What is a DAO?
Usually described as a path to spiritual self-development by a human being.  But essential to this is self-overcoming.

“Spiritual” refers to the human capacity to be deeply affected, to seek a meaningful connection to something beyond the usual confines of the ego, the capacity for transformation by means of commitment to some DAO of self-overcoming. (pay attention to the final slide)

If karate-do or any martial art is to be engaged in as a Do or Dao, it will not merely be development of skill in technique through training.  It must also be guided by some increasing understanding of the wider implications of such a practice and any human practice.  So reading the literature of great spiritual teachers and warriors who practiced martial arts as a spiritual Dao is an indispensable part of your training.   So let’s identify what makes fighting arts a dao and its relation to philosophy, the pursuit of wisdom.