This I Believe - Martial Arts by Ben Hiser

I believe that the many kinds of Martial Arts can have a positive influence that lasts throughout your life and outside of the Martial Arts school you go to. Everyone knows about the kicks and have a basic understanding of how the forms look, if nothing else they have seen it in movies. What you see is only the surface of Martial Arts, but the lessons learned on the inside is what you carry with you for the rest of your life. The five tenets of Tae Kwon Do are courtesy, self-control, indomitable spirit, perseverance, and integrity. I do not use the kicks, strikes, and blocks I learn in my classes in my every day life, but I use the tenets to become the person I would like to be.

Courtesy is a big principle in several Martial Arts styles. In my personal opinion, courtesy is respecting other people, having manners, and keeper proper etiquette as often as possible, no matter the situation. You should greet other people, and if they're not loo king for a fight with you, don't look for a fight with them. The Samurai were trained to not rejoice at the misfortune of others, even their opponents. They were also trained to not be envious or jealous of others. They were taught to be grateful to their lord, and respect their parents, teachers, and other people in general. They were taught to honor everyone as an honored guest and that every human has good and bad points, and not to disrespect others by laughing at them. courtesy sounds simple on the surface, but it's much more than saying "Please" and "Thank you".

I've found that self-control was one of the biggest principles in many of the martial arts I read about, and it is very interesting how they use it aside from how we use it in Tae Kwon Do. I think of self-control as controlling your emotions so you don't get upset at people over small things, and to not let your anger start fights for you. I also find it interesting that self-control is a way of cutting yourself away from distractions to stay focused and harmonizing with the world around you. the idea of harmonizing with the world with self-control is also used in Aikido, meaning they see the concept similar as to how we see it. The samurai see self-control as not having too many desires in their lives, and to not seek personal comfort for themselves. I can also understand why they would do this because then they would have to fend for themselves, making themselves stronger in the process, in more ways than just physically stronger.

Indomitable spirit is when your body can be so broken beyond use, but your spirit will always be whole and unbroken. I have found that Aikido, Judo, the Samurai, and Karate all have something that is similar to indomitable spirit. Aikido uses this tenet in the sense that you must remain unshaken through all of the physical tortures in the world, which I think is very close to what it stands for to me. I like Karate's interpretation of indomitable spirit, they believe that you should not think about winning, but you should think about not losing. Judo sees this tenet in that you should not hold back, that you should always give your best in a fight so you don't weaken yourself down to a disadvantage. the Samurai see the tenet of indomitable spirit as you should do your best. you should make sure you do your best, instead of just trying to do your best.

The tenet of perseverance means that you should never give up, no matter what is thrown at you. In Aikido perseverance is seen as coping and adapting to different situations. Judo uses this principle as a thought that one should continue training endlessly and no matter how good one thinks they are, they can always get better. Members of Karate believe their martial art is a lifelong pursuit, which I tie in with perseverance as well, meaning they will carry though and continue with it until the end.

Integrity means being honest, truthful, upright, good, and honorable. Someone with integrity obeys the rules of society and the law. another example of integrity is a student who sticks with the tenets of Tae Kwon do. Aikido uses integrity to describe how you should always know the difference between truth and falsehood, similar to how we say integrity is telling the truth and being honest with others, along with obeying rules and laws. Karate also uses integrity as a form of righteousness, meaning you need to try and be one of the greatest people you can be. The samurai simply say "Never lie". I think one of the hardest things to do is to not lie to yourself. If you make excuses like "I was trying my best" or "I was working as hard as I could" you're probably just lying to yourself to make yourself feel better, and that there was no way you could of won, but if you know that you weren't trying your best, you can improve.

I believe that living with integrity, self-control, courtesy, perseverance, and indomitable spirit would help make you a much better person, who would be respected by your community, and yourself. Most people think Martial Arts is all about fighting and how to hurt others, but it's really about making you a better person, so you don't have to fight all the time. there is a progression in Martial Arts from Bu-jutsu, learning the techniques to Bu-do, learning the way to Bu-Shin, and having the martial spirit. you can wear a black belt on the outside, but being a black belt comes from the inside. I believe in Martial Arts.