If you don't know who Michael Meade is, click here.
I hadn't really known of this man or his work until rather recently. It was in fact this same friend that turned me onto him. Meade had done work with James Hillman (Soul's Code author), the poet Robert Bly and even Joseph Campbell; all authors that I had been avidly reading in the past couple years.
Of course all this kind of metaphysical research that I have been doing since before Detroit has brought me into an awareness of this kind of language and of the kind of people who speak this language. So Meade is definitely someone I considered checking out. What's cool is that he was doing this workshop in Mill Valley, which is only about 40 minutes from where we live in Oakland, even though I believe him and/or his organization is based in Seattle, WA. The Bay brings a lot of cool people here. Relevant people. Anyway...
So I was at this thing and of course there were some profound moments. What's significant is that I stood in line to speak with him briefly because I wanted to ask him this question about mentorship that has arisen in me lately. And certainly Meade would be the man to ask on matters of this kind. So my question was basically, and this came after reflecting on what Hillman speaks to in The Soul's Code (which is the title of this post), does the person seek this mentor or does the mentor seek you?
And his answer struck me as being profoundly obvious:
The mentor does no seeking. You must go out and seek one.
I mean he didn't say it exactly like that, I'm kinda "Yoda-fying" it. But I said, "thank you", and he said "good luck" and that was the blessing and answer I needed to keep on going, to not lose hope. Simple as that. It was the same kind of blessing from an Elder that I received from Madeleine Schwab, the woman who gave the workshop presentation that I took on March 4th (forth) of 2012 that kick-started me on the path to going to Detroit. Blessings from the right Elders are powerful for young people. It is a very deep affirmation of their soul and that journey it is on. It is so life affirming and exciting that I cannot even begin to tell you the hope it brings. Obviously I'm saying more young people need that affirmation from their Elders. But as Meade said during the workshop, growing older does not necessarily equate growing wiser. Therefore, it is the Elders that know and speak this metaphysical language that need to do the blessing. Otherwise, you get older people saying to you, "WTF?! Are you crazy?! You need to get a JOB! Stop dreaming!". That kind of language is so damaging and hurtful because it comes from not seeing the genius within.
So anyway, the mentor I am seeking has to do with the martial arts. With karate in particular. But maybe in the search for that I'll discover that that isn't the case. And in fact the mentor is for a whole new discipline altogether. I don't know. I feel like there were some very profound things I began researching and reading on in Detroit about Okinawan karate in particular which is what has motivated me to start this blog for one. But also motivated me to keep seeking out the kind of martial arts teachers who could help to clarify this more for me here in Oakland. I haven't found that yet and I can tell you it has surely been disappointing, not to mention frustrating.
But so yeah. Onward now. Keep on seeking the "karate truth" that I'm seeking. The tagline for this blog is "In search of a living karate". Not just karate of course. This really is "bigger than just karate dude". But this is an art-form that also speaks to the deep ancestral roots which I carry with me today. And I believe that it is important that we not only maintain our traditions but we also adapt them to fit the ever-changing world we live in so that they may remain relevant and valid for future humans. In my humble opinion.
Elbow SMASH!
- Hiji Até
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