Your karate teacher died, now what? That sounds caviler kind of a cast-off statement. It is almost as if it is a statement about floor wax from a mid-afternoon television show. It is not is the real question. The death of a teacher has happened to me before but this one gut punched me. The sorting of how this needs ordering. The responses both short term and long-term need addressing.

And in doing so there may be a handle for you got to grab onto for the future. Or the handles allowing you to reach back into the past and secure a grip on an experience or emotion.

We are all going to die, but we just don’t believe it.

Growing up in post-war Japan in the Shinjuku district life was hard. He told me stories of hunger and hardship. These stories came infrequently, yet helped explain his worldview.

I have buried the greatest father a hundred times. And we have likely buried the greatest karate sensei a hundred times. The result of this emotion is to try and acknowledge the impact the sensei has had, a foundation may be created, an award given out on an annual basis. You may use this when you karate teacher dies, or when another person passes.

I have done this and it has been with little results. People are focusing on living. Getting results for themselves, and not a plaque on a wall. A plaque about somebody else’s journey. Or the of overcoming the obstacles placed before them in life.

After the death of Ito, the people are coming out of the woodwork. The people are reaching out from Asia, Europe, the Americas. Further, Ito never had a dojo he traveled from dojo to dojo. He never wanted a dojo and he never wanted an organization. It was about Karate. Good karate or bad karate. That was it.

The movie is a story as old as the human experience. A man empties his cup and replaces it with a new structure that serves his purpose. And that the new structure that renews of purpose and self. Is the story of me and my sensei the same as the movie The Last Samurai? No, no it’s not, and yet there are a few similarities that can be seen.

You too will have these similarities with your teacher. If you look at your relationship with a little squint when the light hits right. This is where you find the handles for the experience and the emotions. The story then becomes how do you take the good things and push them forward. The way they lived and not the way they died.

Here are a few podcast you will find interesting

• I Don’t Teach Kids Karate
• Karate Fists and Samurai Swords
• Boomerang Students

See how we can connect. Click on my picture.

KRIS WILDER

Kris Wilder is a martial artist based in Eastern Washington. He has authored many martial art books, including the classic, The Way of Kata. Making no apologies for his obsession of Football he can be found telling any who will listen about the nuances of the Canadian Football League.

The post Your Karate Teacher Died, Now What? appeared first on Stickman Publications, Martial Arts Podcast.