Gamen [我慢]

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Note: I love to write, I ain’t all that good at it but I still love to write. I write a lot and figure maybe over time and with lots of practice I just might get “Ok” at it. It is one of the reasons I pick out things like the term above to write about by first defining it using my favorite translation site then providing my philosophy, thoughts and beliefs on that term or with any subject matter I chose to write about. I find it a very effective learning tool, writing out my thoughts while viewing and reviewing the materials that triggered my need to write on that subject. I also spend time in practice assimilating such things using a physical model, karate, to help encode it into my mind (when it can be physically trained cause some things require actual hands-on experience such as with self-defense). So, what I write is first and foremost for me, for me to learn and for me to encode into my knowledge base. What I write and post is for those who may find my writing “Ok” and would be willing “To Consider It” toward their possibly assimilating my theories, ideas and knowledge into their studies. That is so cool. One important caveat, writing is difficult and there may be times I will come across in a not so nice light, don’t take it personal because I can be such an asshole. Try to overlook my ego in the writing and data-mine out the, hopefully, good stuff. Finally, if you have read this far - Thanks, I appreciate your taking your valuable time to read my mindless meanderings!” Now, on with the actual article ….

Gamen, the characters/ideograms mean, “Patience; endurance; perseverance; self-control; self-denial.” The first character means, “ego; I; selfish; our; oneself,” the second character means, “ridicule; laziness.” 

One interpretation of this term comes from Sensei Cezar Borkowski who states, “Enduring the seemingly unbearable with patience and dignity.” I kind of like that and can understand its value in karate and martial arts. Karate and martial arts can be a daunting discipline depending on your goals in taking up the practice. When I think of it for self-defense and as a combative system in the right arena it has great potential and requires a certain mind-set and mind-state that will need to endure the unbearable, seemingly unbearable. 

Taking up karate and martial arts requires a lot of the practitioner and it enhances that person self-discipline, self-control and their levels of endurance, perseverance and opens the mind to greater possibilities beyond their imagination. 

We all have heard and been taught of the importance of one’s mind-set and mind-state. This is that one aspect of karate and martial arts that literally means the difference between life and death (at the extreme end of a spectrum involving conflict and violence). Life and death as a literal and a figurative meaning because in our nature there are events that will trigger, in our minds, feelings and reactions that mean life-or-death even when the outcomes are not actually life-or-death. Our minds and our natures and our instincts cannot differentiate and discern the differences, when the adrenal dump is triggered the lizard brain says, “Freeze or Run” your life is in danger - Danger Will Robinson, Danger!

In order to achieve higher levels of confidence, control and endurance, etc., you have to be exposed to situations, either live or in training, that will allow the mind, the lizard and human brains, to experience things so when reality rears its ugly head you have a chance to make that step that allows your training to react over nature’s natural instincts - it enhances those into something superior and effective for the fight, combat and/or self-defense. 

Gamen is a way to express that spectrum that provides practitioners the knowledge necessary for training and practice that develops the understanding and traits that will get-r-done. Gamen, like most terms from the Japanese language, express more than a single concept but provide a variety of ways to think, contemplate and consider and that is critical to the study, practice and application of karate and martial arts. 

Gamen becomes a theory and a philosophy toward the appropriate practice and application of physiokinetics and techniques as in applying principles and methodologies in the fight while maintaining control, of a kind, over the chemical dump so that one stays within the self-defense square. This requires a great deal of discipline, control, endurance, patience and perseverance while denying the monkey any influence that would become an obstacle toward such goals. 

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