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Why Study Karate?

By William Joseph Pemberton

“I come to you with only Karate, empty hands . . .” The first words of the Kenpo Creed. Anyone with color on their belt in this studio has heard these words many times. The darker the color the more ingrained it becomes in our psyche. “I come to you with only Karate.” Simple words that beg the question: Why?

When I started at Bryan Hawkins Kenpo Karate, a little more than five years ago, it never occurred to me to ask this simple question. It had been something that I had wanted to do since, at least, high school. The reasons then were simple. Win fights. And there were many. It seemed that there was always something to prove . . . And someone against whom to prove it.

I never really began. There were many false starts but it seemed that life kept getting in the way. As a theatre major in college there was never an opportunity and as a fairly busy actor in Kansas City there was never time. I began several times but then would get involved with a play and that was that.

It seems that the need to win fights was not enough.

Of course, as we get older and gain experience we, for the most part, stop needing to fight and as our confidence grows we no longer have so much to prove. Compound this with the fact that in today’s world half the population is “packing” firearms and the other half is “packing” the name of a good (re: hungry) lawyer the idea of the occasional fight “just to let off a little steam” becomes unwise to say the least. Never mind the moral implications of using our art frivolously.

Again, why study Karate?

In the years since I began in earnest there have been many types of students pass through the doors of our Dojo. Some simply want to say they study martial arts. Some show up just in time to compete in a tournament or “earn” a belt advancement and then leave until next time. Some just want to learn to fight for whatever personal reasons they may have. Some, even, want to be supermen. The ones that stay and learn and grow are, inevitably, the ones who simply love, or fall in love with, the art itself.

Of all the students that I have seen embark upon this journey since my beginning in December of 1993 the most rewarding to watch are the ones who “dropped by” to try something new and became hooked. It is a joy to watch this thing catch hold in someone’s soul and mold them and become them. They are few when one considers the number of new students passing through the front door in any given year but they are, to me, the back bone of our art. These are the ones that will carry Kenpo Karate into the new millennium. They are the ones defined by the art, who will define it for later generations. They are us and we are them.

For each of us it is different. I imagine that everyone who has stuck it out through injuries and fatigue or burnout, or given up time with their friends or at work or with families has had at least one person in their life ask, even asked of themselves, why? Why put yourself through this? Why give up so much to learn something that you may hope, for practical purposes, never to use? What is the allure? Many of the people that I have met as I have advanced through the ranks are peaceful, kind, caring people which, again, begs the question: Why learn to beat people up?

The easy response would be: Is that all there is to it?

Of course not.

We live in a world, a time, when so many people study only what can be practically applied to their immediate life. Asked what one is studying in college the answer had better not be philosophy or art. It had better be something “useful” like business or finance. Not that there is anything wrong with business or finance. If that is what you love.

We live in a time when the thought of something larger than one’s self is an oddity. Many talk of duty, honor and spiritual growth but to do a thing for the pure love of it seems the exception to the rule. Risking and challenging ourselves is not trendy.

We study Kenpo Karate because we love it. We love it because it connects us to something beyond ourselves. It connects us to thousands of years of tradition and work and love and greatness. It is the bond that seals generations of men and women who loved this art so much that they were prepared to risk imprisonment and death to keep it alive. They are our forbears and they have left us with this wonderful gift that is Karate.

Of course, occasionally, someone comes along and takes that gift and adds to it and makes it better. In our case, that person was Ed Parker, the Senior Grand Master and founder of American Kenpo. We look to him and all that he gave and we feel that if we can just give back a small part of this gift we can touch that greatness. If we can pass it on to the next generation without mucking it up too much or, better yet, leave it a little better than we found it we can share in the grandeur. Perhaps by loving this art with a fraction of the passion that was the hallmark of this man, and those before him, we can be worthy of the gift and the love and the brotherhood that has been given to us. To just be worthy is a great goal.

For myself, I have always felt a little in awe of the men that I have met who have devoted a life to this art that I love so much. To simply stand in their shadow and hope, someday, to give back to the world, the Universe, half of what they have given to me freely is why I stay. It is a debt that can never be repaid and that is as it should be. For it is in the attempt that we learn and grow and become.

It is the journey of a thousand steps that we have all begun together at this time, in this place and it is the journey itself that is our reason. It is a journey that began thousands of years ago in a time out of mind and it is a journey that will never die so long as there are those with love and passion to carry it on.

And what greater reason can there be to study “ . . . Karate, empty hands . . .”

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