August Outdoor Training

Mountain Karate August Outdoor training area. Great training day, as always.

Some of our visitors, accustomed to an urban, built environment, find this area to be strange and disorienting – not really real. Most find it a challenging and interesting place to train, and like to return to it every year.

Several people noted that this kind of place exhibits self-similar appearance at all scales, from the magnificent to the microscopic. This is a familiar characteristic of experience.

In our training a move, a kata, a class, a day and a life of training all exhibit formal similarity. This allows us to orient and learn and make sense out of each part and of how it all fits together, and so become more proficient at self-defense combatives and other dimensions of life.

Senior instructor William Blake pointed out that, as a result of this, you can

…see a world in a grain of sand

And a heaven in a wild flower

Hold infinity in the palm of your hand

And eternity in an hour...

Which could sound a little corny but fortunately does not, since it is true.

Post and photos copyright © 2023 Jeffrey Brooks, except as noted.

Read the groundbreaking book True Karate Dō by Jeffrey Brooks, instructor, 山林流  Yamabayashi Ryu Mountain Forest style, Mountain Karate, Saluda, NC