Soul Kata; Tools for a Spiritual Practice
Today when I was meditating the neighborhood was quiet. A bee buzzed softly like he’d just been smoked out with the finest pine needles. With this soft buzzing in the background, I let my mind wander, and wander it did.
My mind wandered to the day my daughter had tested out of her Green Belt in Tang Soo Do. Probably because I had so recently unpacked her belts. Moving up to Advanced Green was a big deal for her. To do so she would have to perform a few Katas.
She’d practice in the living room, I thought about the process, about what Kata is and why it is practiced. Even a Black Belt will often practice the more elementary Katas to stay tuned in to their body and to the movements and the proper relationship to have with them.
The position of the legs, feet, hands and arms are a known factor, practicing Kata helps to ensure that the positions are correct. Living productively is much the same. A person may know the moves or know what to say but still have no idea what really resonates with them.
They may have studied and read and practiced their chosen forms, they may even have a pretty clear understanding of what their path is. Still, there is always room for growth, always more ways to bring clarity to practice, that’s why it’s called a ‘practice.’
As with Kata and its physical function in the martial arts, there are spiritual and mental practices a person can make a habit of that keep the spiritual and mental self flourished and nourished, call them “Soul Katas.”
From transcendental meditation to yoga, Tai Chi to Qi Gong, there are all kinds of ways to sharpen the spiritual pencil. Rather than constantly reaching out to find new and different things to add to your spiritual regiment, why not make the effort to more effectively use the tools you already have in your repertoire?
If you’re reading this and don’t think there’s room for improvement, you’re wrong. Not trying to be mean, just honest, there is no perfect state in a place that is constantly changing. It would be nothing less than stagnation.
When Charles C. Goodin was discussing the function of kata he was asked how many movements are in a kata, to which he replied,
“The answer is ‘one.’ The only movement that counts in any kata is the movement that you are doing. The one that you just did is over. The one that comes next has not yet begun. Only the one you are doing counts. It requires 100% of your attention and effort. Thinking back or ahead only subtracts from the movement at hand. Doing any movement with 100% of your attention and effort is the practice of kata. Kata is not simply the sequence or pattern. With one perfect movement, the kata is perfect. Kata is not a question of how many but of how well.”
There is a sentiment in the movie, The Last Samurai, that I think about when I am doing what seem like mundane tasks. One of the characters is observing the way in which the Samurai culture, as depicted in the film, from warriors to women and children, live their lives.
He notes in his journal;
“They are an intriguing people. From the moment they wake they devote themselves to the perfection of whatever they pursue. I have never seen such discipline.”
Take into account that the character delivering the line is a military man, so he knows discipline, also that it’s a movie, so it’s very over dramatic.
Can you imagine anyone in “hustle culture,” where it’s about speed of turnout more than quality of product, seeing the value in slowing down and observing the divine in the seemingly mundane? Taking the time to feel and even express through the work being created, gratitude that it can be done at all?
I suppose a soul kata is just the practice of what you already know, just as kata is a practice of movements you already know. Repetition in seeking a perfection you know isn’t permanent yet is rewarded with glorious moments that come close or are total awesomeness, temporary, but total.
What I have seen all too often are people beginning to learn some new spiritual path, or at least the nuts and bolts of one, and then, once they believe they have it figured out or figure they know the moves, they go on to the next one all but discarding the old. It would be like switching from Tang Soo Do to Shotokan after advancing only one belt level. Not that I equate a spiritual journey with levels any time other than in metaphor.
My daughter wasn’t getting any belt unless she put in the time and learned the moves. She would get nowhere if every time a new fad in martial arts came along she got distracted by its shine.
The challenge is to not let the shine wear off of the one you’ve already invested in. One way to do that is to practice and get better until you shine on your own, so bright that it doesn’t matter the name it has or the color of the belt, it’s just a part of you.
It’s being the best you can be in each moment, not taking what you have learned for granted and not stressing about what you are meant to learn next. It’s not being controlled by the past but being in control of its manifestation in the present. That manifestation is what determines the quality of the choices available for the future.
If you are in that place where you are one with yourself and your own path, the lessons you still need to learn find you. The path opens up before you like a flower and all you have to do is walk it, secure in the solid foundation you have set for yourself through your steady practice.
