Blog Article/Post Caveat (Read First Please: Click the Link)
In some karate circles there are these terse teachings of the ken-po goku-i and one of those meme’s is, “The Time to strike is when the opportunity presents itself.” Good advice in the most general ways of things but warrants considerable study and understanding because without that effort many end up fighting and as we have come to know in modern society, “Fighting is illegal.”
In a recent article the author created a quote that made me think of this meme, i.e., “ … You must be the one leading the dance, not the one following, so move first.”
Granted, in certain specific situations you may have to resort to striking to achieve your self-fense goals. In just those particular spots the present those very opportunities you have failed self-fense already and are in the fight-zone. That is why I liked the second quote because regardless of the stage of conflict and violence if you move first, if you move earlier that your adversary or perceived threat you win. You are inside that persons loop and as long as you move quickly, change rapidly and vary the methods, etc., you are using you are going to overcome and find success. It is just a fact and proven by fire through the efforts of the loops creator.
If you take the lead you force others to follow or to miss the dance altogether. Your goal is to have them miss the dance by your moving first into avoidance mode along with escape and evasion. Finding those opportunities often presented long before conflict and violence manifest is actually striking, with a method of avoidance, escape and evasion (a part of avoidance), first but not with the fist or foot, with your mind, your mind-set and your mind-state.
If you want to exploit all the opportunities that are presented along the way to conflict and violence you begin by exploiting those opportunities you have in training and practice to learn and understand all those factors of conflict and violence in yourself, your ego and how you act and do things in life, this is the early opportunity and to strike down those foibles in yourself goes a long way to leading the dance, your ego following the logical human mind-set you created and the staying inside your own loop of destructive behavior.
If circumstances lose you that path then you will find, with this awareness, those other off ramps on the road to conflict and violence that you can take at the very first opportunity presented (cough cough, snicker snicker, you knew that was coming).
It just goes to show that not everything is as plain as the nose on your face, that face covers up a mind that has many wonderful traits and aspects and personalities and character that when properly led tend to create a person of character and personality who takes the very first opportunities presented through the travels of life to include conflicts and violence of all levels and types so as to strike first for yourself toward those lofty, honorable and morally right goals you created. Ain’t life grand.
My dance card is full and I often work diligently to take the lead, create the opportunities before they are presented in other ways outside my purview and then apply them as best I can - ain’t life grand.
Bibliography (Click the link)
Hat tip to <Sword and Circle> as the inspiration for this post.
