Esoterica in Martial Arts

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It would seem that a primary focus, for some, who practice karate is the more esoteric aspects of the art. What is the esoterica of karate, well it is best to define the term and then relate that to the issues being discussed. 

Esoteric: intended for or likely to be understood by only a small number of people with a specialized knowledge or interest; private; secret; confidential; (of a philosophical doctrine or the like) intended to be revealed only to the initiates of a group; little known; obscure.

My very first impressions are an egoistic drive and need to have some connectivity to the past. This means to me that the person or persons caught up in the study of past masters and their ways in karate are an attempt to fill the void their lives seem to be missing. So many groups and tribal like social orders need to have a connectivity to a larger than life history for our past and our heritage seems to matter to us. Most of those I see caught up in this esoterica of karate seem to have that missing component of historical heritage. 

When then do find that in this esoterica of karate they tend to drive themselves to an extreme and in the process create a doctrine rather than an history and from that only like-minded folks are attracted thereby creating a special group with specialized knowledge and/or interest that is labeled secret in nature and often confidential where only those groups are privy and everyone else is an outsider who these esoteric knowledge must be kept outside the group and not privy to its secrets - mostly. 

Then there is that knowledge missing from practice so the tribe, dojo group if you will, and/or the individual in great need to be connected seeks out the esoterica of karate to be special; to be of perceived higher status; to justify what they do along with titles, ranks, and other accolades to make them feel better about themselves and so on. 

The real cruelty to this way is that it is often intermixed with true belief and ways where the good side is dirtied by the bad and to the uninitiated is perceived as all the same much like labeling all forms of martial arts under the name of karate where any Asian form be it Japanese, Korean or Chinese is mistakenly labeled all the same when in fact they are different if for no other reason than the culture behind the practice. 

Another respected karate luminary wrote about this esoteric way said, “I (the author I mention) sometimes wonder what it is about karate-ka, and kobudo-ka too for that matter, that make them want to know everything, including who invented each kata and exactly how they did them. … Why do folk today want to keep looking backwards anyway...is that all you've got, things that other people did years ago? … Why do you look to the past all the time to justify what you're doing right now?” 

I know of one group that has mired itself down deeply in the belief and practice of making sure that every single minute aspect of practice, under the titled name of the style/system, is kept exactly as it was taught by the system/styles creator that they put the Asian master on a pedestal and created a religious like system where deviations of the slightest nature means, “Blasphemous behavior against the memory of said master.” 

I hear and understand, from my personal preceptive view of karate, what the author is trying to say in that gluing ourselves, going overboard to the exclusion of the true way as I perceive and distinguish it, to this historical connection to be unhealthy to the progression and validation of karate in which the practitioner follows its path in todays world. I am not saying that what I see here from his work is the same, but I am saying that his work triggered in my beliefs a hint of what I feel is at issue. It is about how one perceives and distinguishes the intent of their practice, training and applications and if it is just a means of historical preservation then that is a way, a path to follow except when it is presented as something else then it denigrates the true nature of practice and following the way be it karate or some other discipline. 

Note: A healthy connection to our past and heritage is beneficial and socially natural but when it becomes an obsession then there are issues. We do learn from our past; we have to know that past, understand that past and then recognize when the past is influencing our present; we have to take our past and analyze it so that it may be synthesized into a relevant applicable modern now discipline with an eye on how that will change it for our followers - key to being one who leads.

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“In order for any life to matter, we all have to matter.” - Marcus Luttrell, Navy Seal (ret)