"...the existence of everything depends upon four causes -- the efficient cause, the matter, the form and the final cause. For example, this chair has a maker who is a carpenter, a substance which is wood, a form which is that of a chair, and a purpose which is that it is to be used as a seat. Therefore, this chair is essentially phenomenal, for it is preceded by a cause, and its existence depends upon causes. This is called the essential and really phenomenal."
-‘Abdu’l-Bahá (Some Answered Questions, p.280)
we recognize and make sense of a martial arts move by its attributes or qualities; and in turn, attributes or qualities cannot be understood without first being carried out through a real medium (Ali, Hagler, Tyson.....). For example, boxing is a universally recognized phenomenon in any developing country, however, that is not enough to understand the science of boxing. We must also understand and study the universal attributes it develops (timing, footwork, reflex, and etc) in all people alike, even if it is in different measures.
Now that we know all phenomenon is empirically observed to be organized and systematic (even though they are evolutionary and ever-changing), yet they are bound by certain universal laws that can never deviate from.
There are two indications of any good system: 1) It proves itself true over and over again through formidable tests. Therefore its philosophy is based on factual, provable and observable acts by ALL; and 2) Its results are universal in essence, its principles simple, and its physical and philosophical framework attainable and realistically workable.
Unfortunately we take the simple Truth which is One, and shatter it into thousands of complicated, contradictory, vague, and useless compartments of philosophies.
SHAHRAM MOOSAVI
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Photo: Sugar Ray Robinson