Three Views

Lis, the black belt I worked with last night on brush blocks and partner kicks, writes today with some advice:

“You’ve been in class what 4 months? Five? Give yourself room to screw up, have fun with karate and do what your body allows you to do. And don’t push or expect too much from yourself. Karate is not mastered in months or years. Hell, not even over a lifetime… Chin up! From one perfectionist to another, we’ll get there once class at a time.”

During dinner, I read from Chogyam Trungpa’s Shambhala: Sacred Path of the Warrior, a favorite spiritual text of mine, where he writes: “We might kill for goodness or die for goodness; we want it so badly. What is lacking is a sense of humor…A genuine sense of humor is having a light touch: not beating reality into the ground but appreciating reality with a light touch.”

All of which also echoes what Hanshi has been telling me, “You’ve got to let yourself flow with these movements. Make them your own. Don’t lose the precision, but move with them fluidly.”