We all started our training by doing the first step.
\nWe entered the Dojo for the first time.
\nWe entered the mat for the first time.<\/p>\n
We learned the first step of the first breakfall. The first step to learn the first throw …<\/p>\n
Our curiosity was great and our willingness to go further and further was endless.
\nAnd like this we put one foot in front of the other and without even noticing we
\nset out on a journey that would change our entire life.
\n
\nWe didn’t set out on this journey alone.
\nThere was the training group, our friends, the teachers …
\nWe had yet no knowledge nor skill. We were beginners.
\nChildren.
\nWe were guided by the older and more experienced ones.
\nThey gave us directions.
\nAnd so we set off not knowing where this path would lead us.<\/p>\n
We got older and were still on our way.
\nMeanwhile we thought to know the objective.
\nThis journey, which we had so joyfully started and which lead us on rough paths over
\nhill and dale would in the end lead us to the objective which seemed so desireable.
\nSo wonderful that we glorified it.
\nWe would obtain the black belt.
\nAs a reward for all our efforts.
\nWe were sure of that.
\nAnd then, we also knew that, we’d have reached our objective.
\nSomeday …<\/p>\n
So we marched on.
\nThe path got harder, more rampant and narrow.
\nGradually a few of our comrades left us. They turned around or they got tired and couldn’t
\ncontinue. They found along the path places where they wanted to stay. And sometimes we
\nasked ourselves if it wouldn’t be easier, more convinient, more rewarding to join them. And
\nsometimes it bitterly hurt to leave them behind and to go on.<\/p>\n
But something in us made us continue.
\nThere was this endless curiosity that couldn’t be satisfied …
\nWhat would it feel like reaching the objective?
\nWhen would we reach it?
\nWhat would that feel like?
\nAnd the closer we got to the big target, the more pressing got the question, what would be
\nonce we reach it.<\/p>\n
One day, almost unexpectedly, it was time.
\nWe had arrived.
\nA small bunch of stalwarts.
\nSo many had left with us and so few arrived now …
\nBut we … we had made it.
\nWe were so proud of ourselves …!<\/p>\n
Until we realised that we had just finished a small, almost tiny part of our way.
\nBasically we had just done the first step.
\nThis was a shocking revelation.
\nWe just wanted to finish, to reach the objective, to rest after all our troubles …<\/p>\n
But now we ought and had to move on.
\nMove on, and again over hill and dale, through valleys and over mountains barely cresting.
\nIt was exasperating.
\nWould it never come to an end?
\nWe moved on and on. One step after another. Sometimes it was easy. But sometimes it
\nwas so hard that we just wanted to turn around. Sometimes we went astray. Got lost
\nand baulky went on the wrong track because we thought we had found a shortcut.
\nNot all of us returned to our path.
\nWe moved on, got older and more experienced and more than once we thought to actually
\nknow the way.
\nWe argued with the ones that went ahead of us and now returned to take us with them.
\nAt times we thought to know better than them …<\/p>\n
Still today I admire the patience our teachers had with us.
\nWe moved on because they encouraged us to.<\/p>\n
On our way we met people that were a role model to us. Which we admired.
\nBut we also met those who wanted to dictate to us where we had to go. Who told us we
\ncould and should continue our way only with their permission.
\nIt was probably our teachers who kept us from believing these imposters …
\nAnd so we moved on and on.<\/p>\n
And again many fell behind. Tired and unwilling.
\nA few, however, continued.
\nAlways further.
\nSometimes we looked back and recalled particular rocky, steep and toilsome paths aswell
\nas some aberration …
\nSometimes even one of our teachers would stay behind. He had accompanied us to a point
\nhe couldn’t exceed … and from there on we had to move on by ourselves.<\/p>\n
Back then I finally began to understand that our journey in the martialarts has no end.
\nIt’s the journey itself that matters.
\nIt’s the overcoming to do one step after another over and over again that reveals certain
\nknowledge to us we wouldn’t have achieved otherwise.
\nIt’s the way that matters.
\nIt’s him who makes us who we are.
\nHe lets us endure hardship, lets us hang on, he molds us, as we walk him.
\nWe have decided to take this trip when we started back then.
\nWe don’t know where this will lead us.
\nBut we know that we’ll be traveling throughout our lives. We can’t and won’t stop.
\nOur curiosity is simply too great …
\nWe move on.
\nAnd while we move on we’ll do one step after another, again and again.
\nJust like we did it as beginners when we did our first steps …<\/p>\n
(Translated by Fabian Ludwig)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
We all started our training by doing the first step. We entered the Dojo for the first time. We entered the mat for the first time. We learned the first step of the first breakfall. The first step to learn … Weiterlesen