Karadashedo is Sensei Harman's approach to martial art.  It is not a school or a system or a declaration of some new departure or invention.  

​​

Karadashedo is comprised of three Japanese words: Karada = Body, She = Spirit, and Do = Way.   So karadashedo is literally the way of body and spirit.  

​

Karadashe is meant to indicate that our mind, body, and soul are not separate, but a unified whole.  

The cultures of East Asia have assumed this all along, but to the West, dualizing has been a hallmark of our rational approach.  We assume that body, mind, and  soul are separate entities. The only alternative came from monists, who declared there is only body, which generates an illusion of mind, which leads to a myth of soul.  
But since the turn of this century, psychology and philosophy have embraced a new frame for understanding our life: Embodied Cognition.  The basic concept is that mind and soul are realized as emergent properties from our bodily experiences.  

Sensei Harman believes in embodied cognition and sees martial art as a means of cultivating our understanding of ourselves as unified. 

​

Do (Chinese, tao) indicates a life-way, a journey, a path of understanding we can take.  So karadashedo is Sensei Harman's way of saying that the pursuit of martial art is about the building of the holistic self for actualization and transcendence.  

​

It remains martial art, practiced conventionally.  Using it to understand ourselves better involves patient engagement with it for its practical applications for self defense and physical preparedness for life.  The transcendent follows from the mundane.  It is normal, daily experience which cultivates growth of the mind and the soul.  For Sensei Harman, karadashedo is practicing classical, Okinawan karate in earnest and allowing the do to occur over time.

​

At the same time, the nature of practice is informed by the same understanding that classical martial arts have always had: The purpose is not merely defense, the goal not merely to be able to beat people up or compete for trophies.

Deep, detailed pursuit of kata (forms) is at the center of training.  Conditioning and partner work are other strong components.

Traditional practice is designed to facilitate your do.