THE MARTIAL PATH

 by Phillip Starr

Traveling the martial path is a lifetime endeavor. Many travelers anxiously seek the end of it and believe that they'll finally reach its end and become “enlightened” and understand it all. In time, one realizes that THE JOURNEY IS THE DESTINATION. The path is very long and to travel it requires a lifetime. There actually is no end to the path, no final point on a mountaintop somewhere that is inhabited by sages.

The path is not an easy one to tread. In some places it is wide but it becomes very narrow in others. It is filled with stones – some small and some large, pitfalls, overgrown thorny bushes, beautiful open fields, and precipices. Of course, to avoid many of the obstacles it's necessary to follow one who has been there before. That's your teacher; he/she can show you where many of the nastier obstacles lay and help you avoid them but you're certain to stumble across a number of them anyway. It's just the nature of the journey.

Many travelers will give up and go back the way they came after running into some of the obstacles and pitfalls. Each snag and drawback has a name. These include frustration, discouragement, anger, jealousy, fear, pride, and so on. There's always a way to keep moving forward. There isn't a single hindrance that cannot be overcome if one is determined and one's spirit is strong. The martial way isn't for the weak of heart. It's certainly not for everyone.

Your instructor can encourage and guide you and show you where to go and how to avoid some of the hazards that lie unseen, But you're the one who must walk the walk; no one else can do it for you.

And you're never too old, too experienced, too skillful, or too knowledgeable to avoid every difficulty. It's important to remember that.