An Open letter to the Karate-DO Community - PART 3

[Igor Prasnikar]

Dear Bill,

I took the privilege to post this Part 3 of the open letter only to your forum, not to disturb anymore forums with specific topics.
Your forum is of general topic and I would appreciate very much if you could help and coordinate responses on this post. As I have menthioned I am not connected to net at home therefore I shall try to give my comments in due course. THANK YOU

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Open letter to the Karate-DO Community - PART 3

What is the TRUE Nature of Karate-DO ?

Ladies and Gentlemen,

I thank Mr.Mattson to immediately draw your attention by writing his comments in latest "What's New" on my alarming change in attitude and questioning himself, WHAT cause could I have, to SUDDENLY CHANGE from "a Dojo rat" (which I take as a compliment given to a friend of the same level as "Jerk", which I have used in my previous posts, just to explain that I am not insulting anybody) and somebody with sound, sober comments, so often quoted by Mr.Van, INTO a raving maniac and killer of Mr.Glasheen.

I only hope that he was NOT the only one, who QUESTIONED himself (as for him I have no fear that he would not know the answer to the question in the subtitle) and AT LEAST BECAUSE OF HIM YOU SHOULD TAKE SOME WORRY, as he confined me in a private e-mail, that he had such a bad night, he could not watch TV and was constantly dwelling upon my very reasons for acting so.

I do not have any illusions, that anybody should question himself why some Igor, who had showed no fear to fight any of his adversaries in Okinawa and keeps his defeat to their greatest Champion Mr.Higa Nobuhiro (a True Gentleman by his moral and other actions) as his best achievement and everlasting memory, has cried over such a common cause, as "some ways Karate-Do is presented and discussed" on this forums.

Mr.Mattson has properly concluded that words can be terrible and powerful weapons of destruction (and I have obviously very clearly showed that), just like our hands and feet can be, when trained over the course of years and used for unjustified causes. And instead, they should be used more frequently on this forums as warm advises, that would lead the uninitiated to the proper ways and reasons to conduct his practice. May I draw your attention, to be more careful in both, selecting and reading those words, as otherwise their meaning is so quickly lost and advice not understood. In my previous posts, I had to use language in many different ways, to meet different levels, but always with sharp precision to cut like a sword, not to be lost in further discussion, because such is a nature of a battle and I declare the battle is now over and we should start listening to each other (and even exercise some healthy humor). And by giving our arguments, each and every person will decide for her/himself, what course she/he shall take in his further practice, because we should not and can not force anybody to follow anybody, except if she/he is so convinced by the very arguments. But when she/he makes such a decision, she/he should not constantly interfere and dwell upon the very same reasons, because in such a way she/he shall arrive nowhere.

Mr.Mattson has concluded that his intention was to produce these forums for the benefit of the students, that do not have a Teacher at hand and would seek advice, and he recalled his memories of his conversations after each practice with his kind Teacher Tomoyose Ryuko (a Gentleman of the highest standards, I have also had the honor to meet and discuss). May I bring to your attention one incident that proves the very height of Mr.Tomoyose's high moral standards.

In turbulent year of 1988 Uechi Kanei Sensei has been in hospital and the future course of Uechi-Ryu Karate-Do Association was to be decided. Everybody heard of disagreements between his son Mr.Uechi Kamei and other Seniors but we are not here to discuss details. A letter dated May 15,1988 was sent worldwide by the Board of Uechi-Ryu Karate-Do Association, signed by 6 Seniors, explaining reasons and requesting to each and every member to decide the side. Some statements in that letter were observations of personal behavior of Uechi Kanei Sensei and Mrs.Uechi that shocked many sincere people. Than another letter was sent on November 8, 1988 signed ONLY by Mr.Tomoyose Ryuko (on behalf of all previous) withdrawing those very statements and extending sincere apology to all in concern and the public. I kindly leave conclusions to your speculations, BUT for me the lesson we should learn here is - in plain American English: "have the guts to apologize".

And I apologize one more time to all their feelings have been hurt by my previous posts.

Now, if I return back to the essentials. Of course it is unreal that one would expect to receive same level of advises that Mr.Tomoyose was giving to young Mr.Mattson. But I am quite convinced that Mr.Mattson can confirm, that all the advises he received, were common sense advises, and that Mr.Tomoyose was not stuffing his head with millions of millions of combinations and speculations how to maim, kill or send to temporary or everlasting sleep his fellow students. And believe me, when checking some of the forums, common people often ask me, is this a site of "10 easy steps how to dispose of a human being in above said fashion in 1 million way and one more (Kyusho)" (now even illustrated with clips). Of course one may always issue a statement - we are not assuming any responsibility for the misuse of the practices shown or that people should just mind their own business and not be concerned about that (but believe me I have been truly concerned and affected by tragic incident Clarence went through and I wish him complete recovery). BUT I ask you WHAT statement you shall attach to those practices that are in ITS VERY ESSENCE obvious MISUSE of human being and basic principles of human behavior and Karate-DO.

Before I would become more specific, I would rather see THAT you forum participants contemplate on the koan: "WHAT is the TRUE Nature of Karate-DO" taking into consideration following guidelines:

1. The code of conduct between the participants in Karate-DO (subkoan: "What is the true nature of people who willingly submit themselves to be knocked-out helplessly", on and on WITHOUT offering any ACTIVE resistance to the attacker and of course not for medical purposes of improving one's health)
2. What practices shall be included in Karate-DO to reach some significant improvement (if we take into consideration the profile of people we teach and amount of time they are prepared to spend in those practices)
3. When we decide on those practices, HOW would you define 3 most important goals to achieve:
If I allready give one and you decide for the other two (and Mr.Mattson may arrange voting)
1. To perfect one's technique and its proper application
2.
3.

Than I believe we took on the first step of the long journey....

Thanking you for your attention,

Sincerely
Igor Prasnikar