WADOKA KARATE: MENTAL HEALTH – TESTIMONY OF A FORMER “AT RISK” KID

In reflecting upon these strikingly separate impressions that came his way he was able to find answers, not so much in the teachings of the “old karate masters” whom everyone revered, but in the discoveries of bold researchers who sought to advance knowledge by attempting to bring about a marriage between “eastern mysticism” and “western science.”

Canadian sociologists Konzak and Boudreau, both karate teachers, oriented their research through the lens of “mental health”; presenting “mental health” as a standard by which the individual achieves “the ability to maintain an even temper, an alert intelligence, socially considerate behavior and a happy disposition.”

Using the current (upgraded) perspective on “mental health” as the main frame of reference, their findings confirmed that in effect those who engage in traditional karate training are more likely to exhibit character traits that mirror exactly or associatively the ones just described.

For him the findings preceded that much-heralded “eureka” moment, where, in the role of “subject-object” the person gets to inhabit—no less than—three dimensions (past, present, and future) of time simultaneously.

“I have long believed that we live in a world which canonizes the extrovert, forces you to define things in finite terms and pressures you to adopt the ‘language of practicality’. So, what gets lost? The ‘language of intuition’ or ‘crazy talk’, for example. I must now confess that what karate training gave me has always been nothing less than daily doses of ‘something’ which I would like to name ‘conscious bliss.’”