When we reach the Black Belt level from Dan 1 to Dan 10 or 12 it is a whole new world of martial arts irrespective of the discipline. Most things start to open up,workings of the martial arts and that level starts to open. Here the techniques are honed to their perfect ability and the skills are sharpened. A Black Belt is then capable of full combative ability in it’s best sense. The haragei also becomes more clearly defined and the explanation for this also dawns on the martial artist. The levels of spirituality increases and we understand the workings of the Universe and the power of life. As often heard attaining a Black Belt only show us what we are capable of becoming and who we really are. It is not a certification of any ability as such. Here the ability ti know oneself is foremost,the spiritual level and its attainment are importantbecause it is from this that the impact of the physical techniques become more and more pronounced. Here it is not just a question of coordinating the mind and the body but it is the mind ,body and the spirit in unison. Sounds very simple but we get down to practicing it it is not so simple and it takes regular dedicated practice. It is in this level that the emotional methods of the enemy get tougher. They will say when they mean no, they will tell us to go right if we have to take the left turn, everything they sat will be the opposite of what is actually a fact. We must be able to discern the real fact. Initially it comes by trial and error, then we reach a level where we can sense it and we do what are intuition tells us to do and it is always correct. This is not all along with this will come persons who will provoke us into physical fights,trying to bait us to make a mistake or use a fatal technique and then trap us into a long legal battle. We will also be provoked into doing things asked by our superiors in our professional areas to have us sacked from our jobs sometimes, but at this level we understand and we are able to avoid these situations because of experience. At this level our ability of control and restraint not only physically but also emotionally comes into play,the level of control and restrain, the level of our effectiveness when we are silent and the level of our ability to overcome obstacles is tested hard and long. When we are alone and we look back at our progress in the Black Belt level we often sit by ourselves and smile that we really have come a long way…..only then we realize that we still have a long long long way yet to go.
Posted on: Wed, 21 Aug 2013 11:20:55 +0000