Ok just wanted to see how many of you think in your opinion fighting has changed? It seems to me that a lot of people feel that traditional martial arts need to be updated and modernized but my question is why? Did a man fighting another man really change or something and nobody sent me the memo lol?
...so why is it that you find so much change and deviation and non trust when it comes to the traditional arts?
Why does breathing and so on and so forth become a question to be put under a microscope when the people who invented these arts invented them in times of struggle and of war. They tested them under real fire and under the real stress of life struggles and not on a padded mat in an arena in front of parents for trophies and medals.
Can you really learn and benefit from something if you question the very methods you're supposed to be learning?
-Has fighting tradition changed?
For one on one empty handed combat, no. However the legal environment and society have changed quite a bit. There are many threads in the archives on these topics.
-Why is there change? Because humans evolve their understanding over time. As Newton said "If I am able to see further it is only because I have stood on the shoulders of giants." At a certain point in training trust is needed. But after the fundamentals are developed each student must seek their own understanding. "Seek not to be like your teachers, seek what you teachers sought."
-Why do things like breathing get put under a microscope? Because our understanding of human physiology has grown extensively in past two hundred years. It would be an injustice to ignore new knowledge just because it isn't old knowledge. At the end of the day we may come full circle in our understanding, but if we do it will be because we understand both the traidition and the function based on what we have learned.
-Can we really learn if we question? Socrates admonished us to question everything all the time. Are you really learning if you are only following blindly? Faith and trust - yes - to a point. Then you must own your training and not train because so and so said so, but because you have a full understanding.
What we're talking about here is called in Japanese traditions Shuhari. Shu, ha, ri.
Imitation, Separation, Reunification.
http://judo1.net/ju01004.htm
The author in the above article finishes with separation. And I disagree. If knowledge is a tree - an the outermost branches and leaves the newest knowledge then I firmly believe that with complete understanding you do not only embrace the small leaves and branches at the edge. With full understanding you also embrace the trunk, the heartwood, the roots, and the earth below.
To honor our teachers we start by sitting at their feet and we should end by standing on their shoulders.
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