If you are like me martial arts have been a keen interest for you since childhood. Perhaps you went looking around, bought a few books ordered a few VHS tapes, made your own nun-chucks and eventually found a teacher.
Maybe for a while you collected techniques, forms, rank and colorful jammies full of patches, proverbs and snarling animals. It was lots of fun, but eventually it seemed like something was missing so you kept looking.
More books, more videos, different teachers, expensive real weapons, lots of bowing but still something was just not there. More searching.
Maybe, like me, you got lucky! You found someone who broke the mold, exhibited skill you could not wrap your hear around and he or she agreed to teach you.
What an abrupt change it was. No more forms to collect, ranks to achieve or special jammies to don for practice. ‘Teacher’ being no longer the source of knowledge but a guide to help you discover what was already there, to ‘wake-up’ abilities lying dormant but there all along.
What an unexpected change in the journey, all that searching ‘out there’ to find something ‘in here’.