Dear Students, Teachers and Parents,

Congratulations to all those that tested for their new belt and
passed.
Up and coming events include a weapons seminar taught by Sensei
Richardson and the Safety Day sponsored by Sensei Britton and our
friends from the Police Department.

For those that do long range planning, the Okinawan World
Championships will be held on August 16th – 19th 2003 in Naha,
Okinawa. We are taking a group and probably will be going out about a
week early to train and socialize.

Message of the Week

"Dao" or "Do"

Dao, also spelled Tao, is a very important concept in ancient Chinese
thought, and is often translated as "the way" or "the path" but these
words do not do justice to the true meaning. In English we use the
word `way' to describe concepts like - course, method, manner, mode,
means, practice, fashion, technique or style. These tend to lead us
to believe that way is a method of action, but in Chinese thought,
non-action is of equal importance in the dao.

The other commonly used term is "path" and can be equally misleading.
For example, one might inquire "the way to Denver", and yet the path
could be a multitude of responses. Responses could range from head
north on I-25 to giving specific latitude and longitude coordinates.
Those that understand the backwoods of Colorado, understand that
there many types of paths one follows in the wild, as well as many
different methods of marking those paths so other can follow. The art
and science of tracking animals and other humans that have gone down
a path ahead of you is an art and science unto itself. And yet those
of us that study this method soon find that the natural paths created
by natures engineers, like the deer and sheep, are the most
economical and easiest to use when traveling. It seems most animals
are very in tune with nature and automatically follow the dao.

In problem solving, we usually brainstorm and identify several ways
to solve a specific challenge, and then try and select the best way.
While there are many solutions that will work, we assume that there
is one course of action that is better than all the others. This one
method would include every little detail of this particular course.
This one best method could be described as the dao.

Many times the word dao or do is added to another word to describe a
new concept. For example, jiang dao is the word for "to preach"
or "to speak the dao". In Japanese language the concept of dao is
translated as do and is used in many of the martial arts to describe
the total aspect of the way of their martial art. For example, judo,
karate-do, or kendo, implies that their martial art form is a
complete and well thought out art form that includes aspects of
mental, physical and spiritual training.

Lao Tzu once stated that the dao that can be explained is not the
dao. This is in reference to the idea of the dao is a constant and
changing thing, and one can experience it, and use that experience to
understand it, but if you try and collect it to study or analyze it,
it is no longer the dao. Take for example the martial arts teacher or
student. It is impossible to teach students to defend themselves
against an attacker in the street, because combat is alive and
constantly changing. Yet we can share principles and concepts that
may enable the student to go with the flow and adapt to a specific
situation, and increase their ability to find the proper path at that
time.

This leads us to the concept of karate-do; the way of karate. Many
people believe that the path is different for each of us, but has
common roots. This is why we spend time to work on goal setting and
values clarification with our students. Your path must be congruent
with your personal values and goals, and only then will your karate
training begin to experience the do aspect.

The path of karate-do is hard to explain and even harder to
experience. Each of us needs to find a good Sensei (one who has
walked before), to help guide us down this path and to remind us when
we step off the path. I can assure a new student that the benefits of
self-confidence, higher self-esteem and the overall success they will
experience in their life because of this journey will be well worth
it, but it is them that must keep putting one foot in front of the
other along the path of black belt excellence. As you begin or
continue along your path in karate-do, I wish you the very best in
your journey and hope your journey is as blessed as mine has been and
more.

Respectfully,

Terry Bryan