A Christian Dojo Kun

By Joe Corrao

Shotokan karate is an "empty hand" martial art that emerged in Okinawa around 1890. It was popularized in Tokyo and central Japan by Gichin Funakoshi starting around 1925.

Contemporary Shotokan karate retains its Japanese cultural tradition. One element of traditional Japanese influence is the dojo kun (pronounced "doe-joe koon"), or statement of training principles. In Japanese, dojo means a place for training, like a gym. Kun, in this usage, means principles or slogan. Each dojo has its own dojo kun.

Traditionally, the instructor or a senior student recites the dojo kun line by line at the beginning or end of each training session, and the other students chant each line in unison. In most contemporary dojos, the dojo kun is chanted in the language of the students, but some dojos in the United States and other places require students to chant in Japanese. I think it is better to recite the dojo kun in the language of the students so, if there is any value in it, the students will be able to find that value.

However, the value of a traditional dojo kun is very limited. The traditional dojo kun is very secular, encouraging each karate student to put forth their best effort to improve themselves. A typical dojo kun, in English, is:

· Seek perfection of character

· Be faithful

· Endeavor

· Respect others

· Refrain from violent behavior

I have known people who, having studied karate for a while, profess to find in the dojo kun a set of "words to live by." To a Christian, nothing could be farther from the truth. To us, the secular dojo kun encourages misplaced reliance on a power that cannot help us - ourselves - and thus leads us away from the only power that can help us: the power of God.

We know that, as fallen human beings, we are utterly unable to do anything good on our own, much less to improve ourselves by our own effort. There is no one among us who is righteous, not one. Psalms 14:3; 53:3; 143:2; Romans 3:10. However, with God's help, relying on God's strength rather than our own, we have hope. God can do anything, including perfect his strength in us, working in and through us to achieve great things. 2 Samuel 22:33; Psalms 18:32; Luke 1:37; 2 Corinthians 12:9.

So, to reflect Christian truth in Shotokan training, we must adjust the traditional dojo kun to reflect reliance on God rather than on ourselves. A Christian dojo kun might be:

First Principle: Seek God's will in all things.

In this world, spinning between the fall and Christ's return, human perfection is not possible. Our choices are not to perfect ourselves or to refrain from perfecting ourselves; our choices are to ask God's forgiveness for our imperfections or to reject his gift of forgiveness. We may foolishly try to make our own way in the world, or wisely ask God's help in following God's will for our lives.

People make plans with feeble human knowledge and feeble human minds. God makes his plans for us with infinite understanding, infinite grace, and infinite love for us. God’s plan for our life is infinitely better than any plan we can make for ourselves.

Our character is perfected when it reflects Christ's character. Our lives are "perfected," as much as they can be, when we seek and do God's will rather than our own.

Second Principle: Trust Jesus in all situations.

It is not nearly enough merely to "be faithful," because there are many things to which a person can be faithful, and foolish, harmful ones seem to outnumber good ones. It is no honor to be faithful to an evil leader who leads people into sin. It is no honor to be faithful to oneself above all else, as if selfishness or self-centeredness could be transformed from sins into virtues. They cannot. It is no honor to be faithful to a team or a brand of car or a company or a TV show or an athlete or a pop star, because these are created things, like us. Our faithfulness is wasted on these things because they must, inevitably, disappoint us and our idolatry of them is sinful, distracting us from our proper focus on God.

Faithfulness, considered alone, without reference to the person or thing in which we place our faith, is merely stubbornness, and stubbornness is rarely a virtue. To assure that our faithfulness is appropriate and virtuous, we must consider what it is in which place our faith.

To a Christian, there is only one answer. We place our faith in the one who assured us that he is the way, the truth and the life, the only one through whom we may come to the Father. John 14:6. We place our faith in Jesus Christ.

What does it mean to place our faith in Jesus? It means, simply, to trust what Jesus told us, in his own words as recorded in the Gospels, and through his disciples and prophets as recorded throughout the Bible. Throughout the Bible and throughout his life, Jesus assures us that all things work for the good of people who believe in God, that he is with us in our joys and our sorrows, and that he will give us strength to endure whatever we experience in his service.

In short, placing our faith in Jesus means simply to trust that everything we experience, every situation in which we find ourselves, is somehow a part of God's plan for our life. Even if we cannot understand in this life why things happen, faith in Jesus is trust that God's plan is the best plan for each of us.

Third Principle: Do not be afraid.

Christian karate is a worthwhile practice for Christian people because karate provides instructive analogies that can help illuminate aspects of Christianity. The third principle of the dojo kun is a fine example. This element of the secular dojo kun encourages karate students to "endeavor," or "try hard."

It is interesting that the most frequently repeated instruction in the Bible is "Fear not." God gave this instruction to Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, Joshua, Ezekiel, Mary, Paul, and many others throughout history. Genesis 15:1; 26:24; 46:3; Numbers 21:34; Joshua 8:1; 10:8; Ezekiel 2:6; Luke 1:30; Acts 18:9; 27:24. It is very likely that God has given you this instruction at one time or another, too.

Think about the times you have been afraid -- afraid to admit a mistake, or to help someone; afraid to confront a bully, or afraid not to go along with the crowd. In those times, did you overcome your fear and do the right thing? Or were you controlled by your fear and do the easy thing?

People are afraid of failure, or embarrassment, or standing out, or being different. People are afraid of sacrifice, of pain, or of lost opportunities to do other things. People are even afraid of success, of the responsibility that comes with success, and of how, when successful people encounter difficulties, other people seem to delight in their setbacks and cheer on the challenge. When people let fear control them, they never start and never learn that, had they started, they would have found God's grace sufficient to succeed.

Christianity is a lifetime commitment, a lifetime of learning to surrender oneself to God's will. If anything should be approached with fear and trembling, this should. But if we ask God's help to overcome our fear, he will come to us, and we can live successful lives in Christ.

Christian karate can be the tiniest baby step in this direction. Many people who admire karate refuse to start training because they fear failure, or looking different, or aching, or succeeding. If we ask God's help to overcome our fear of failure or embarrassment or pain to train, perhaps someday we will ask God's help to live.

God, who created us, knows our hearts. He knows how our minds work, and how we succumb more quickly to fear than to pain. Throughout the Bible and each time he speaks to our heart today, the all-powerful God reassures us that he is in control, he has our best interests in his heart, and we have nothing to fear if we put our trust in him.

Fourth Principle: Accept correction.

In the fallen world, error is inevitable. In karate, we perform techniques poorly with sloppy stances, incorrect hand position, imprecise timing, wayward glances. As the poet has observed, all things put together sooner or later fall apart, including our kata.

In this way, too, karate is a compelling metaphor for life. Even though we have been baptized anew and Christ lives in us, the old sin nature continuously struggles to assert itself. We lie casually, cheat effortlessly, fawn unashamedly over people too worldly. We live slovenly lives, slouching toward eternity.

In karate, our instructor straightens our back, repositions our hand, insists that we practice correctly until we ache. Then our instructor pushes us to practice alittle more. With each push and jab and prod from our instructor, we exceed what we had thought to be our limitation. We are strengthened and straightened beyond our own expectations, until we emerge from training more fit, more able, and more aware of our true nature and potential. Later, we return again to train, to confront again our weaknesses and limitations, to chase them farther under the guidance of our instructor.

Beginning students may - or may not - be interested to know that this process never ends. A black belt does not signify the completion of training, it signifies a new beginning of training.

How like Christianity this is. Our instructor, the Holy Spirit, sometimes gently, sometimes less so, straightens our back, repositions our hand, urging us to live correctly. With each push and jab and prod from the Holy Spirit, if we permit God to help us, we exceed what we had thought to be our limitation. We are strengthened and straightened beyond our own expectations, until we emerge from training more fit, more able, and more aware of our true nature and potential. Later, we return again to train, to confront again our weaknesses and limitations, to chase them farther under the guidance of our instructor.

Confirmands may be interested to know that this process never ends. Confirmation does not signify the completion of training, it is a bold new beginning of training.

None of this glorious transformation, of body or of heart, is possible without the student's willingness to accept correction. Recognizing that our human instructors are fallible, like us, nevertheless we demonstrate our respect for them by reining in our sinful tendency to rebel. With God's help, we do not yield to the temptation to withdraw, or argue, or sullenly to do it our way. Instead, nourished by God's grace, we graciously accept criticism, from the Holy Spirit and even from flawed people like us, and we let God work through them to help us grow.

This is, perhaps, the most profound expression of respect for others.

Fifth Principle: Love one another.

Karate is a paradoxical sport. Training to fight, we learn to avoid violence. Practicing in groups, we each train alone. As we explore and admit the limits of our strength, we are strengthened and exceed those limits.

In Christianity, God calls us to do things that seem even more paradoxical. We are called to love our enemies, to lead by serving, to prosper by giving away our things, even ourselves.

In karate, the paradox is "of the world," and so it is fairly easy to understand and resolve. Fighting often results from insecurity; training builds confidence, so training to fight, we learn to avoid violence. Practice takes place in group settings, but we compete against our own limitations, not against one another, so in essence, we each train alone. Exercise reaches the limits of strength, but strengthens as it does so.

Christian paradoxes are often more challenging, difficult to understand, and impossible to reconcile without substantial help from God. Our enemies are sometimes people who have really, really hurt us badly. How can we love someone who has hurt us really badly, and may do it again? We can SAY we love them, we may even be able to PRETEND or act like we love them. How can we REALLY LOVE them?

How do we lead by becoming the servants of those whom we would lead, not only servants in action - the easy part - but also servants in true humility of spirit? How do we prosper by giving away all our stuff? (We may think of this as a uniquely modern problem because we have so much stuff today and we seem so strongly attached to it, but Christ's message was supremely challenging 2000 years ago, too. The rich young ruler turned away from God rather that give away his stuff. Matthew 19:16-26; Mark 10:17-27. We are told that he turned away sadly, as if defeated. Matthew 19:22; Mark 10:22. How totally modern that was. Today we reject Christ, our only source of true peace, and turn to our stuff for comfort, depressed and sad -- defeated -- because we know it cannot comfort us.)

In karate, pride interferes with our desire to refrain from violent behavior. As we train with students of superior skill, we are tempted to become angry, to strike forcefully, to prove ourselves. With God's help, we can overcoming this sin of pride, learning to practice karate with grace even when we are being tossed about, sometimes without much apparent effort, by a superior student.

This foreshadows, and may help us yearn for, the grace of God to love one another, even the "unlovable" other.

Transformed by Christian truth, our dojo kun becomes a reminder of eternal principles to live by:

· Seek God's will in all things.

· Trust Jesus in all situations.

· Do not be afraid.

· Accept correction.

· Love one another.