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Nichijo, Kore Dojo 

(Everyday life, this is my dojo)

The dojo, the "place of the Way" (the place for studying Zen), is where we practice our martial arts. It is the place where we train hard, learn, and help others.

It is where the battles with the inner-self are fought, and where the greatest victories are won.

It is the place where we strive for excellence.

It is the place where there is no room for our ego, our preconceptions, our desires.

It is the place where we seek to discover the real us. It is a place of mutual love and respect.

Here we strive to perfect the human spirit through effort, dedication, sacrifice, and hard work.

The dojo is a place of peace, harmony, and the natural order of things.

The dojo has no human discrimination, unethical or immoral conduct, or crime against human or nature.

In the dojo, shared purpose, physical and mental challenge, effort, sacrifice and growth breeds a brotherhood of unique, extraordinary people whose lives and spirits are forever forged and bonded in the fire of karatedo.

We martial arts practitioners of true budo are seeking to find real peace, happiness, harmony, and understanding of ourselves and others. We seek to realise true enlightenment

The dojo is our cosmos. It is the reality. Life outside the dojo, the everyday world, is the fantasy.

But it is in the everyday world that we must also live.

To become true people, to become more and more what we are capable of becoming, everyday life must also become our dojo.

Then we can become a testament to the Martial Way.

Then one becomes the other. Then there is one whole.

Then fantasy becomes reality

Written by Graeme McConnell-Brown
January, 2000