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Martial Arts the Development of Self

The Tao Te Ching states:

‘Weapons are instruments of ill omen,

The way of Heaven finds them repugnant

The way of Heaven is to use them

Only when necessary”.

 

My thoughts over the last two months have been occupied with the contradictions inherent in this quote from the ‘Taoist Bible’, but I feel that for those of us who consider ourselves to be martial artist's, then this contradiction needs to be fully explored. In terms of the reality of physical and mental combat one person often stand against another, both using their skills in attempt to ‘win’. The old master hands of the past called this ‘very small martial art’, although there is a victory the gain is so small as to be insignificant in the context of life. They point out that it is completely missing the point to think that winning, beating the opponent with your superior skill and knowledge is what a Martial Artist, or Martial Arts are about. Fundamentally they point out that Martial Arts are about self-cultivation, what Confucius called the ‘Great Learning’.

This Great Learning refers to your relationship with Nature, with Others, with Yourself in essence with the ‘Tao’, the ‘Way’ or whatever term you might wish to use to identify with the great mystery which is life. In my own experience I have found it extremely difficult to even approach the great learning, but basically it means to extend your knowledge ‘to all things’. The idea being that if you know the principles of all things, there remains nothing to know, and nothing that cannot be done. Without a thorough understanding of the principles then nothing will come of your actions no matter how well executed. A lack of knowledge of the principles leaves you with doubt; the mind will be full of it. However, knowledge of principles will be bring a clarity that can take you forward.

In Martial Arts the heart of ‘extending all knowledge’ is the discipline of exhaustively learning Stances, Postures, Techniques. Only when you have practised to the stage where none of the practices are in your mind will you have gone through the gate to the way, the very lack of mind itself is the heart of ‘all things’. For when you have exhaustively practised, there will be action in your arms, your legs, your body but none in your mind, and then you will have freedom in whatever movement you perform. Training is used only for the purpose of reaching this state. With enough practice and training, training itself falls away.

By forgetting about training and clearing your mind, you will become more unaware of the you of the action. At this level you enter through your training but arrive at its absence, but first of all you must do the training.

To think only of winning is a sickness, to think only of using Martial Arts is a sickness, to think only of demonstrating the result of one’s training is a sickness, as is thinking of attacking or waiting for an attack. To think in a fixated way only of expelling such sickness is also a sickness. Whatever remains absolute in the mind should be considered a sickness by the true Martial Artist. As these sicknesses are all in the mind you must look to the mind in order to expel them.

This sickness can only be healed by abandoning yourself to it, and carrying on within its midst, the greatest safety being in the eye of the storm. Through the discipline of practice, you polish the jewel, which is your mind; you abandon yourself to the sickness, and throw away the mind all together.

A monk once asked his master “What is the Way” The Master answered “Your ordinary mind that is the Way”.

This anecdote contains a principle that runs through all disciplines. Expelling all sicknesses of the mind, engendering ‘the ordinary mind’, this is the state of being without sickness. When applying this principle to your own practice, when doing the form, if your mind becomes occupied with the process of doing the form then the form will suffer as a result. Once you forget that you are doing a form, and it is just the ordinary mind that is doing the form then there will be tranquillity in what you do. When practising with empty hands, a sabre or a staff, take up the ordinary mind that practices none of these or anything at all. Then no matter what you do you will do it with ease.

No matter what martial discipline you follow, if you have in your mind one absolute

course, it will not be the ‘way’. The person who has nothing at all in their mind is truly ‘a person of the way’. Having no goals, no desires, when they do something it is done with ease, no matter what rises they change with the change. Because a mirror is clear and has no form within it at all, the form of whatever stands before it will be clearly reflected. The attitude of a true Martial Artist should be like a mirror; they do nothing yet what they do is perfectly clear. Thus they have ‘no-mind’ and ‘ there is nothing lacking’. This is the ordinary or the original mind, the child’s mind. The person who accomplishes anything with the ordinary mind is truly a master.

No-Mind is not a state of vegetation; it is simply ordinary mind, a free mind. An example of the process in what I teach is as follows:

1-10 Years

Do not be there

Walk Away Stances, Postures

Do not get hit

10-20 Years

Do not be there

Walk Away Stances, Postures and technique

20 Years and onwards

Do not be there

(no-mind)

 

So back to the beginning, when the new student starts his/her practice they know nothing of stance, postures or technique, they are free of the sickness, their minds wander freely. If a none Martial Artist is attacked, they will simply meet the attack without anything on their mind. As the student begins to study Stance, Posture, Technique their mind stops in many places. Now if they wish to attack or defend they have so much on their mind that it can be difficult or awkward they still have doubt – can I - can’t I, is all the practice worth it – confusion runs rife. Later when the years have passed and the sickness of the searching mind is brought closer to the ordinary mind, then neither stance posture or technique or in the mind. Their mind simply becomes as it was in the beginning when they knew nothing and yet to start the process of learning.

In this process one sees the sense of the beginning and the end being the same