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“Karate, like all budo, is at its core a physical expression of mental volition. It’s realized not through intellectual effort but through action. To forget this, or to minimize it, is to sabotage any effort to master karate as an art.” - Dave Lowry, Black Belt Magazine Article
Karada de oboeru: learning with the body.
Saying you understand is not a bad response when asked if you understand a lesson. When Sensei or Senpai asks, “Do you understand?” You can understand it in a sense but to understand it as it is physically applied, maybe not. You can know of the thing but the doing of it becomes a bit more in need of understanding. The issue is an interpretation of understanding. When studying, learning, training, practicing and applying a discipline you need to understand two distinct things, i.e., the principle of philosophy applies here using the sub-principle of “Yin-Yang,” where the Yin equals the academic knowledge necessary to the Yang that equals the physical manifestation. Seldom is academia and intellectualization enough to do the job vs. understanding the job itself.
I equate this complexity to the training, classroom, we received as Marines. Usually the classroom instruction is intense and tends to jam a lot into a very short period of time. Where true knowledge, understanding and ability or proficiency come into play is when you apply that knowledge on the job and in the job, i.e., doing is the real education toward a goal of understanding.
In this instance then the true question must be adjusted if you want, especially the western mind under the western cultural belief systems, to truly get a correct and accurate response. This concept is one of the critical ones I mention when someone decides they want to take up the discipline of Sensei, to teach, instruct and mentor novices, students and practitioners in the martial discipline.
When I ask if someone understands and they give me a “Yes,” I then follow up with, “If you understand can you apply that understanding through action?” I expect most to understand concepts intellectual or the conversation continues until all vagueness is gone then I also expect a more tactile lesson to help implement that knowledge and understanding toward the action of doing the marital discipline.
It is best to remember that one’s definition and meaning toward, “Understanding,” tends to differ vastly between each individual. A huge part of martial discipline especially as it applies in the doing for defense, fighting and combatives is, “Communications.” Conflict and Violence communications are critical on several fronts, more critical than the intellectualization and physical doing of technique(s), etc. You have to know, understand and apply those communication skills to first perceive conflict and violence long before it goes physical, communicate to deescalate and avoid to keep from going physical and finally to articulate adequately what you did, why you did it and how it was applied, etc., for the aftermath of conflict and violence.
Finally, just having the academic knowledge, an understanding of it both mentally and physically and then a concept toward its real-life applications does not mean you can “Do it.” The doing of it must also be trained against all the other principles of martial disciplines with the principle of self-defense and the chemical dump through reality-based training scenario’s.
Now, with just this tidbit of information you can begin to grasp the significance of “Understanding” that involves such disciplines. The doing and effects of such knowing and doing tend to be complex. Answering the question, “Do you Understand,” tends to come from the intent of the instruction, the question and the possible answers.
Making things work in the real world has always been the bane of understanding for humans especially when it comes to those disciplines that result in dangers to the individual, the tribe and its society in survival.
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