Thirty Years of A-KaTo
Celebration Banquet Speech
by Keith D. Yates
How do we build self-confidence? "Knowledge in the mind, honesty in the heart and strength in the body."When I originally designed the logo for the Southwest Tae Kwon Do Assoc. (not the earliest samurai patch but the triangle) I used that triangle to stand for the three aspects of MIND, HEART, and BODY. You have probably heard of "Mind-Body-Spirit" but I wanted to stay away from the implication that the martial arts improve your standing with God or the spiritual side of man so I used Jhoon Rhee's Student Creed with the three aspects of mind, heart, body.
Now many others have used these kinds of divisions for the nature of man. Stephen Covy wrote a book titled Renewal: Nourishing Body, Mind, Heart and Soul. In this book he describes the four dimensions of our nature as 1) PHYSICAL, 2) EMOTIONAL / SOCIAL, 3) MENTAL and 4) SPIRITUAL. He goes on to say that we must invest time and effort in each of these areas to be successful in life and to be happy and balanced.
And balance is what I intended to symbolize with the Ying Yang part of the logo. Know what the Ying Yang is? It is the ancient symbol of opposites. It can mean male/female; light/dark; hard style martial arts/soft style martial arts and so on. It symbolizes balance.
So what does the A-KaTo logo taken together mean? The multiple dimensions of a person's nature, all balanced in perfect harmony to achieve a successful and as Jhoon Rhee might say, "a life geared towards HAPPYISM."
I just edited a book for Mr. Rhee and I had to change words like that to make it sound a little better to a Western reader. But he has some really good observations. Let me share just one excerpt:
- "In 1978, I was running late for a black belt examination in Falls Church, Virginia. I was driving on the Canal Road along the Potomac River that runs between the city of Washington D.C. and Northern Virginia. I cut into the right lane in a hurry. The driver behind me was very upset and he was honking, screaming and cursing with four letter words.
I rolled the window down to apologize to him. When he saw me, he did not know what to do for he was one of the thirty students scheduled to take his black belt test under me that evening. He was a good martial art student, but he needed more compassion for people, understanding that everybody is in hurry once in while. I could have failed him but instead I passed him.
So, you never know whom you might be helping or harming by your actions. The person could be a future judge who will have the final say for your life in court. It is not only good but also wise to be kind and cordial to everyone you meet."
First, the physical. That is what most of us think about when we are training in class. Mrs. Goodspeed making you do another 50 pushups. Mr. Proctor doing "body work" in his dojo (that's something all you black belts should experience at least once or twice). The physical aspects of the martial arts are obvious. We train our bodies to be flexible, to be fast, to be strong. Strength in the body. But our minds are being trained as well aren't they?
To borrow again from something Jhoon Rhee has said, the attention and bowing commands we use at the very beginning of a student's martial experience teaches them the principles of DISCIPLINE (attention) and RESPECT (bow).
Mental discipline and an attitude of respect toward others would go a long way in improving the situation among today's children and teenagers. That is one of the selling points of Chuck Norris's Kick-Start program to "at risk" kids in those impressionable middle school years. I have seen the results (in fact most of you have too) of a little discipline and respect instilled in kids that have shown little of that previously. Their SELF-respect also improves with a healthy dose of SELF-discipline.
But as Mr. Rhee says, you can be smart and you can be strong but that does not make you a good person. Embezzlers are smart. Gang enforcers are strong. But they are not good, they don't have a good heart.
Which brings us to honesty in the heart.
In the book, All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten, Robert Folgrum says a basic truth of life is honesty. If a little kid learns his lesson in kindergarten that he or she needs to be HONEST, that lesson can carry us into life and make us successful. If Kenneth Lay had been honest do you think he would be in his current predicament? If you are an honest person others will be attracted to you. If you are an honest person people will even overlook some of your other faults.
Oh sure, you might be attracted to a gorgeous blonde or a hunky guy (I am talking to you single people now) but if that person turns out to be a liar and a cheat you won't stick around long. People with good hearts are nice people to be around. People like them. And if people like you and want to be around you, then YOU are happy.
SO -- What is the secret of happiness? Is it power, is it money? The way some people SEEK these things you would think that is the answer to happiness. But you know they did a survey of lottery winners and they found out that the majority of them (after the excitement of winning and spending lots of money on things wore off) were not appreciably happier than they were before.
In the last 70 years our culture has greatly improved its standard of living. People make more than they used to (even accounting for inflation). We have more conveniences, from big screen TVs to cell phones, than our grandparents had and yet we are no happier that they were, and in many cases we are MORE stressed out, more frustrated, and more discontent with life.
If material possessions doesn't make one happy what does? Maybe it's making a contribution to other people's lives? Maybe it is knowing that you will be remembered for making an impact -- like we remembered the impact of Howard Jackson earlier this evening.
The US constitution says we are entitled to -- "the pursuit of Happiness." Note it doesn't we are entitled TO happiness but to the pursuit of it. Like I said most people pursue it the wrong way. To live a balanced and happy life you must invest in all aspects of your life. You can't work out non-stop, nourishing the physical but not the other aspects. You can't study all the time and grow physically fat and unhealthy.
Now I know you know all this. But how many of you practice it -- I mean REALLY practice it as a lifestyle? The only way to develop positive and healthy habits is to repeat them, repeatedly.
You can't just swear off ice cream and cookies for the week before that summer swimming party and expect the cravings to go away from then on. You can't just cram the night before that spelling exam and expect to develop a love for reading and learning. You can't just count to ten the next time your spouse says something to make you mad and then think your relationship is going to be improved from then on. All of these things, eating healthy and working out and being honest, being kind and cordial are habits we must develop into a way of life. Believe it or not this IS the martial way of life.
What else do the martial arts teach us? How about OVERCOMING OBSTACLES. Grandmaster Byung Yu says, "When trouble comes, don't be there!" In other words, stay away from things that are going to cause you trouble. If a drunk wants to fight you. If a guy in a BMW wants to drag race you. These are things that are not worth the trouble. A wise man knows what is worth the effort -- what is worth fighting for.
Another martial arts saying is, "Fall down 7, get up 8." Don't let failure get you down. In fact, don't look at failure as failure. What I mean by that, is, not achieving a goal is not failure unless you give up trying to achieve it. Failing at a task is merely practicing for success. The more failure you endure, the greater the celebration will be when you finally succeed.
That is one reason an A-KaTo black belt is so hard to achieve -- so the celebration is great when you do.
Another lesson from the martial arts is to STRIVE FOR PERFECTION. All good instructors want their students to do this. I may seem to be a stickler for detail on kata. Students may even get frustrated because they think they cannot please me. BUT they misunderstand. I DON'T actually want perfection (no one can achieve that except Jesus anyway). I want the MIND-SET of perfection.
To quote Bruce Lee, "Perfection lies not in the destination, but in the journey." What does that mean? It isn't the results that make you strong; it is the process. You are not a good martial artist because you are an A-KaTo black belt; you are a good martial artist because you did what it took to BECOME a black belt.
The martial arts also teach us to TAKE ACTION. How many times have you heard someone say to you, "I always wanted to take karate!"? I usually answer not with, "Why didn't you," but with, "Why don't you?" I realize not everyone has the ability to take up training, not in the way that we, in our organization, do it, anyway. But everyone does have the ability to do something about the problems in their life. Whether it is a weight problem, a problem in school, a problem at home.
You know why most people don't make positive changes, make positive decisions? They can't take action because the action might involve some pain or discomfort. They can't decide because they don't have a value system that shows them what they need to do.
One of Anthony Robbins early books is, Awaken the Giant Within: How to take control of your mental, emotional, physical and (he adds) financial destiny. In it he says:
"If you and I are not clear about what's most important in our lives -- what we truly stand for -- then how can we ever expect to lay the foundation for a sense of self-esteem, much less have the capacity to make effective decisions? If you have ever found yourself in a situation where you had a tough time making a decision about something, the reason is that you weren't clear about what you value the most within that situation. WE MUST REMEMBER THAT ALL DECISION MAKING COME DOWN TO VALUES CLARIFICATION."
So get moving, that is the martial way!
Our Thirtieth Anniversary T-shirt design means "Transmitting or passing along the WAY." I hope that is what the A-KaTo has done for the last thirty years. I know my life is different that it would have been without the martial arts, without the input of men and mentors like Mr.s Steen, Mullins, Burleson, Toney, and Erickson.
I hope that my life is more balanced (NO, my life IS more balanced) than if I had never learned a kata, a reverse punch or a roundhouse kick. But my mastery of the martial arts doesn't make me happy, it only enables me to pursue happiness. The result lies within me. YOU -- my students and my friends -- hold the key to your own balanced and happy life and if I or any other instructor in the A-KaTo has taught you that then we have successfully transmitted the WAY.
Today is the first day of the rest of your life. Tomorrow when you wake up, or perhaps Monday when you go back to your office or school -- I want you to approach life a little differently. I want you to commit to being more balanced.
I want you to seek knowledge -- to be a more honest and compassionate person -- and to train even harder. BUT not letting ANY ONE of those three crowd out the others. Then you can pursue your own happiness in a balanced way, in a positive way and make an impact on other lives along the way, the martial way.
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