Every human endeavor has an ultimate goal. When a student enters college the ultimate goal is to obtain a college degree. 1 A college degree implies that the student has achieved a minimum proficiency in particular area of academic study, following which the student may enter a field of professional activity. Similarly a student that enters a technical school to learn a particular trade his ultimate goal is to complete the required courses and obtain a certificate that will enable him to enter a trade or a profession. The same thing could be said of an apprentice that receives on-the-job training from a master and thereafter follows in the master's footsteps. Thus, every calculated activity has some ultimate goal that the novice seeks to achieve. Usually this goal takes on a life of its own with its own set of rules and with its own time frame. It can be argued that these sort of endeavors are designed to set the stage of life. (Or at least that portion of one's life that deals with work.) The same is true in the martial arts as they are taught in the majority of schools or dojos.

Traditional students of martial arts enter a particular discipline with a particular goal in mind. Typically the goal is to learn self-defense techniques. Often the goal of the student is to become physically fit and to improve his self-image and confidence. In the typical program (karate, gung fu, tae kwon do, judo, aikido...) these simple goals are achieved in the space of 2-3 years. Within this time period the student learns the basic techniques that enable him to be slightly more knowledgeable in the issues of self-defense than his lay counterpart. Once these basic goals are achieved the goals of the student are complete. At this juncture the student "moves on" with his life. He simply looses interest and quits having achieved the stated goals. The lucky student will retain some of what he has learned for a long period. Most often, however, as a direct result of inactivity whatever the student was able to learn will be lost.

This is the normal course that a typical student of the martial arts follows. In this respect the martial arts student is no different than the student attending college or trade school. When the stated goals are achieved the student moves on with the rest of his life. 2 But that is not all that can be achieved in the study of a martial art. This is, unfortunately, what has been taught in many martial arts schools for years.

Achieving more in the martial arts is a matter of perspective. It has to do with the art's depth and the quality of instruction. It also has to do with setting the proper ultimate goal.

In the vast majority of martial arts the stated goal is to teach self-defense or to instill discipline or to achieve physical conditioning or a combination of these areas. 3 In GoJu-Te Ryu the goal is not as simple. In GJT the goal is much broader than simply achieving these goals. It is more realistic and broader than simply understanding "[the] absolute laws of Heaven and earth or nature." 4 It is even more esoteric and broader than understanding the "language of the gods" 5 or by developing knowledge of a particular religion such as Zen. Goju-Te Ryu is about developing anticipation and awareness. Anticipation that has to do with predicting what the next moment will bring. 6 Awareness of the type where one understands the surrounding environment and the reason things are as they are. Understanding the etiology of a particular situation and predicting the outcome and the role one plays in it is the essence of Goju-Te Ryu and the ultimate goal of our art. It is a state of being where one is in constant contact with his environment not out of effort but out of one's nature. Obviously this state of being requires much more than 2-3 years to achieve. It requires a lifetime to reach the ultimate goal of Goju-Te Ryu. Along the way the practitioner must accept the sequence of events that in the beginning will be undoubtedly out of his control. It is in the process that the truth will emerge.

As a necessary predicate to reaching Goju-Te Ryu's ultimate goal the student is required to first achieve Aristotelian "excellence":

The excellence that Aristotle discusses requires the student, to follow a regiment of basic and fundamental concepts that are to be practiced as a matter of routine. 8 The ultimate goal of this practice is to make the student's reflexive actions a matter of habit. On the part of the teacher Aristotelian excellence requires honesty and clarity in his teachings. Obviously, the yin and yang relationship that emerges is that a teacher has to be willing to honestly teach while the student has to have an honest desire to learn. Both are required for good learning. Without this type of excellence the student will never achieve the clarity of vision that is required for prediction.

(1) Typically this means upward socio-economic mobility.

(2) Exceptions do exist in the trades or professional schools as students become practitioners. But even when one becomes a practitioner the philosophical underpinnings of what was learned is eventually lost in the vast majority of cases.

(3) All difficult to learn and worthy causes. Our comments here is not to make light of these goals but simply to point out their limitations upon the individual.

(4) K. Tohei, What is Aikido, at 18 (1973). Broader in the sense that we need also to understand human nature on the individual as well as in the social setting of this dynamic human situation.

(5) J. Stevens, The Secrets of Aikido, at 15 (1995)

(6) Not unlike a scientific method of inquiry whose ultimate goal is to predict the outcome of the pending experiment.

(7) J. Barnes, The Complete Works of Aristotle, at 1742, Nicomachean Ethics, Book II (1985).

(8) Routine as used here is not to be associated with the lack of creativity in technique. Routine is used to describe the regularity of practice only.