambrosia on the the Earth and to fill again - the cycles of the moon each month.

The moon is in turn a symbol of death and resurrection, the eternal recurrence. This also symbolizes the Chinese cultural model of the yin-yan which is also in a constant state of change from one to the other, the yin to the yang and back in a never ending cycle. 

Ken-po Goku-i: "A person's heart is the same as Heaven and Earth while the blood circulating is similar to the Sun and Moon yet the manner of drinking and spitting is either soft or hard while a person's unbalance is the same as a weight and the body should be able to change direction at any time as the time to strike is when the opportunity presents itself and both the eyes must see all sides as the ears must listen in all directions while the mind must grasp all the tactual data not seen on all sides and not heard in any direction."