Category: Eastern Wisdom

Six Timeless Key Principles of the Martial Arts Stance – Part 1

Posted on Last updated on by joeharman8 | 5 min read | 139 views

Though martial arts started off as an inward pursuit, over time it split into different systems. Each system has its own take on stance—grappling stances, kickboxing stances, Tai Chi stances, and so on. And, naturally, each group has its own ideas about what’s right and what’s wrong. It’s a bit like, each group has its own piece of the overall puzzle, and they try to make a complete picture out of the small amount of pieces they have. It’s not going to work like that. You have to work with more than fragments to get a an idea of the overall picture.

The point of internal martial arts has always been about pursuing an internal experience in order to get to the bigger picture. External form is really about physical requirements (as well other factors we will look at), which vary from person to person. Each person has their own idea about the truth, but they cannot get a whole picture from that because the whole picture contains other factors, such as movements which come out best when they are not forced.

“By focusing on a small slice, we can do wonderful things, but we can never capture richness of experience. And if we focus on too many small things we simply spread our attention thin. The idea is to develop an overall awareness of the whole, and place our attention there.”

How you hold yourself in a martial arts stance depends on your physical capabilities—and on the level of perception you’ve developed. We’ll explore some ways to develop both. Your capabilities, your perception—they’re always selective, not all-encompassing. In other words, there’s this all-encompassing energy inside you, and your mind and body are like tools that can only focus on a small slice of it at a time. By focusing on a small slice, we can do wonderful things, but we can never capture richness of experience. And if we focus on too many small things we simply spread our attention thin. The idea is to develop an overall awareness of the whole, and place our attention there.

So what is this all encompassing energy? One way to look at this is to consider that the nervous system does not interpret physicality as what it looks to us from the outside. Put simply, It experiences motion, pressure, and release. This is why the internal experience is different from the external one. Internal martial arts even works without much physical practice, because the environment for its expression is already there. You do not need kicks and punches, but these inevitably happen in the right context once you develop certain perceptive capabilities. From this simple example, we can see that you will never get the proper experience by relying on how things look alone.

Think of your mind and body like a cinema—full of plays of thought and emotion that make you feel like you’re right in the middle of the show. However the cinema doesn’t tell the whole story. When you step back, when you’re less caught up, you create a kind of functional space—a place for a different kind of energy, or just to be. This gives you a presence, a presence which can actually give weight, and effective movement to your martial arts skills.

So, the internal form isn’t really about perceiving the external environment, or even about the skill set you happen to have. It’s about the cause behind it all—behind what your mind and body choose to focus on, selectively. That focus is what generates all the skills and perceptive abilities. This is often Bourne out of a combination of thought, energy and emotion, rather than just pure energy. As an aside, the idea behind meditation practices is to generate this kind of undifferentiated potential energy, or a pure energy, which can be used to do nothing or to take action.

Your attention selects what to focus on. And if you want to let this energy flourish, it’s a good idea to understand some principles so it can function freely, unhindered. Then this energy will develop your capabilities to their maximum potential by supporting them from behind, in any way you choose. That’s why certain martial arts skills can feel dead under a rigid energy system. Instead of deciding the potential beforehand according to a few selected requirements, trying to make this whole picture from fragmented pieces, it’s important that you develop over time in a balanced, dynamic way. In part 1, we will look at the first principle.


Left and Right Sides
In a typical stance, the left foot and hand are forward, taking on a seeking role. The left hand probes, looking for openings, gathering information—fluid, subtle, yin qualities. This sets up the right side, slightly back, which is more direct and assertive—yang qualities. This yin-yang division balances seeking with decisive action. There are various reasons for this. For example, variety of form spreads attention so that the enemy becomes confused.

“This is the power of the quality of yin. It breathes instead of ticks, so that when you strike out with the right side it comes out in a way that has the element of surprise.”

The yin dimension, the left side, allows you to get the opponent to focus their attention there, below the surface. In other words, the opponent focus on something that is moving but is not insisting that they look there. This is the power of the quality of yin. It breathes instead of ticks, so that when you strike out with the right side it comes out in a way that has the element of surprise. Otherwise, The Yang side would be too predictable. This requires careful thought.

While this is the standard configuration, variations exist, such as the southpaw stance, which reverses the sides.

In the next part, coming very soon, we will look further at body alignment and posture, fluidity of movement, and biomechanics, amongst other aspects.


From Shock to Strategy: Harnessing Fight-or-Flight into Surged Clarity [Part 4]

Posted on Last updated on by joeharman8 | 7 min read | 184 views

The mind should be clear thinking and you should remain aware. In this way the quality of your behaviour rises to such a level that you are able to act properly without turning the power up to the max suddenly. When adrenaline then hits, it is just a bonus.

Any martial artist will tell you that power comes from a relaxed state. This is because there is a steady current which is working as it is, rather than needing any kind of external stimulation to get it going properly. So the mind should be clear thinking and you should remain aware. In this way the quality of your behaviour rises to such a level that you are able to act properly without turning the power up to the max suddenly. When adrenaline then hits, it is just a bonus. Put differently, your behaviour is at maximum capacity without being artificially high in any one dimension. It is for this reason that when it hits the fan, the martial artist is already doing something intelligent when they get an additional boost of adrenaline.

Let’s say you have a pair of speakers. If the speakers are high quality, you can clearly hear them at volume level 30. Another pair of speakers needs to be turned all the way up to 100 just to hear what’s going on.

Most of us grew up with the idea that stress helps us perform. But this only allows you to act in specific ways at an high level. For example, however you are get’s amplified in some way. Let’s say you have a pair of speakers. If the speakers are high quality, you can clearly hear them at volume level 30. Another pair of speakers needs to be turned all the way up to 100 just to hear what’s going on. They are low quality, and one dimensional in terms of sound At the same time, there is a lot of unpleasant noise and interference going on with the bad but loud speakers. On the other hand, all of the supply lines and working properly in the quieter set of speakers, not just one or two circuits. Because of that, you get a balanced, regulated, and natural sounding output. It is the same thing in martial arts.

When there is a love for whatever you are doing, and the reflexes and basic fundamental skills are there, I think you can perform a lot better and with less emotional volatility. This love for what you are doing replaces the need to become dominant over others and increase the voltage in a volatile way. For example, when you love what you’re doing, dopamine release becomes tied to mastery and meaning, rather than external reward or reaction to external stimulus. This will at least bring down the need for craving stimulation from the sudden onset of environmental cues, in order to get the system up and running properly.

In terms of martial arts, rather than hyping yourself up and glaring at people insistently, you can disarm somebody completely by the way you are. You can walk through the situation rather than feeding it. Then, the simple act of remaining physiologically relaxed and disciplined is enough to diffuse hostilities instead of butting heads and puffing your feathers. This is known as fighting without fighting. Even if for some reason there is still a great need for external stimulation, or you are addicted to certain behaviours, building a solid foundation for internal reward systems can greatly reduce this need over time.

You should act before such thoughts arise by having everything within your gaze and fixating on no detail in particular. This is how the way you look at people can influence your physiology and theirs.

You should not think “That guy is staring at me, I must act”. You should act before such thoughts arise by having everything within your gaze and fixating on no detail in particular. This is how the way you look at people can influence your physiology and theirs. When yo are broadly aware but not reactive, you can then shift the gaze seamlessly so that you don’t cause other people to see you as some kind of hostile competition. When you remain aware before some kind of emergency situation arises, you do not need to suddenly boot up. You only need to do this if your system is switched off or has collapsed for some reason. If you are steadily active, you not only are better at defending yourself, you are better able to absorb the energy of the situation so that you and it are one and the same.

Flowing Into Strength: Stability Through Continuous Awareness

A dead and inert tree would simply be blown over by a gust of wind. A strongly rooted and vibrant tree would absorb some of the energy from the wind, sway with it, and its roots would even benefit from the pressure exerted upon it by getting stronger.

When you overall system is balanced in in tune with the environment, there is a completely different response to emergency situations. First of all you are not shifting from zero to one hundred. You are also better able to withstand pressure. Let’s use the example of a tree. A dead and inert tree would simply be blown over by a gust of wind. A strongly rooted and vibrant tree would absorb some of the energy from the wind, sway with it, and its roots would even benefit from the pressure exerted upon it by getting stronger. In the same way, the martial artist sinks deeply into the posture and absorbs the energy of the situation, remaining flexible in body and mind.

The thing to remember is that when these self defence systems were devised, life expectancy was low in most cases. For example, in China life expectancy was around 32 years old as early as one hundred years ago. Obviously, the Chinese systems were developed well before this, when life expectancy was even lower. In other words, the kinds of survival responses needed when life was much harsher was a lot different to what is needed today. So martial arts in the modern day must be viewed in this context.

Conditions today are not as tough as they were in the past. Although we have learnt to complain about everything, there is not such a need for constant survival mode all the time. At the same time, if you don’t look at how things were done, you don’t have the drive to do better. For example, there would be no need to live well if you didn’t take care of the need to survive. In fact, living well is built upon a good foundation of survival which is proportionate to need. The tree grows out of a mixture of turbulent environmental factors as well as a steady supply of life sustaining energies. In the same way, the martial artist is able to empower themselves through turbulence as well as energy cultivation, which are always linked.

If a tree was in survival mode all of the time, there would be no flowers fruit. The survival aspect is the foundation, the root. There’s a lot of digging around and feeding going on there, at the root level. So the survival instincts can be seen as a moving foundation, rather than a secure structure which is fixed. The secure structure, which is fixed, is built once there is a strong foundation for survival to happen, which is fluid. So in order to fix yourself strongly, you must remain fluid yet immoveable.

Each Breath Stirs the Tides, and Each Heartbeat Shapes the Shores.

Posted on Last updated on by joeharman8 | 11 min read | 115 views

“In terms of martial arts, this ecological growth means internal renewal and overall health improvements over time. So there is an incubation period which fleshes your system out as the energy settles in. It is not just a case of flooding yourself with hormones so that you can dissipate them in some kind of activity.”

In martial arts, people want to practice in such a way that they become physically capable and healthy, as well as mentally balanced. However, in practice this often does not happen in any meaningful way. When you look around, most of the martial arts styles out there are teaching tricks to get you out of a sticky situation. Or, they are teaching you to take part in some kind of elite sport which has no meaning outside of competitive circles. Whilst it can be beneficial to practice these tricks of the trade some of the time, most of it can be learned fairly easily, even on the internet.

In terms of output and fitness, the activity levels have gone up, but the internal development has not”

A few years ago, learning something like karate or Taekwondo meant you had to go to a dojo. Even then, most people quit without learning much at all. Today because all of freely available technical information which is so easy to find, you see lots of people able to punch, kick, throw, and all sorts of other things. The information is much easier to obtain and people are able to do these things even if they have never been to a formal class. Going to the class should create a conducive atmosphere in which you learn to develop as a person. However, all we see nowadays are classes packed with people going through the motions or getting hyped up and excited into activity in some way. So it has taken on the character of a nightclub in many ways.

The idea behind martial arts is to empower the internal side of the human being, not just to cover their external requirements. This is not happening at the moment on any large scale, even if there are more frequent training opportunities. So in terms of output and fitness, the activity levels have gone up, but the internal development has not. Without upgrading the internal side, the external activity will not develop in a self sustaining way or become meaningful to the individual. As people go through the motions, the body will just accumulate injuries and other stresses which will wear it down over time. This is what happens when martial arts turns into a competitive sport or business enterprise in the market place.

Just as the minerals from the sea rise and spread across the land, bringing nourishment to support plant growth, the hormones produced from the gut and elsewhere are distributed across the body to facilitate growth and repair.”

When you perform powerful activity, such as in martial arts, it is important that the energy is delivered from core of your being, extending itself more widely from there. Every action you perform has an impact on your own internal health and well being. During strenuous martial arts activity, the bloodstream delivers hormones to the organs and tissues, just like a river delivers water to the land. This ensures growth and renewal as the process of self development unfolds. Just as the minerals from the sea rise and spread across the land, bringing nourishment to support plant growth, the hormones produced from the gut and elsewhere are distributed across the body to facilitate growth and repair.

The gut is like the deep ocean vents, the activity of it creates currents and forces which lead to environmental change. This environmental change leads to ecological growth. In terms of martial arts, this ecological growth means internal renewal and overall health improvements over time. So there is an incubation period which fleshes your system out as the energy settles in. It is not just a case of flooding yourself with hormones so that you can dissipate them in some kind of activity. Doing so just puts you back to square one. Each individual will act according to their needs and compulsions. This might mean that some energy is allocated to physical activity, whereas a certain amount is also allocated to spiritual growth. For some people, martial arts means just moving around and expending energy. To others, there is more of a transformational element to it which ends with internal development.

Today, lots of people talk about medical interventions to correct poor health without any idea about how to kick start the internal health process. In many cases, these interventions can also be used to support internal growth, rather than constantly relying on external supplements. Internal martial arts means you manage your state of health from within, with or without outside help. According to the internal martial arts perspective, external supplements or external activity is just a way to trigger or kickstart the system predominantly. You can then do anything in a positive state.

Once you reach a state of good health and well being, you know by inference how to manage this and what to do as time goes on. It is like when you get to the age of thirteen or so you automatically begin to understand why people generally get married and start a family. This does not need to be taught by strangers. At the same time, there is guidance needed. When you study life closely, rather than just what is written about it, you naturally become aware of how to manage things.

Exercise, digestion and stress, all trigger hormonal development. In order to prevent dissipation of this internal energy, you need to a get a wide spread happening.

Martial arts schools these days are managed in such a way that you train in the evening and then flop in front of the television by the time you get home. So there is often no momentum gained from spring boarding yourself into activity during the martial arts practice. Most of the time a martial arts school means a recreational activity, so it is not quite right to call it a school. In any case, the norms of society are the same, you work hard and then you relax by drinking alcohol or taking intoxicants to subdue the system again. Otherwise, without the necessary teaching, people tend not to be able to sustain higher levels of energy for long without burning out. When people try to manage high pressure and energy states for prolonged periods of time without the necessary personal development, it is only natural to get into emotional upheaval trying to manage their overall situation.

Exercise, digestion and stress, all trigger hormonal development. In order to prevent dissipation of this internal energy, you need to a get a wide spread happening. If you are just enjoying the effects of your hormonal system as it is, then you are not creating anything new out of it. For you to exploit it as it is, it needs to stay as it is. This is fine, but the human system is capable of immense possibilities when you link the different parts of the system together in dynamic ways rather than separating things out for limited functioning. For example, just as the rising seabed pulses waves across the shore, the bloodstream has far reaching potential which can nourish and regulate the body. In Chinese martial arts, the Qi energy is said to circulate vital energy through the meridians and across the body. In modern terms, the hormonal flow mirrors this subtle current.

In the Eastern martial arts system, the subterranean forces are said to emerge from the depths, bringing clarity, focus, and wisdom. What does this mean? It means you have within you a tremendous pool of talent.

So when you are training in martial arts, it is not about becoming a killing machine irresponsibly. What you do or do not do may make or break peoples lives, or even your own life. What can build a healthy body if neglected can deteriorate the body. If you exploit one aspect of the body at the expense of the whole, the result is that you become a minus in terms of functioning. When competence is developed, you have a responsibility for yourself and others. Then, you have to put in a lot of effort to remain disciplined and on the path. When I say on the path, I do not mean sticking to a regimented or commercial style of martial arts. These are on and off systems which do not offer anything in terms of and how to navigate life at all times or in terms of internal development.

In the Eastern martial arts system, the subterranean forces are said to emerge from the depths, bringing clarity, focus, and wisdom. What does this mean? It means you have within you a tremendous pool of talent. The only problem is, these days people lack the organisation and discipline to sustain their internal energies and bring them past a certain point. They are like broken down cars, they bang and crash but it amounts to very little movement and a lot of expenditure. This is not a sign of life, but a sign of death.

Hormonal activity, muscular activatation, and breath work, can all be used as a means to create new possibilities. In this way you become a creator of form by working with the existing form.

When we think of martial arts masters, we tend to think of people capable of dominating others and fighting in a championship. But a master does not need to be able to get to the top of a hierarchy, they must be able to operate across several layers, which is something that has been missing in my view.

When you move, you do not need to move according to your tectonic tendencies. In other words, you do not need to be guided by instinct and reactivity, even if this generates a potential. Hormonal activity, muscular activation, and breath work, can all be used as a means to create new possibilities. In this way you become a creator of form by working with the existing form. This is what is meant by self sustaining practice, you turn everything into an inside job. You are then able to work with the tectonic shifts and core activity in many ways, as the hormones and neurotransmitters from the core become rising minerals able to spread in a far reaching way. What this means is that each breath stirs the tides and each heartbeat shapes the shores. The seabed lifts and extends itself to feed the landmass.

So the aim of martial arts, particularly the internal side, is to create masters who are capable of working across any sphere or life. Whether you are an established leader, an entrepreneur, or an office worker, it is possible to empower yourself with wellbeing, inspiration and competence so that you are able to fit seamlessly into any organisational structure you find yourself in. Otherwise it traps you in its walls, like a ghost in a shell. You can say that these walls are imaginary, because it is within your power to break free. If there is no such striving, then you might just gear yourself up to put up with things as you see them.

The world you inhabit gives you the energy to contain the kind of power needed to burst out.

Whether it is a dojo or business suite, the idea is to self organise in such a way that you become more than a scattered set of aims and intentions. Then, rather than working you, the waves around you are shaped by your internal resolve to transform the situation around you by starting with the core of who you are. It is at this core, the seabed, that power is generated from the weight and pressure of the world above it. In other words, the world you inhabit gives you the energy to contain the kind of power needed to burst out.

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