In the martial arts, the practitioner is taught to automatically and instinctively react to any form of attack. They are trained to do this by repetitively training in various hand-to-hand combat scenarios.  Once the understanding of movement in engrained into the mind of the practitioner, then what occurs is a naturalness of movement—an immediate reaction to any form of assault without the need for contemplation or thought. This is a good thing; right?
 
Well, in some cases it is. If a practitioner is attacked on the street, they may well possess the tools to rapidly and effectively defend themselves or their loved ones. The thing that very few people contemplate, however, is that there is always a cost to your reaction.
 
For example, one of the quickest, and most effective ways to defend one’s self, is to strike to one of the vital points on the body of the opponent. That fact is, it is quite easy for an well-trained partitioner of the martial arts to kill someone very rapidly. But, then what? What have you done? Yes, you may have defended yourself. And yes, that level of self-defense may have been necessary for your survival. But, in many cases, it is not.
 
The things is, again, a proficient martial artist can hurt someone quite easily. But, is hurting always the answer? That is a complicated questioned to answer. And, this is one of the things that each advanced practitioner must contemplate before taking any action.
 
But, here’s the catch, in this contemplation, the natural reactiveness of instinctive movement is lost. Then what?
 
I had an interesting/curious situation happen to me today. I was talking an afternoon walk with my lady, and we were on our way home. As we were passing by a nearby supermarket, this lady came barreling out of the driveway, not even looking, and almost hit me/us. She was so close to hitting us, that I did not even need to extend my arm more than few inches, to bap her window and to alter her to her misdeed.
 
At least here in California, it is the law that the pedestrian always have the right of way. I know in places like NYC and stuff, this is not the case. Step out in front of car and you may very well be hit. But here, people need to look and stop for pedestrians. This lady did not.
 
It was like a natural reaction for me to do this. I bapped her passenger side window with an open palm and yelled, “Look where you’re going!”
 
After that fact; seeing her—looking at her, she was very old. I would guess late eighties or early nineties. In my mind, she probably was too old to be driving. But, that’s an entirely different issues. But, here’s the thing, I did that, and I felt bad. Yes, if I/we didn’t rapidly stop and jump back, we would have been hit by her car. But, there she was this very-very-very old lady.
 
I don’t where the karma lies in all of this. Maybe it will be some sort of wake-up call to her, but probably not. All she did was look at me, say nothing—no, “Sorry,” no nothing, she just drove off.
 
But, every action, has a reaction. Just as every reaction, equals consequences.
 
This is one of the main things that you need to contemplate as you pass through your life. Yes, you may have developed the ability to unleash precise naturally reaction. But, what will be the ultimate consequences of your reactions? Think about it.