top ------------------------------------------------------------------------ HUMAN SYNERGY AND KARATE Page 1 ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Synergy denotes harmonious concurrence of several components of a sys- tem. In Economy it is considered as the optimal state of Management and Organisation. In Science it became a specific branch, the Synergetics. One of its practical achievements is the creation of laser, theoretical- ly prepared by Einstein and practically realized by Hacken, the founder of Synergetics. Now, in case of a human individual Synergy is equivalent to what appears to other people as wisdom. Real wisdom does not limit itself to the Intellect, but encompasses the whole personality. A per- fect exemple thereof is Socrates, on one hand a great thinker, an abso- lutely honest, righteous and unselfish man, on the other hand a symbol of courage, self-control, endurance and mastery of martial skills. How can a man achieve it? In order to answer this question, we shall briefly discuss the concepts of polarity and order. The contemporary Western ideology based upon Heidegger, Sartre and Einstein sees the human reality as a polar phenomenon. The concept of polarity may be very simply illustrated with the example of magnetism. A magnetic pole, say the positive one, is a concrete entity with specific physical properties: it attracts or pushes away other poles, respectively negative and positive, it generates, when moved, electric field, etc. Nevertheless, it is not autonomous and exists only in connection with a negative pole. A magnetic bar with a positive and a negative extremity, when cut in the middle does not produce a negative and a positive half-bar, but two smaller magnetic bars, each provided with both opposite poles. With help of this allegory we can imagine the human being as a polar structure, having spirit and matter as the opposite poles. Opposite, but at the same time complementary and never autonomous. By "Spirit" and "Matter" we do not mean any metaphysical, mysterious beings, but concrete concepts of practical reason: the respective observation domains of Psychology and of Physics. Where does the difference between a neutral and a magnetic bar come from? The internal bar's structure consists of innumerable elementary micro-magnets. In the neutral bar they have accidental, arbitrary orientations, so that their respective actions annihilate one another and the resulting effect disappears. In the magnetic bar, on the contrary, all micro-magnets point in the same direction and their individual actions cumulate into a considerable composite effect. A neutral bar can be magnetized by being immersed for a moment in a magnetic field. Within the field the micro-magnets behave as compass needles and turn all in the same direction. The field brings order to the originally chaotic distribution of the micro-magnets, it changes chaos to order. In Synergetic terms the field acts as an orderer. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ HUMAN SYNERGY AND KARATE Page 2 ------------------------------------------------------------------------ We may note that: 1.the resulting order is stable, i.e. the bar stays magnetised when the orderer (the magnetising field) disapears, 2.The order's effect surpasses by far the force of the orderer: a bar magnetised by a relatively week field can lift up iron objects weighing hundreds of kilos. The human being may be analogically considered as a set of polar elements, with spirit and matter acting as the poles. A non-polar element is not human: a finger cut off my hand becomes pure matter and ceases to be a part of me. After the final separation, the dead body is no more human. Under the influence of our civilisation the original, genetically determined order of the elements gave way to disorder and chaos, so that the cumulative polar effect nearly vanished: we became both physically and spiritually weak and inefficient. Let us consider a simple example: While traversing a steep slope I perceive the depth as danger and the wall as security. My reason tells me to incline my upper body away from the depth and closest possible to the wall. As result my weight passes on my upper foot, my stability declines and, at the limit, I skid and fall into the precipice. My reason, or, rather my pseudo-reason has assessed the situation wrongly and dangerously. This example does not hold, of course, for an experienced mountaineer. Indeed, the first thing that one learns about skiing is to supress this pseudo-reasonable reaction and to restore the true reflex, which is nothing else, but the original animal instinct. A monkey takes on a slope instinctively the same position as an experienced skier: the knees towards the wall, the upper body inclined towards the valley, the weight upon the lower foot. The human being needs a lot of training to free himself from the pseudo-reason and to rediscover the truth, the veracity and the sincerity. Sincerity, which he had had as a child, but which got supressed by the education and by the social praxis. This sincerity is the essence of the human Synergy. The skier descending steep slopes in series of graceful, relaxed and efficient evolutions expresses his internal Synergy. A domain of his being is well ordered. The polar elements point in the same direction and the cumulative effect demonstrates itself in both poles: ------------------------------------------------------------------------ HUMAN SYNERGY AND KARATE Page 3 ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Bodily, he is capable of performances unthinkable for "normal" people. Spiritually, his behaviour does not follow the pseudo-reason, but the real intelligence which interprets correctly complex, dynamic situations. And, just as in the case of the magnetism, the effect of the ordering surpasses by far the orderer, which had consisted of a few weeks of pleasant and relaxed exercises. At this point one may ask, what is the use of Karate? If such current activities as sport arrange everything so nicely, why should we turn towards unusual, exotic ideas? Well, the objection is not quite fair, or rather only partially true: sport arranges indeed something, but certainly not everything. And, while it arranges a limited local domain, it makes usually the global disorder still worse. A beautiful curve perfectly executed in the deep snow is one side of the coin and each sort of sport has similar sincere components. But the opposite side consists of merciless rivalry, hero worship, arrogant conceit, stress, agression, dangerous exageration in training and, in the social domain, of monstrous commer- cialisation alienating the public and ruining the environment. In Art and Science the situation is no better. Art tends to be reduced to formal virtuosity and to snobery. In Science the sincere creativity has to struggle against academic dogmatism and bureaucracy. Other social domains invariably involve stress, constraints, alienataion and often moral doubts, thus contradicting sincerity. The best entry for somebody seeking Synergy seems to be offered by the Budo-Arts. Unfortunately, even they have been contaminated with the Western-Syndrom and, as other Arts, tend towards an empty, formal virtuosity. Therefore Synergetic Karate. Its objective is to build a synergetic base upon which Budo-Arts may be developed harmoniously as Synergy of form and content. Karate extends over a very vast area. Indeed, any sort of standing, walking, running, jumping, pulling, pushing, hitting, kicking, throwing, etc. appears in its repertoire. And our pseudo-reason forbids us to perform ANY of these actions correctly. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ HUMAN SYNERGY AND KARATE Page 4 ------------------------------------------------------------------------ A simple example: a man standing in a relaxed position is asked to transfer his weight upon the right foot. He pushes "logically" with his right foot against the floor. As result his weight passes to the LEFT foot. Actually he should have LIFTED UP his right foot, but his pseudo- reason would never admit it. Due to the richness of the involved actions and attitudes Karate appears as the optimal initiation of Synergy. Every sincere beginner will notice after a relatively short period a substantial improvement of his spiritual and physical faculties and become capable of exerting this improvement in all essential areas of his life.