心は放たん事を要す kokoro wa hanatan koto wo yōsu The Mind Must Be Set Free

心は放たん事を要す says the mind works best when nothing holds it. Fix it on one thing, the other person's hands or your own next move, and the body stiffens and cannot work. Let it go where it will, and the body answers. 放つ is to set loose what was shut in, and 要す makes the sentence a rule, not a wish. Whether you keep it for the dojo or for the desk is yours.

The precept is one of Funakoshi Gichin 船越義珍's twenty precepts of karate, a list in print by December 1934, four years before Nakasone Genwa 仲宗根源和 printed it with his commentary in 空手道大観 (1938).

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