I’ve been doing a lot of soul searching lately, especially about this goju path we’re on. I got off track somewhere along the line.
Martial arts started me down the path of knowing myself and becoming more. I can’t explain it other than to say there’s a part of me that embraces the term kaizen, or the continual search for improvement. Or as some might say, the relentless pursuit of perfection.
I started teaching karate for two reasons:
- I wanted to pay forward what I had received; and
- to keep me in the game when there wasn’t a sensei around to teach me.
Those still apply today. However, after decades of training alone, number 2 is a perk and not a necessity. Because after 50 years, I’m still at it regardless if I teach or not. The effort and intensity wax and wane, but I’m usually working on something, whether outer or inner.
At the moment the dojo is sufficiently constructed for self-training at whatever level of effort you want to invest in yourself.
So now I’m facing the question of, “What’s next?”
The problem is this project has taken so much time and effort that my own training has suffered. Yet so much more remains to be done to complete my vision for it.
Now I’m faced with several choices:
1. Continue building by creating our own training materials to supplement those already here, including
- recording more podcasts
- holding a monthly satsang for members
- creating ju training videos
2. Shift into promotion so more of you will know about it; or
3. Concentrate on my own training. (I stand daily. Do you?)
There’s just not enough of me to go around to do it all at once — at least for now. So which direction I choose and how that manifests here remains to be seen.
As you can see, the path of service brings many challenges. Manifesting your intentions while overcoming the catalysts put before you is perhaps the biggest.
It should be an interesting summer.
Stay tuned.
This post has been revised from its original form.