It is hard to disagree with most of what has been written about this subject
but I have a few comments that I hope will be helpful.

I agree with Shogiki's comment about having "faith" in practicing the kata.
Faith is defined as hope in what is not seen. All of us that practice the
kata without knowing the complete meaning of kata are practicing faithfully
with the hope that what we are practicing will produce the results that we
have predisposed in our mind. I think that this will satisfy as a definition
of kata.

There are so many levels of understanding kata that you cannot limit yourself
to one meaning or one by product of your effort. Again that faith word is
important. All of us who have trained for some time without having to
actually use some of the movements that we envision that will work are going
forward on faith that the techniques will be there to provide us safety,
health and well being not only form physical attack but from ourselves.
Perhaps this is what kata was designed to do.

The concept of kata is an enigma as to it's origin and original purpose. Many
followers of the practice of kata have continually preached it's importance 
but only  have faith that the kata practice produces what we are looking for.

So why was kata created ? The preservation of techniques, a method of
teaching techniques in an orderly fashion, a method to develop the body
equally or a method of teaching the body to move instinctively ?  I think it
is all of these but the latter is the end result.

Based on 39 years of kata training, which over half of that was on faith alone
, I have found that the purpose for me is training the body to move
instinctively. To achieve this instinctive movement does not necessarily
require that you have the understanding of the bunkai or principles of
movement but the more you mentally become aware of the purpose and methods
the more effective the results are.

Does a beginner need to know the bunkai and principles of movement ? I have
taught both ways. At first when I returned from Okinawa in 1971 I was so full
of all the bunkai knowledge that is all I wanted to share with my students
due to when I trained before going to Okinawa I had no clue of what bunkai
was. After some months of trying to insure that "the" bunkai was taught as
the kata was learned I found that the students would alter the movements of
the kata to cause the effect of the bunkai and that is when I remembered my
teacher stressing that there were many bunkai and not to change the kata
movement to accommodate the bunkai movement.

 Each kata movement has a purpose outside of the obvious and these movements
are what teach the instinctive ness. If you have one bunkai in mind and do not
concentrate on the perfection of movement then you will not develop the
instinctive mind.

The focus should be on the perfection of the movement and the applications
flow from the movement and creativity of the mind or the spontaneity of the
situation.

"Faith without works is dead".

Gumbatte Kudasai

Dan

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