"AN INSIDE-OUT VIEW OF A PHILOSOPHICAL CONSTRUCT ICHI"

The search for wholeness is a continual process of working within framework after framework. With the adoption of each new framework the old one must be torn apart, its aspects distinguished then either set aside, discarded, or integrated into the whole. We all do this with some degree of conscious deliberation and a great degree of unconscious motivation. Given that most people strive for the "good life," whatever they conceive it to be, the question arises as how to get there.

One answer is to adopt an art form as a way of life. The idea with such an approach is to maximize one's awareness within the context of creative discipline. Anything can be experienced as an art from as long as it is not looked upon as work, but rather as a way of life. Not done just for its usefulness or purely esthetic pleasure, but done to train the mind and to bring it into contact with the ultimate reality. It is not done for the sake of winning or performing movements, but for the sake of the art form which develops with the attunement of the unconscious.

This implies the losing of self or self-consciousness so that one may move about unhindered, open minded, and open hearted. Better capable of dealing with the environment, one develops a better way of relating to the world. There is a secret urge to uncover the mysteries of life by experiencing them. Of course, one can gain knowledge from books, but like the drawing in india ink of the whispering of the wind in the pines such secrets can only be suggested. Only through personal experience can one comprehend the mystic ecstasy of such secrets.

So when asked why I study martial arts, I can only smile and perhaps offer a brief explanation: there's more to life than working and dying. 'Jujutsu" is an art form in which one learns clarity, control, and the gentle way; a balancing of mind, body, spirit. It is a system whereby all systems are found within, a super structure that embraces all human experiences, and for me a way of life.

Beethoven once wrote: 'while almost everything disappears through the changes of time and unfortunately also fashion, only the truly good and entirely true remain fast as a rock and no criminal hand will dare do it violence. Let each therefore do what is good. Strive with all your power towards this never achievable goal and let each one to their last breath bring his talents into his fullest development. As the creator in his goodness has given them to him, for life is short, art is eternal.'

© 1978 REVISED 92}06}21 06*01*24 REVISED: 2002-10-17 03}35 PM Hikari Ryuza Ryu Do Kan™ Dr. T.R.Crimi Ph.D.