Seeing Is Believing

"I am not the best but I am capable of achieving the impossible."

-Anderson Silva

 

"Well done is better than well said."

-Benjamin Franklin

 

 

 

In martial arts a lot of strange things happen. And we become able to do things we thought we once never could... things we had not even imagined.

When I began when I was four years old I only wanted to learn how to do two things; defend myself from bullies, and help others.

We see many things which create myths. Who would think the one inch punch possible until they have felt it, and then learned it? I certainly didn't.

Who would think extinguishing a candle was possible through just our internal energy expressed externally? I didn't until I could.

 



Until I was thirteen I did nothing but break boards, the most I ever did was eight bound together. When I was fifteen I learned it was possible to break cinderblocks, and to my own amazement that without spacers I would observe three being broken, and to my own incredulity one day I did it myself.

One day I heard at a school there were students there who could punch as many as six times a second. And I worked my butt off until I could... and then go beyond. My pinnacle was eight in a second; full fledged, each capable of breaking a single cinder-block. I am unable to do that now, but some things in martial arts come and go. It allowed me to see I could do things I had not believed in earnestness were even possible.

But they are.

There are many other things which are achievable, but that many consider out of their reach.

Cutting a projectile out of the air;

Catching arrows.

 

Or even punching down trees.

 

 

 I thought it the realm of movies and anime until I tried it myself, day in and out and felled my own.

Here I am working on the third tree;

 

It and so much more are possible.

 

What then are we capable of doing we do not because we self-impose limitations?

Martial arts and its growth in it is a very real expression of faith; in others, our teachers and peers, and ultimately ourselves.

And honestly, the only area we cannot go is that which we choose not to imagine, and then develop.

Perhaps it is doubt which stays our hands, feet and minds. Perhaps it is apathy. I do not know, I only know that the martial arts is a way to explore our human potential, and fear of any kind is something we should not have; not that we are without fear, but are those who walk without it holding us back.

 

"If I said I could do it you wouldn't believe me, If I said I couldn't do it you wouldn't believe it"

-Unknown

 

"No! Try Not! Do or do not, there is no try."

-Yoda