The characters/ideograms mean, “hand; arm; forepaw; foreleg; handle; hand; help; worker; trouble; care; effort; means; way; trick; move; technique; workmanship; kind; type; sort; one’s hands; one’s possessions; ability to cope; direction; move.”
In the beginning there was simply, “Ti (pronounced TEE).” Ti had everything but most important it contained all the fundamental principles (referred to today as the fundamental principles of the martial system) of this system called Ti. There was no need to call it anything else because it was complete.
Man practiced this Ti. They learned all they needed to apply Ti in their lives. They learned and progressed making the principles complete and whole, i.e. Theory, Physiokinetics, Techniques and Philosophy. This was good.
As man progressed his thoughts came about toward “Improvements.” Although Ti was perfect man decided from their personal perspective, perceptions, cultural influences, beliefs and especially from their personal experiences fighting, defending and from combat felt a need to make changes so that others who follow can achieve greatness as a martial practitioner of Ti.
Men became confused, they said, “This is not the Ti I was taught, it is different from the original Ti.” Why is this Ti different from the ancient Ti?
The man who felt improvements were beneficial and necessary explained why he made changes to Ti and then decided in discussions with other Ti masters that in order to keep track of this they needed to apply “Titles and Names” to these newer and improved practices of Ti.
The men agreed and felt wonderful and pleased with themselves for they created a new form of Ti, so they discussed and argued and finally agreed that these new editions of Ti would be referred to as “Styles.” They forgot that Ti had everything, they felt that their experiences, etc. warranted improvements but failed to recognize that the new “Style,” although in the surface appeared different, still maintained the exact same principles that made Ti perfect.
Then these men, after decades of practice and improvements, had many styles so they felt it necessary to give all these gifts to everyone feeling magnanimous they decided to put their styles into the educational system so every child could benefit and create warriors withing all their tribe. The men got together to discuss how to do this when one recognized that to teach very young about deadly arts may not be best so they made more changes to “Water down” the deadly parts offering the idea that later as adults the Masters could then teach the more deadly parts. Then there was a war where all the masters, except very few, died. This is how those men lost the teachings of Ti, later the teachings of the styles and finally were left with “Educational Martial Systems.” This was passed down from Sensei to Practitioners to include Westerners who conquered those men during the “War.”
Men gathered from both cultures and compared notes along with the study of the ancient Japanese warrior ways to come up with another new system of martial “Arts.” This led to additional styles or systems, it led to governing institutions to control all that came into being in the martial arts world and it was carried and passed from country to country. They called this new system, born from Ti - the perfect system, “Traditional.”
Still, all these systems, styles and individual renditions of Ti still at its core had the fundamental principles of the martial system at its core, it was the essence of all things. They failed to see the truth for it was buried under all the styles that came to be, the various ways each recognized one another accomplishments, the institutions that governed all, the traditions vs. the others, and the need of humans to form tribes that fit their gut instincts that became a form of survival. Survival of not man but rather man’s ideals about the discipline of Ti that became the many myriad things under the title, Martial Arts (Karate).
At the end of time all men ceased to exist so that all systems and styles disappeared leaving only the natural nature of the universe that is the fundamental principles of all the myriad things. In the end, there is still only the “One wholehearted way of Martial Warriors, Ti!”
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