Control, you must learn control

Funakoshi Principle #4: First control yourself before attempting to control others.


Control.... this is a pretty profound concept in my mind, certainly not a trivial thing to talk about. It is something I have wrestled with in my own life since I was a kid and I could probably write volumes on it, but maybe it is best to start simply.

Technique..... The first thing anyone needs to be able to do is control the body. You do this as an infant learning to walk (not to mention the hundreds of other motions you learn before even attempting to walk.) You also do this in karate. When you first start out, you cannot control your body in such a way to do "good techniques", whatever they may be.

Ever look at a white belt doing a stance next to a brown belt? They are both doing a stance, but they look different. Same technique, and aside from personal differences between their body types, the difference in the way they look is control. A brown belt has been around long enough to know how to control his or her body to do a good stance. A white belt is still trying to figure out the mechanics of it.

Now what about the deeper physical aspects of control beyond motor skills? Senseis sometimes say you should "move from your center." This is the element of controlling yourself physically. Move from your center. It is not as easy as you think, and you actually spend a good deal of your early (and late) belt ranks figuring out how to move from your center.

Jujitsu has developed this concept even more highly. First you learn to control your center. Then you learn to control someone else's center (through throws and holds and other stuff). Then you learn to control the center between you and your opponent.

In karate, you are going to have a lot of trouble managing the techniques thrown at you by your opponent if you are still trying to figure out the basics of how to block or punch. You need to know how to move before you can begin to deal with stuff coming at you effectively. Once you do learn this, having an opponent trying to strike you becomes less of an issue.

So this begs some of the deeper questions about control. What is it?

Here's my definition:

Control is the identification of "self" with one's True Self, as opposed to one's desires and animal nature.

Once you do this, the wants and desires of your Animal Self (food, warmth, sex, sleep, safety) and your Inner Self (acceptance, revenge, friendship, romance, and more) can be seen for what they really are. The illusions behind them are broken and you become "free" of them. You have control. This does not mean they go away. They will always be there as long as you are human. However, when you can "control yourself", you are able to do what needs to be done at the moment, rather than what these lesser natures are telling you to do.

After doing this for a while, a funny thing happens. You realize that there is really no difference between the "self" that is you and the "self" that is someone else. It's the same Self. Once you become free of it, you contribute to all humans' abilities to become free of it as well. At that point, there is no need to "control" others forcefully or otherwise, because you understand things as they happen and are able to do what needs to be done despite the obstacles presented by someone else's desire and animal natures.