The forward rotation of the cervical spine, such as when punching or reaching forward, is a smooth and continuous motion enabled by the spine’s natural curvature and structure. This motion, centered around the cervical spine, allows the head to pivot forward naturally without abruptness, whilst maintaining proper alignment and balance.
To ensure fluidity and reduce strain, the head should lift subtly during this forward rotation, with the crown extending upward as if drawn by an invisible string. This symbolism of the string has been used in Tai Chi practices, as well as in Yoga. In Yogic tradition, this energy strand is referred to as Brahmarandhra, which describes a passage that is both an emitter and receiver of vertical energy. Physiologically, this upward lift of the head counteracts compressive forces, promoting a graceful motion that protects the spine and supports posture during activities like martial arts practice.
The curvature and the natural S-shape of a human spine, permits smooth and continuous motion by evenly distributing mechanical stress and allowing flexibility. For instance, when a person walks, the curved spine acts as a spring, absorbing impact and facilitating a flowing, rhythmic gait. Similarly, in martial arts, the flexibility of the spine enables the warrior to move gracefully and adapt quickly to changes in direction, enhancing their agility and smoothness of motion.
In nature, as well as in engineering, we see how structures are formed according to certain curvature rules. A tube or the flow of air and water naturally creates or forms a curve shape, flowing smoothly and continuously. Like the gentle arc of a river meandering through a valley or the streamlined shape of a wind tunnel, there is a tendency to avoid abrupt bends that would disrupt harmonious movement.
A water pipe with smooth, gentle curves resembles a snake standing upright, maintaining a flowing, uninterrupted path of ascent. Sharp bends would disrupt the flow of the water pipe, causing turbulence and dissipation of water pressure, much like a snake’s movement would falter if forced into abrupt angles. Similarly in martial arts, if you rush to abrupt conclusions unnecessarily, this apparent short cut can diminish one’s energies.
When you read a step by step guide on how to do a punch, it is as if there are only two or three stages to it. A step-by-step process is characterized by distinct, incremental stages, where each step represents a deliberate transition from one stage to the next. It involves pauses or plateaus between steps, allowing time for adjustment, assessment, or realignment. This is often necessary in the short term in order to learn certain rules. In a real life situation, you often do not have this kind of luxury to stop and pause. In contrast, a curvature is a continuous flow, marked by seamless, unbroken change that transitions fluidly without sharp stops or abrupt shifts. This is how the warrior trains in order to become infinitely adaptable and absolutely focused.
Curvature represents a dynamic process where each point is influenced by the momentum and trajectory of the preceding points, creating a smooth and uninterrupted evolution. This is in fact how one evolves, not in a step by step linear way. While the step-by-step approach emphasizes clarity and order, the curvature embodies fluidity and adaptability, often reflecting processes that evolve naturally rather than being consciously segmented.
Because much of the practice of martial arts involves conscious expression of subconscious energies, there is need to bring conscious awareness to this quality of continuous and adaptable expression of energy. The body can become a vehicle for this expression, or it can impede it. It is for this reasons that the symbolism of the snake, as well as the flow of water, is used in certain styles of martial arts to emphasis the quality of flexibility and continuity in spite of obstacles..
The hissing sound of a snake is produced by the steady, controlled release of air through its glottis, creating a smooth and continuous flow of sound. This is analogous to the snake’s movement, where its muscles contract and relax in a wave-like pattern, allowing it to glide effortlessly and without abrupt stops. The consistency of the hiss reflects the same principle of fluid motion, where unbroken flow ensures efficiency and minimal resistance.
Just as a snake’s body seamlessly adapts to its surroundings while moving, the martial artists also learns to use the breath and body to create an energy form analogous to that of a snake.
Fear. Often seen as a shadow looming over our aspirations, it is one of the most misunderstood emotions. Of course, most emotions are poorly understood, but fear is frequently painted as negative—a paralyzing force to be avoided or suppressed. But what if fear is something more? What if, instead of a barrier, it is a signal, a spark that drives us toward greater awareness and growth?
In truth, fear has no inherent negativity. At its root, it is pure energy—intense, raw, and immediate. When approached with understanding and appreciation of its immediate nature, fear can be a gateway to transformation and an opportunity to enhance our awareness. When we say “immediate”, this simply means that it can trigger us towards an immediate response, rather than causing us to react and lose all hope and become powerless.
Fear Sharpens Awareness
One of fear’s most profound gifts is its ability to intensify our consciousness. Consider how fear feels: it’s visceral, immediate, and impossible to ignore. It demands our attention. Whilst we can ignore the reactions to fear by responding appropriately, we cannot ignore the energy it brings. And for good reason. The heightened sensation of fear sharpens our focus, making us acutely aware of our surroundings, our body, and the choices available to us.
For example, a deer sensing a predator experiences an acute surge of awareness. Fear doesn’t paralyze it—it energizes it. Its body becomes attuned to every sound, every shadow, and the terrain underfoot. To become aware of this is a sign of intelligence. This heightened state of awareness allows the deer to act decisively and respond to danger. There was a time when humans were also more like this, but due to over reliance on information rather than experience, this intelligence has been seriously reduced.
For humans, fear can function in the same way. When we stop resisting fear and instead allow ourselves to feel its intensity without being overwhelmed by it, we open the door to greater clarity. Fear forces us to confront the present moment with heightened perception, breaking through the mental fog of complacency or distraction. The immediate fear is then transformed into a greater possibility which no longer resembles the initial trigger which we mistake as fear itself. Fear is just an energy, it is neither good nor bad inherently.
From Instinct to Insight
Fear begins as a sensation in the body—often in the legs, preparing us to move before our minds have fully registered the situation. This initial trigger is a gift, urging us to respond. But when we ignore or suppress fear, it stagnates, taking root as doubt or anxiety. Limited expressions of Doubt and anxiety are more and more prevalant largely because we no longer employ the legs as we used to. Hunter gathers, as well as other kinds of physical works historically employed the use of the legs more than today’s workers. Such people were already is full swing and able to ride the initial feelings without buckling better than the generation today. Wee can learn these lessons too.
By becoming more conscious of how fear manifests, we can intercept it early, transforming it from an instinctual reaction into an opportunity for insight and intelligent action. This process involves awareness—not just of the fear itself, but of the environment, circumstances, and our inner responses. Fear, in this way, becomes the first step toward heightened consciousness.
Fear: A Transformative Energy
At its essence, fear is a neutral force—a burst of energy that can either hinder or propel us, depending on how we engage with it. If left unchecked, fear can grow into a weed that stifles our development. This is true of any other emotions, which can wither and die. But when we meet fear with awareness and purposeful action, we transform it into a powerful ally for growth.
Think of a seed buried in darkness. The soil around it might seem suffocating, but that very darkness contains the potential for life. The seed doesn’t linger in fear of its constraints; instead, it uses the pressure, heat, and energy around it to sprout and expand. The same is true for us. Fear, like the darkness surrounding the seed, can be a catalyst for liberation if we engage with it consciously.
Fear as a Tool for Movement
In martial arts, this principle is both practical and within our immediate experience. A moving target is harder to hit. When fear strikes, we must act—move our body, focus our mind, and channel the energy of fear into purpose. At the same time we can learn to move even before it takes root. This proactive approach keeps us dynamic, adaptable, and resilient.
Fear heightens our awareness of the immediate moment, making us conscious of our surroundings, our options, and our potential responses. This state of heightened consciousness is the key to transforming fear into a constructive force.
Liberation Through Fear
Fear, when met with conscious action, becomes not a foe but a teacher. It can be a harsh teacher, but if you listen to it It reminds us of our aliveness, our ability to respond, and our potential for growth. The path to liberation lies not in avoiding fear but in embracing it as part of life’s rich variety.
When we take responsible action in the face of fear, we experience its transformative power. Fear challenges us to go beyond our comfort zones, to move toward growth and expansion. Each time we act to take possession of fear, we reclaim our power and discover new dimensions of our strength.
Fear as the Seed of Growth
Just as the seed doesn’t hesitate in the darkness, we too can use the intensity of fear to propel ourselves forward. The seed doesn’t rely on perfect conditions or certainty—it acts, taking nourishment from its surroundings and pushing upward toward the light. If it somehow could think about everything cerebrally rather than making extreme effort, it would not act with such intelligence. Instead it would see obstacles everywhere. Today, many of us over think everything in this way, beyond the necessary levels.
Similarly, fear can nourish our growth when we stop resisting it. To resist is to separate and turn it into an obstacle. But this is a limited vision of reality. By engaging with fear consciously, we integrate its energy into our journey, using it to fuel our evolution.
The Gift of Fear
Fear isn’t the enemy; it’s an ally. Or, if you like, it is neither an ally or an enemy. Its intensity wakes us up, forces us to pay attention, and calls us to action. This is the same for any emotion looked at in its entirety. It is just that martial arts works with fear because of its associations with conflict. The next time fear arises, don’t push it away. Feel its presence. Let it sharpen your awareness and heighten your perception of the unfolding moment. Do not separate it into an obstacle to get rid of because this gives it a dimension of power which is not inherently within its reach. This is a choice. Use its potential for transformation rather than making conclusions about it based on short sighted vision.
Fear is the doorway to transformation. When we embrace it, we discover that it’s not a force of limitation but one of liberation. By moving through fear, we find clarity, growth, and the limitless potential of our own nature.
So, instead of fearing fear, let it become your companion—a guide to deeper awareness, conscious action, and continuous evolution. Through fear, we step into the fullness of life. This is one way. There are of course many others. The idea is to use far and its challenges and opportunities, turning them into the ever-expanding possibility of who you are meant to be.
The Power of Full Engagement: Mastering Effort for Peak Performance
In a world filled with distractions, it’s easy for one’s mind to wander and focus to slip. One often finds themselves overthinking, second-guessing, or drifting from one task to the next without full commitment. But what if the key to unlocking peak performance lies not in multitasking or trying to balance everything, but in one simple principle: putting in maximum effort and engaging fully in what you’re doing?
The Power of Focused Effort
The first step to mastery is learning how to fully engage in the task at hand. When one consciously directs their focus and puts all their energy into one thing, they eliminate the mental noise that often slows them down. Whether working, training, or pursuing a personal goal, giving full attention allows one to tap into their potential and push beyond what they thought possible.
This focus creates a unique kind of rhythm: as the mind and body work in unison, both will naturally begin to tire. But this tiredness is not a negative—it’s a sign that effort is being exerted, that progress is being made, and that results are on the horizon.
Effort is the Key to Progress
True progress happens when one stops measuring effort by comfort or by how much they can avoid exertion. Growth happens when one pushes themselves to the point of fatigue, breaking through mental and physical barriers. The key is to make effort habitual, not something reserved for special occasions or challenges.
By committing fully to one’s work, hesitation and self-doubt are removed from the equation. Whether training alone, working on a project, or practicing a skill, one should act decisively and without second-guessing. Let the body tire, but keep the mind focused on the task. The mind will naturally tire and become still when the need to exert yourself is over. The goal is to make effort a constant pre occupation so that pushing oneself becomes second nature. This does not mean constant physical effort, but a conscious effort to become aware of this process.
Push Beyond Your Limits
The more one engages in focused effort, the more both body and mind will adapt. Over time, they will find that they no longer need to calculate the next move or deliberate over every action. This is why it is important to become more consciously aware of what you are doing, so that the mind and body follow suit. One then will act instinctively, responding to challenges without hesitation rather than reacting stupidly. This shift from automatic action to conscious effort is where real growth happens. Effort becomes part of who one is, and with that, the limits that once seemed rigid begin to fade away.
Effort Creates Results, Not Comfort
In the pursuit of mastery, there’s no room for complacency. One must continue to exert effort, even when tired or when things get tough. It’s not about avoiding discomfort—it’s about learning to work through it. When your back is against the wall, you act. When it is time to sleep you fully commit to that as a conscious action. Do as needed. Every time one pushes their limits, they increase their capacity for more. As the body tires, the resolve grows stronger. With every drop of effort, one moves closer to their desired results.
This approach requires discipline and consistency. It’s about showing up every day, putting in the work, and doing whatever it takes to push past obstacles. At the same time, if you are new to something this need not be a barrier. The satisfaction that comes from effort is secondary to the fulfillment of knowing progress is being made goal you are aiming to achieve. The effort is happening now, the goal is only an imagined goal, which may or may not even be sensible. With full awareness of this process and conscious effort, you eventually unfold you full potential.
Conclusion: The Relentless Pursuit of Effort
In any endeavor, the most powerful tool one has is effort. When one commits fully to their work and exerts every ounce of energy into what they do, they unlock their true potential. Through consistent, focused effort, one pushes themselves to new heights and continually grows. You will then see the importance of rest when it is necessary. Otherwise there is just a kind of malaise and boredom which puts you to sleep prematurely and restlessly.
So, stop waiting for the perfect moment or the ideal conditions. Engage fully in the task at hand, give your best effort, and make pushing yourself the cornerstone of growth. Over time, effort will become part of who one is, and the results will speak for themselves.
Part 2 follows on directly from part 1. Here, we look at how the influence of the karmic structure and the genetic body influences our behaviour. We will look at ways which have been used in martial arts traditions to use this powerhouse of energy in a conscious and productive way. By using the energy body in certain ways it is possible to make the energies more malleable rather than concretised, which we will look at now.
Contraction and Extension
From the tightly compact seed, the truth unfolds into an infinite possibility of expansion.
Part 2 follows on directly from part 1. Here, we look at how the influence of the karmic structure and the genetic body influence our behaviour. We will look at ways which have been used in martial arts traditions to use this powerhouse of energy in a conscious and productive way. By using the energy body in certain ways it is possible to make the energies more malleable rather than concretised, which we will look at now.
The reason for various back breaking martial exercises was to put the body under such pressure that the bodies energies would recede inwards and concentrate itself more tightly. This had the benefit of increasing fitness, and harnessing will power and discipline into focused activity. At the same time, when the energies have been compressed and made more focused, it is possible to spread the energies in a more organised way. This may seem counter intuitive, but condensing and concentrating this force of energy increases its possibility for expansion. In this way it is said to be possible to wear out ones karma by contracting the internal mixture, and then extending it like baking bread. The bread transforms the mixture into something else. This is one way of looking at it. This is also known as internal alchemy.
So these martial exercises were a preparatory stage for influencing ones own genetic material, or the energy body. By concentrating this dispersed energy, the physical body becomes more malleable and more open to transformation from within. Otherwise, the energies remain reactive to the external environment predominantly and you never know the potency of their potential. At the same time, when you have shrunk the genetic influence over the body and reduced it down, you leave space for increased wave forms of energy, which bring about a sense of ease and pleasantness rather than agitation and reactivity. When you have reduced it down, particularly within the area of the Hara Centre, it becomes warmed up and more able to extend itself further rather than contracting the energy body. When it goes out again it disperses more widely and as a less dense layer, until it dissolves altogether. This is known as dissolution of Karma.
When the energy becomes concentrated in the Hara Centre, the seat off the self, it is experienced in a more intense way which is more focused and powerful. This awakens a powerful wave of upwards ascending energy known in Yoga as the Kundalini force, or Linga Sharira. In Chinese systems, the awakening of this energy is known as grand circulation, amongst other names. It is essentially the full fledged functioning of the energy body, which creates a fire in the belly, which is partly responsible for both activity and dissolution of Karma. By becoming a wave form of energy, like water, it no longer sticks so stubbornly to the body and mixes with the wider existence. At the same time it becomes part of your own existence. I realise this sound like nonsense, but I am attempting to make this mumbo jumbo into some sort of logical explanation to the best of my ability, so bare with me.
It is only because of fundamental misunderstandings of the energy body, that people have gone about handling it in limited ways. Because of the power of the kundalini force, traditionally certain behaviours and codes of conduct have been instituted in those trained in its ways. For example, it has been linked with increased sexuality or instinctive behaviours, but only in situations where the energy dissipates at the level of the Muladhara, or root chakra1. For this reason, disciples were put to back breaking work or held in protective atmospheres in temples, so that they could fully explore the spiritual significance of this rising energy without inflating its influence over other areas of life.
When you want to move to the ultimate possibility, without developing the right internal circumstances and scope for development, then you are missing a vital first step. This first step is including the necessary cultivation so that this blossoming happens naturally, rather than by force. This is why certain qualities and virtues were always instilled in disciples of martial arts. This is particularly the case when doing something like raising the energies a higher level of functioning, or dissolving ones karmic influence. Otherwise, it is possible to diminish ones karma to the extent that there is no stable root, or make the energies lopsided in the body.
The whole point of martial arts is to develop the relationship between our internal and external environment. This is symbolised by Yin and Yang. In martial arts tradition, this has always meant developing the qualities of self discipline and work ethic, in order to cultivate an attitude of perseverance and self transformation. If this determination to develop is cultivated, then the genetic component of an individual is brought to its highest possibility. From the tightly compact seed, the truth unfolds into an infinite possibility of expansion. This is the essence of life. For instance, the sperm cells are amongst the most potent and tightly packed cells, which means they have the capability to create a body, along with the egg. This is one example.
Everything must be done according to ones capability and understanding. And above all, everything can be used intelligently rather than excluded due to judgemental prejudice. This is why it is foolish to try to destroy something like ones karmic structure or instinctive nature, without putting it effective use. If in the process of self realisation it leaves you, then this is good. At the same time a certain necessary amount is needed to function properly. This is the reason for harsh austerities which masters impose on themselves, which seem illogical. They create for themselves a resistance, a karmic load to carry, which gives them a strong root. At the same time they don’t get entangled it the process, and routinely work through their karma, which becomes a conscious choice for them. This choice can de dedication to certain exercises, a certain diet, or just about anything which they deem appropriate. There is no right or wrong here, it is just that there are different life goals and orientations.
It is not usually advisable to attempt to handle powerful internal energy situations head on initially. It certainly cannot be mastered by force. Since childhood the genetic influence has been campaigning about how you have be be dictated too by them, and how they own you. Fighting them only makes you more identified with them. The best way is to leave them to their nonsense until you experience something more than they are. Then you will never take them seriously. This is why the Master would make sure the the disciple was serious before moving to serious forms of practice. It was not uncommon for the disciple to have to move in with the master of the temple, or to dedicate their entire life to a system of martial arts practices. Today, these practices would not fit with the social norms of society. However, the practices are still alive.
It is ridiculous to talk about liberating the mind from misconceptions, when a large percentage of social media content relies on misconceiving reality as some superficial appearance. It is for this reason that the authentic practices have been left out of mainstream thought, but at the same time they are to be found in certain hidden places in full view.
The Masters of today will encourage the disciple with rudimentary seminar classes, before inviting them in for more advanced programs. Before they know it, they have moved from a weekly course, to a weekend seminar abroad in the middle of Thailand, for instance. This is done according the the discipline which slowly builds in the disciple. It is rarely the case anymore that people jump right in from the start.
The origins of genetic determinism
The idea about genetics defining a person comes from the need to keep practices within certain clans. It has little to do with what nature has endowed people with genetically, because this itself is largely unexplored. Nature has certainly not made genetic influence the defining factor in most people, because it is in and of itself not capable of doing so. At the same time, it is open to any possible influence. This is because the genetic body is intermingled with the karmic substance, as well as the physical and mental bodies. This is according to traditional thought. So what you are looking at is a complex amalgam, which can be a different mixture depending on the person.
It is like, if you plant a seed into the soil. The plant itself will grow according to the soil in a certain minimal way. Whether the soil is good or bad will determine much. Along with that, much of its growth depends on the sunlight, and other environmental factors, which taken together are responsible for the majority of the plants growth. If it grows to full potential it will look a certain way, but this appearance is not why it grew to its full potential. In fact, it may look the same way if it is healthy or unhealthy. It is just the longevity and the susceptibility to certain influences may be different as a result of its growth. this becomes apparent as time goes on.
So the environment can influence the genetic body, or energy body, to the extent that it becomes intertwined with the physical body. This creates a powerful link between physical practices and disciplined lifestyle. In fact, it is not even true that you have an energy body separate from the physical body, or even a brain separate from the body. It is this energy, which is largely to do with environmental influences which is responsible for the organisms development and cultivation, as well as the expression of so called genetically determined factors. It is through pride that people have labelled themselves genetically superior, or other inferior, which has led to racism and ideas of genetic determinism.
The idea that genetics determines a persons future is flawed for several reasons. First of all, genes are said to be almost the same in everyone. That means that the genes of your grandparents, as well as relatives from thousands of years ago, are probably the same as you. Even in a chimpanzee, they are 98 percent the same. Yet, we still see a lot of variation in people. This is because the same soil is responsible for the cultivation of an infinite variety of life. This is what makes a forest the way it is, full of variation and organised chaos, where everything has its place.
Over the course of thousands of years, human experience has changed dramatically. Human experience has also changed dramatically in the last 20 or so years, with the massive development of technology. It has changed to the extend that modes of living from a few decades ago are now almost totally redundant. So factors such as these determine the transformation of our experience more than genes do. But at the same time they alter the expression of our genes. This is why it becomes complicated, and also this explains why the old ways can so quickly become redundant. At the same time this explains why timeless traditions can also remain relevant.
Various other factors aside from genes have played a vital role in determining the course of our development. You could say that genes provide the constant platform for infinite possibility. From this platform you would not make a roof or a window, for instance. So the platform is the fundamental constant. The rest you can play with any way you want. This infinite possibility is inside of our genetic code, rather than outside of us. At the same time we become intimately linked with our external experience, which we ourselves can gain increasing mastery over. So I am not down playing genetic influence, I am merely trying to demonstrate that its potency has been assumed to be something less than it is by making out that is defines the outcome of our experience. It is much more than that.
Learning from our environment
So genetic disposition is predominantly to do with the social norms and habits which themselves breed a certain kind of genetic energy within groups. These live beyond individual lives, so for this reason they are passed down from generation to generation. Nobody wants you to be liberated from this. It is an individual thing, which can none the less be done in a community. It is the tribal mentality of separatism which inflates the differences between peoples, as well as the genetically determined aspects of sticking with the tribe and loyalty towards certain causes.
Take the planet, for instance. It is the planets warmth and electromagnetic force which sustains life on the planet. This is what sustains its development, and this energy is what is passed onto life on this planet. It is not owned by the sun. In the same way, the habits and practices of people far outlive the physical body itself, but they are a consequence of the planet. These practices and the body itself are connected to each other, but it is the coherence between life and disciplined practice which determined the inevitability of genetic disposition. The other choice is to become liberated from this, by following the dictates of a more casual influence, which has to do with the greater existence.
Practices you can do
“The abdominal wall sends waves through the system which travel further than the abdomen, ensuring that the energy transforms appropriately rather than creating high pressure everywhere.”
This environmental energy can be an enormous factor in an individuals growth. This is why certain traditions have kept secret practices within their own ranks, because they either thought they created them, or they thought it was too dangerous to include people who weren’t receptive to the environments they created. These environments became entire cultures, such as in the Himalayas and India for example. These practices provide the driving engine for developing the necessary fire of the body, whilst at the same time offering a water element for its cooling.
The brain works best when it is cool and at low pressure. This is why nasal breathing has been recommend in order to send cool oxygen straight to the brain directly, rather than through the bloodstream. Try this exercise. Find a quiet place to sit, and simple breath through the nose in an upright cross legged position. Feel the nasal passage expands you touch the roof of you mouth with the tip of the tongue. If you sustain this position for around ten minutes or more, a sense of ease and energy will generate in the nasal area and enhance your sense perception, leading to increased well being.
The body’s physical centre, the Hara Centre or the abdomen can withstand more pressure and heat without overheating. In fact, the intestines have enough potential force to crack a Brazil nut. So when you create this pressure through abdominal breathing exercises, as well as other martial arts exercises, you create an area of relatively high pressure to the brain. In this way, it was understood that certain physical practices to develop the Hara Centre would naturally and sustainably cultivate the area of low pressure, which is the brain. This is based on the law that areas of high pressure naturally flow to areas of low pressure in waves. For example, the abdominal wall sends waves through the system which travel further than the abdomen, ensuring that the energy transforms appropriately rather than creating high pressure everywhere. Basically, this encourages bioelectrical energy, or neurological energy, to travel throughout the system at sustainable rates.
Try this exercise, which can be done at the same time as the nasal breathing above. As you sink down into the cross legged posture, into the sitting bones, utter or imagine the “ahh” syllable2. At the same time extend upwards, lifting the upper spine and stretching the lower spine. You can repeat this at least six or so times, or even for as long as desired.
So this is why the brain is always kept cool by certain modes of conduct and meditative exercises. If the brain becomes the driving force, then you are going increasingly by theory rather than experience. Keep the brain cool therefore, and the body (particularly the abdomen) warm, balancing out the Fire and Water elements. This is the idea behind the practices of abdominal and nasal breathing, taken together.
The brain is likely to become a source of entanglement in the aspiring martial artists, because it excessively complicates what the body understands genetically or in the energy sense naturally. It is this unwillingness to work with the body and go through the necessary disciplined practice which is scaling down the overall understanding in the energetic sense of the body. This comes at a huge price for the aspiring martial artists. In this way martial arts has become increasingly theoretical, because of hyper development of cognitive activity, and lack of involvement and aliveness of the physical and energetic expression.
This article is split into two parts. In part one, we explore why there are so many misconceptions about genetic influence. In part two, we will look at specific exercises you can do, as well as taking your understanding further. According to Yogic lore and martial arts sciences, the energy body contains genetic factors which influence the physical body. Within this energy structure there are certain influences which can determine the outcome of the physical expression of this nature. We will explore how this is so.
“Nature itself has programmed our energies to a certain point. How we evolve further is largely down to our own conscious development.”
When we talk about genetics, something we need to understand is the influence they have over our physiology. The genetic components make us human, and to a large degree they makes us driven to succeed in life. They are for liberation and expansion. They have gone through millions of years of evolution. This has lead to a high level of complexity. Deep within our cells, there genes act like a kind of hardware. So this aspect of our genetics is fixed, but the expression is open to infinite possibility. Let’s see how this is so.
It is no wonder that genetic complexity can become confusing in our minds. It can appear to be a huge mess, just because it plays out in a haphazard way. But this mess can be made into a complex and beautiful symphony. By arranging the components in an organised way, the cacophony of influences in life can be harnessed for our benefit. Then you have an organised mess which is perfectly coherent. This arrangement of a potential mess and disaster is what martial arts aims towards.
We need to also understand the factors which genetics do not in themselves influence. Say for instance, you have a genetic predisposition to some sort of disease. This predisposition need not become an overwhelming influence on your experience of life. In fact, the influence over your life can be reduced dramatically depending on the kinds of martial arts or other health practices you engage in. Nor does it mean you will end up on the operating table in need of medical intervention because of this predisposition.
Genetic predisposition means there is some sort of factor which may increase the likelihood of something happening, which at the same time has to do with a whole host of other entangled factors. What this has to do with sealing your fate or determining your genetic inferiority or superiority has been debated throughout history. In fact, genetics and hereditary predisposition are so intertwined with traditions, social customs, and unconscious behaviours, that it is impossible to separate these factors. So by adapting your attitude and behaviour, it is held in traditional martial arts circles that you can actually influence your own destiny directly by adjusting these factors.
Separating the entanglement
When one factor is entangled with many other factors, this gives the appearance of all the factors being one big mess. So when everything becomes a mess in your perception, it is natural to try to control things and limit your experience of life. Many people think that by limiting their experience, they gain control over the situation. This is true to some extent, and is enough for some individuals. Others will want to liberate themselves from such impositions and controlling circumstances altogether. It is like how a bind weed attaches itself to a plant. You can separate the bind weed off so that the rest of the plant grows, or accept the entangled weed as part of the overall construct of the plant. Once you eradicate the weed, it becomes necessary to weed some more too.
Say for example, you have a genetic predisposition to stress. This is at once an evolutionary tendency, as well as being developed within the high pressure situations you were brought up in and have experienced. So it is possible to experience this evolutionary pressure as a negative thing, and to label it as bad. However, pressure is not in and of itself a bad thing necessarily. It becomes a bad thing when the mind fixates on it and inflates its influence over your experience of life. However, it is only part of the overall mixture of life. You can increase the percentage of this mixture so that whatever you materialise becomes a high percentage part stress. We will look at how this works shortly.
Increasing receptivity
Often the best way to influence the disposition of a person is when they are least aware of it. This is why certain practices and ways of life have been promoted in martial arts according the the individuals level of receptivity. From an early age, a martial arts practitioner would be put into intensive work, as well as brought up in the right atmosphere. During the early years of childhood, the young martial artist was yet to build up a wall of resistance. His involvement with martial arts was indiscriminate. It is not that you cannot remain this way later in life. You can, it is just that societal influences tend to push people into narrow identifications, to specialise into a particular role.
Say you are asleep. Your body is in a relaxed state so that you are open to rest and regeneration. In the same way, if you have brought down the stress levels within yourself, through martial arts practices or mediative exercises for instance, then your receptivity to factors other than stress is increased. You have brought your internal mixture down to those elements which are receptive to more sustainable resources, rather than reactive just to high intensity situations. When this is experienced directly, this is when the masters message can be most keenly appreciated and heard. Otherwise you remain unreceptive and distracted, or even dismissive.
It is entirely possible that you will go back to normal ways of life after a profound experience, so it is always advisable to maintain a certain level of discipline appropriate to your experience. What this means is that a profound experience can change your receptivity to things, but at the same time you will require a certain level of discipline and willpower to keep up this level of receptivity. This is why it is said that you reap what you sow, or that the process of work should be focused on rather than the results.
It is like if you cultivate a flower, you will need to do the weeding in order to flourish. Or, if you want to create a sense of wellbeing and pleasantness within your chemistry, you will need a higher percentage of oxygen to the brain, as well a lower percentage of stress hormone build up. This is one simple example. Say you bring down the stress hormone build up, by engaging in breathing exercises or martial arts forms consciously. Your body will remain the same to look at. It was just the the internal mixture haw changed. You might have a higher proportion of oxygenated blood, or an increased blood flow. The are all small examples of how things look the same, but the experience, particularly over time, changes your whole perception.
Determination over nature
Aside to being predisposed to stress, there may be many other factors, such as lifestyle, social dynamics, diet, etc., all of which may contribute to health ailments, or good health. From early childhood, many people have been told discriminate against certain things around them. In doing so they may have accidentally limited their scope for development. For example, someone might control their exposure to germs or types of food excessively. This often becomes detrimental to their overall health. There are cases where this is necessary of course. On the other hand, a more varied diet and acceptance of potentially stressful situations can build a tolerance towards what would otherwise be debilitating. So the same pressure to evolve as a species can become an inhibiting factor leading to health ailments. There are exceptions to what I am saying, but even so, it is possible to reduce the ill effects of certain disorders by amplifying the positive impact of surrounding factors.
In martial arts, it is said that the energy body can become inflated, or compressed depending on the types of activity one engages in. The energy body is in many ways describing the genetic material of the body. It can be a chaotic mess, or it can be an organised chaos. This is why according to tradition, certain warrior clans would enforce strict discipline in terms of life style and diet. They would therefore develop within the warrior a certain rigour and resilience, even under extreme pressure. The idea was to influence the genetic material of the body in an energy sense, rather than by controlling external factors. In doing so, the body would naturally become more invigorated and less reactive to external factors, which may otherwise prove detrimental. The idea was to influence the determined factors of the body, so that your actions determined natures influence.
When the genetic material is spread vastly over the body, it is felt everywhere in an extended sense. In Chinese medicine this is known as externalising the Qi. There is said to be a certain level of so called pre birther qi, which we see children externalising quite naturally and harmlessly. All that is needed is the right level of nurturing. What is lacking in modern society is what to do about the rest of the energy which enters the body after around the age of thirteen onwards. There have of course been elaborate practices developed in systems of martial arts and yoga which aim to install a sense of inner power and self liberation. The disciple who follows these practices diligently and unwaveringly will eventually gain control of nature, and liberate themselves.
The externalisation of energy after childhood is essentially survival based. This is necessary in certain situations, such as when fighting an enemy for instance. Obviously, during normal activity it just goes where nature intends it to. When this Energy is concentrated in a certain spot, usually the Hara Centre or the lower abdomen, it becomes a potent and concentrated force. The Hara Centre is the seat of the self, and it is from here that the energies gather and can be sent upwards to the brain, according to Yogic and Martial Arts tradition.
Nature itself has programmed our energies to a certain point. How we evolve further is largely down to our own conscious development. This is what the internal martial arts practices aim at. And without the necessary restraint and protective atmosphere, these internal forces of energy could easily be mishandled or overwhelm the individual. It is for this reason that such practices were kept secret. Instead of articulating this scientifically, it was often done through symbolism. For example, the awakening of the dragon when the hero arises means that when you obtain mastery over your energies, that is precisely when you need to take maximum responsibility and become fully involved in your practices. This often falls at your feet rather than being a chosen responsibility.
Posted on Last updated on by joeharman8|18 min read|93 views
If you pay sufficient attention to any particular aspect of life, you can greatly raise your general awareness. This is true of fighting. The question is, are you able to raise enough awareness to turn a survival process into a conscious process? In other words, are you able to turn a process which is self persevering, into one which is transformative in nature? This requires a great deal of discipline, much more than most people are aware. without the needed discipline, it usually just becomes a process of building the ego in a game of winners and losers.
Because people are egged on by those around them to achieve various forms of glory, it is often the case that their environment creates this attitude. It is like living in an echo chamber where you hear loud cheers over and over again to go in this direction of winning against people. People then start to think that if they don’t want these things then they are not normal, or that they lack motivation or desire. There are ways around becoming absorbed in this attitude, if you want to, which we will explore here.
So people think it’s normal for everyone to want to be the best. Either that or slightly better at some specific task. This is not true however. Some people are compelled in this direction, due to being brought up in war or desperation for example. There’s nothing wrong with using these drives therefore, but for many people it is not necessary to use fighting and aggression to move to the next level.
Fighting is not the only path in martial arts. It is true that martial arts comes from war, but this does not mean destroying those around you. There are many masters who have developed themselves simply by appreciating the fact that they can train, eat, and breathe well. If you develop this appreciation sufficiently, it is possible to become appreciative of absolutely anything, including waking up each morning as you are. If you are appreciative of this fact, then you will no longer waste time on things which are no longer important. Because you are appreciative of every moment. This is one way. There are many who do not achieve this every morning. Remind yourself of that from time to time.
In fact, it is usually better to use some other means than fighting to achieve the best possible version of yourself. And then, you end up becoming a powerful being by virtue of your own nature, rather than some attitude or personality which has been forced upon you. If you fully develop who you are, and celebrate this, then you will obviously be driven to develop in the best possible way. There is no time to waste then. You will then develop according to your potential, rather than some narrow preconception based on a small aspect of the whole.
Because achievements such as winning in martial arts contests have become glorified, then in becomes tempting to make this a general prescription for success. As we will see, there is no general need for most people to compete against others in this way. There is nothing wrong with fighting for the right reasons.
The warriors of old would die or become crippled after a small number of contests in the past, simply because there was no proper operating table or soap. A sword wound would be lethal, you would get a serious infection. There would be no guarantee of winning either, you didn’t know anything about the opponent. Sometimes, a soldier would kill himself if he lost, or dishonoured his tribe in some way. Yes, this was the reality, which you were probably born into. Today we see people fall apart mentally, even killing themselves over pride. So it is best not to go there in todays world, where we have much better opportunities for self development.
There are certain groups of people are naturally more aggressive than others, but essentially for most people it diverts them away from who they actually are. Musashi, the Japanese swordsmen, was that way. He was driven in that way which most people are not. He had no Master, no training centre. He simply went around engaging in deadly contests as if it was the last thing he would ever do. A Shaolin monk, who is seeking longevity and spiritual enlightenment, is another way. He is seeking to use the martial arts as a means for health, rather than destruction. The same energy can be used to destroy or to bring life. But it must be developed properly and with the right attitude.
The House of Cards
“This is a crime against your own humanity, to make the mistake of studying something so profound without the necessary recognition of its worth.”
Building the ego and becoming a winner seems appealing enough. But this in itself is a huge Karma for somebody who gets to into it unnaturally. when I say unnaturally, I mean in terms of what is needed by yourself and the environment you live in, not just some small aspect of yourself development. This small aspect of yourself, the ego, does not need developing in most people, in fact it needs curtailing. This is why in traditional societies, and martial arts centres, they curtailed the ego if they had build up the fighting capabilities of the individual.
Today this curtailing the ego is being ignored, and with dire consequences in many instances. people develop their fighting skills without the necessary discipline. The result is they get bored and restless because they already know everything through the internet and instruction. This is why such things were never taught to the masses, because without the right attitude you will just take for granted everything you see and not experience it totally. This is a crime against your own humanity, to make the mistake of studying something so profound without the necessary recognition of its worth. So you end up learning lots of rubbish but have experienced none of the reality which the Shaolin monks and Musashi spoke of.
The present day environment does not contain within it the same level of violence as before. There are happening here and there, but there are also much bigger threats to the existence, such as viruses and poor health. This is why practiced such as yoga and well being are on the up swing. Once you have survived a certain experience, it is much better to move on a transform your situation into one of prosperity. Otherwise, if you are hyper developing the survival aspect, this gets blown out of proportion and you never see it for what it is.
“The power of the mind is such that it can be used to focus on one aspect and then draw everything else to it”
If you can handle the consequences of your actions, then there is not problem. But in general, putting up with severe stress and anxiety about a far off event, such as a competition, is not only exhausting but it also reduces awareness of the present moment. It reduces awareness that the threats to human well being are becoming more undermined by misuse of technology, and poor maintenance of health. Thankfully, martial arts exercises take care of these things without blowing up the need to win at all costs against people.
winning at all costs builds a fixation with social approval, as well as experiencing life and stress and anxiety unless you win a major event. These are small thing in life, why blow them out of proportion? For some elite athletes, for a short period of time in their lives, this will be necessary. But in general, it is better to look within yourself and enhance your wider perceptions. That way, you will gain from every aspect of your experience, which will build and reinforce itself from a larger pool of experience. This is the power of the mind. If mind becomes a tool for imagining some glorious winning situations in the future, rather than of processing the experience of the moment and transforming it into something else, then this is limited. The power of the mind is such that it can be used to focus on one aspect and then draw everything else to it. Or, it can be used to pick something apart and lead to more complications.
The Inner Fight
A sense of ease and flexibility, as well as awareness and competence, is what the internal martial arts seeks to create. It is possible to turn trauma, stress, anxiety, or any other negative emotional states into positive ones. This is why traditionally they do not fixate on winning, because they already knew how to turn any negative experience into a positive one. Transformation has nothing to do with good or bad, it is just that you are taking any thought or emotion and channeling it into something more. You are focusing on one thing and drawing everything else include it within your experience. The other way is to focus on one thing and exclude everything else. This just leads eventually to reduced vision and therefore an illusion of reality if this is all you see.
This is the real goal, to move beyond your current situation, rather than to solidify it or blow it out of proportion the way it is. It doesn’t matter whether this is stress or happiness, all of it can be used. Otherwise, it just dissipates at a certain level of expression. Depending on how much you have transformed the energies, this level can be raised or minimised with the right attitude and training.
If you sit in stillness for a certain period of time, then the emotions and chemistry of the body dissolve and create a new form of expression. This was known as internal alchemy, or the internal energy medicine in certain Chinese systems. Basically, it involves daily meditation, as well as exercises to increase the circulation of the body, as well as the fluidity of the energies. There are many ways to go about it. It can be achieved by performing daily martial arts exercises, and then sitting in mediation and stillness when you have worked out physical need to expend energy. The amount this needs doing will vary between individuals. Even a small amount of this per day, perhaps for an hour or so, can be hugely beneficial. As a process, building in mindfulness and exercise as part of the daily routine works towards the same end.
Motivation
“If you make every moment of your life worth living, then you will not have to motivate yourself towards a future goal of any kind. It is already there for you to explore in its entirety, to the fullest extent possible”
Why would you want to win against somebody else if you are already satisfied with what you have? At the same time, if you are satisfied with what you have, you will long for more, because the nature of the universe is to expand. So when you have fully developed your capabilities, there is a natural expansion. When I say expansion, I mean an expansion of what you are, rather than an accumulation of accolades and additional baggage. If you are satisfied with what you are, then you will naturally want to defend this so that it develops, if it is valuable to you. This means making daily exercises the basis of your transformation, rather than looking for ways to rest at the end of an ordeal.
So if you make every moment of your life worth living, then you will not have to motivate yourself towards a future goal of any kind. It is already there for you to explore in its entirety, to the fullest extent possible. The problem is that if you fill the mind with all sorts of fanciful ideas, and you develop all sorts of strong emotional attachments to objectives, then this naturally clouds the mind. You are filling up the hard rive instead of leaving it free to process. another way of looking at clouding the mind is, it is like if you paint over a window, all you can see is what you have painted over it. You can’t see anything clearly beyond it, and it is no longer useful for perception.
Cultures of Combat
“Overcoming injustice and fighting wars is deeply ingrained in the human being, beyond their personality and situational experiences.”
Combat lifestyle was cultivated in traditional societies in such a way that would today be considered unnecessarily restrictive. It was not restrictive necessarily, it is just that if you are going for discipline, then why not go all the way. In modern day societies, we see that in the army a huge amount of discipline is instilled in recruits. However, without the right mental and spiritual training, the trauma of such events has been shown to have a detrimental effect on the mental health and emotional well of many individuals. So how does one develop fortitude and self discipline needed to carry such a responsibility?
When you go to war, it is not a case of planning to come back a champion. It might happen, but there are serious risks. Instead, you go in defence of the nation, and you might not come back. You might also go out of naiveté, but that’s different. If you can go anyway, whatever the costs, then it means that you have transcended your own individual needs to some degree. This is an initial step.
For other people, there is no need to develop tenacity by going to war. For many people, their own nature compels them to see injustices and war in every aspect of life. They get there by themselves, by their own nature. This explains how the idea of overcoming injustice and fighting wars is deeply ingrained in the human being, beyond their personality and situational experiences. This is why they said that if you train in the traditional martial arts forms, all the secrets will be revealed. The means are within you already. This means that fighting is inherent in human experience generally, and can be used by any one as a means for development and transformation, without or without a physical enemy.
This example of war shows you that it is not the idea that you will win that is the primary motivating force, it is the idea that you survive the process and develop from it. More than that, you don’t actually need to fight in a war to be subject to the same forces of nature which transform an individual. Perhaps if you are engaged in war, it speeds up the process, making you more immediately attentive to certain realities. But essentially, fighting is not to do with winning and losing. This only permits a certain gratification from the idea of it. So basically, thoughts about wins and losses only exist as ideas in the mind, rather than realities to be experienced.
You cannot experience a process out of an idea, you can only experience the reality of it. Otherwise, it is just a theory or an attempt to live through an imagined process or a remembered event. The imagination and memory are not suitable vessels for the full expression of life, only life is capable of doing this. So the idea is to become sensitive to these energies, rather than sensitive to some imagined social process going on in your imagination of memory.
Of course, in any contest you want to win, and you do everything to do so. This enhances your awareness and consciousness. Naturally, you capabilities go up over time as you experience the intensity of the situation. But winning is not an expectation necessarily, and if you lose, it’s not a stain on your character or profile. If you are really honest with yourself you will see that social approval and objectified situations are not set in stone. In fact, you are free to experience them as you wish, as good or bad, or inconsequential In terms of your success.
The instinctive energies can be used a platform to transformation. By themselves they only reach a certain point. It is not like you can save them up and when they reach a certain number they change their quality. It is like if you light a fire, the fire only burns for a certain amount of time. If you heat a saucepan, the heat remains for longer as it transfers on the metal and in the water container. The hot water is then used to heat a room for example, or to cook a meal, which can be stored for long periods. So you are using the heat to transform a situation, rather than stock piling it. From this example, you can see that the possibility for expansion of heat energy is increased by using it as a fuel rather than an outcome to be preserved.
So it is not so much that you develop toughness and fortitude by going to war, it is more that you better have those qualities going in to start with. In other words, you can develop these in so many other ways than fighting. One person wins a medal. I might eat a Banana, sit down, meditate, and have a profound experience. What does it matter? If the experience is profound and impactful, then this is what leads to transformation. If you have already decided that the experience is defined by an outcome or by social approval, then you are not able to experience anything new, any transformation with nothing left of the old.
In terms of the spiritual side of martial arts, you become a nobody rather than an iconic star. This is to bring down the association between winning and success. Because of the idea that you have to win at something to prove you are the best, success in this sense has be blown completely out of proportion. Because more and more people are involved it in martial ares contests, it becomes harder and harder to stand out as slightly better than someone else. So not only are peoples energies becoming increasingly dissipated in limited activities, but it also takes more and more to stand out against the competition.
Combat is used to heighten the fighting capabilities of an individual. This was neccessary during times of war. The problem is, when the war was over, people got restless, and bored. As a result, various combative arts, as well as competitive sports, were instituted into the society to alleviate the tension which built up in times of peace and prosperity. At the same time, these activities have always been in society in various forms to stop people getting lazy and unmotivated. They are also great ways of people celebrating their own vibrancy and creative energies, in such a way that they can enjoy a contest between in each other. The right balance has to be struck. The problem comes when the process of the contest becomes less important than beating the opponent. The competitive process which lead to transformation is then circumvented in favour of fighting for an outcome.
The instincts of survival involved in fighting, such as aggression and ambition, are trying to fullfill certain certain narrow objectives. They are trying to go for a particular outcome. This could be acquiring a mate, getting food, or fending off an attacker. Essentially, all these instincts are trying to fullfill is some short term objective. They are not looking for well being. It is very difficult to turn these energies into something else, especially if you blow them out of proportion. To transform them into an ultimate possibility requires a lot of wisdom and perseverance. The real question is, can these instinctive energies be used to fuel you towards something greater? Yes they can. And in the process you can discover that you need much less insticintive drive and ambition to function properly once you have learnt to focus on other things. You become too busy to blow them up uncessasrily, and everything goes into your work. They very energies of the body become a great possibility rather than a conclusion.
When you heighten the instincts of survival, this prepares you to take on opponents. These opponents are not usually in front of you most of the time. So to become sensitive enough to the environment that you can produce the necessary energy to act, is the main concern. Now, when I say sensitive, I do not mean that you get depressed or anxious about someone looking at you the wrong way. Naturally, you then become more and more aggressive and hostile to people who you consider competitors. This is why traditionally, anyone preparing for war or combat was typically put on a healthy diet, a disciplined lifestyle, and great care was taken to limit the volatility around them. Otherwise they just ended up becoming wantonly cruel or unable to function outside of severely competitive environments.
However, in todays world, in which more and more efforts are made towards ones well being rather than just survival, there are several ways to go about conducting ones lifestyle. You don’t have to go about meeting the social standards of warriors or elite athletes. Whatever you chose to do, if you put everything into it, it is possible to circumvent any unnecessary stagnation or dissipation of energy at the level of aggression and other unpleasant emotions. At the same time, you are engaged in a process which makes the most of your energies, making you more dynamic and creative than if you were under external pressures and stresses.
“Deal with your own situation and all its concerns, which at the same time encompasses anything from the outside which influences it”
Sometimes, when you enter a room there is a hostility in the air. For example, say you walk into a bar, you might get looked at funny. This might be because the person looking at you funny has become territorial and starts glaring at you. On the other hand, someone in a martial arts Dojo, which has within it a certain etiquette, might not even get noticed by anyone if they walk in there. So these two situations and the environments are highly charged. The atmosphere however, is completely different. The people in the martial arts Dojo will be too busy training and occupied with their own work to even notice. This is the sign of a proper martial arts centre. This tradition has today been lost in many cases.
In many martial arts centres, people might think it’s their duty to notice outsiders and make a certain impression on them. This is a marketing and promotional strategy. This can be good or bad. However, basically the way of dealing with problems is to become too busy with your own situation to deal with them. In this way, you deal with your own situation and all its concerns, which at the same time encompasses anything from the outside which influences it. In other words, the internal situation and all of the challenges eventually merge with the outside situation too. This is called creating harmony between Yin and Yang. This is one way.
Emotion or Intelligence?
“You first become emotionally attached to some form of practice, or view it intellectually. This is a way in, a starting point. Naturally, as you organise yourself around this goal, your internal structure also becomes more integrated and organised, so that the very need for rigid routines goes down.
The other way is to become so into the practice on an emotional or intellectual level, that you surpass the limitations of both of these dimensions of experience. So you first become emotionally attached to some form of practice, or view it intellectually. This is a way in, a starting point. Naturally, as you organise yourself around this goal, your internal structure also becomes more integrated and organised, so that the very need for rigid routines goes down. You are then able to stick with the practices, but if the life situation gets in the way, you remain flexible to that. This is the beginning of various ritualistic and sacred forms of practice. These then get handed down through generations of people, which have practiced and benefitted from them. They need not still practice these as individuals, they may have surpassed the need to do so. These forms of practice must be modified according to the times, but the principle form of energy orientation remains the same fundamentally.
So the external forms of practice aim to raise your energetic experience to a new level. This is the aim of the physical martial arts, such as competitive sparring and belt graded pressure tests. The idea is to overwhelm you to the point that you disintegrate. And yet, you are so much more. If you simply do the practices for social prestige, it’s not the same at all. When you do them to enhance your experience of who you are and what you are capable of, then your whole experience becomes broader and more powerful, whether you benefit materially or not.
This is how martial arts can be used as a way to overcome certain limitations. What you believed to be anxiety surrounding an event was your means of salvation and overcoming. It is like if you fall in love. Your whole sense of who you are drops away. And then, if it succeeds, your anxiety about impressing that individual or not living up to their expectations, fades into the background as you merge with them. In term of martial arts, this entails initially being involved with the external aspects of training, but then shifting to something more when the time comes.
The anxiety around training is natural at the beginning, but when you have raised the roof, this becomes a smaller aspect off the overall experience. It is a necessary part, but becomes less and less of an emphasis. At the same time, the sense of achievement, which was a small spec to begin with, becomes more and more. It is not that you chose this achievement to happen, any more than you chose to fall in love with somebody. But carefully the Master has put you on this track. Or maybe it within you all along. There is no way around it if this is handled correctly, because it lies at the heart of human experience. It is the law and the path is set.
Once you have raised the bar of your experience, naturally you are then left with only dedication and discipline to surpass yourself. The energy has been used up and a certain sense of clarity and orientation towards more remains. That is, once you have overcome whatever trial you have been faced with. In both instances, mediation or physical training, you eventually surpass yourself. It is just like how the mother surpasses who she was before she had children. In terms of martial arts, one way involves blasting off the breaks, and another way involves maintaining a steady speed to get there. Physical training often involves pushing oneself to the utmost. Mediation is a steadier ride. The key is to consciously deal with the pressures of each situation. Do not think that mediation is easy. There are unexpected twists and turns that you must consciously handle, just as against a physical competitor. Against an external situation, this may be physically more demanding, but both require full conscious commitment to transform the situation.
Become Air Bourne and Grounded
Whichever the path, the inner or outer, there is the same level of testosterone and other bio chemical processes happening, but these processes are happening in a completely different way. Let’s look at why this is. Do not think that a hulking athlete has more testosterone than the meditator. The expectant Mother has as much chemically going on within her as any other woman. In the same way, you could say that the mediator is developing a child within themselves by nourishing their energy body. Indeed there are many mediative practices which speak of these things. The energies are just being used in different ways. One person is sustaining the energy body, and one is sustaining or developing the emotions and physical functioning. So what the mediator is looking to shed, the physical athlete is looking to build.
When a mediator sits and observes himself with enough light on the matter, he eventually disintegrates the particles and energy forms which the physical martial artist is using to integrate within himself for physical strength. Just as the child within the womb uses up energy, so does the spiritual body. This is both life sustaining, in the sense that you identify with this role, or life taking, in the sense that you feel it is too demanding.
Studies have recently shown that light, or electromagnetism, can destroy carbon particles with sustained energy being focused on it. In the same way, when the human system is allowed to function at a sustained level of focus, the energy body, which is associated with the nervous system, can produce enough energy to burn away other hard to get rid of particles. This has been named the body of light in certain practices. The aim is to disintegrate hard to remove stains. These so called “forever particles” which are so called because they are tough to get rid of, include many forms of disease which we today consider irreversible. This is why certain internal practices of martial arts have been called forms of energy medicine, because they are a form of medicine which is non chemical and are often used as preventative measures.
So energy medicine is working at the level of the nervous system predominantly, where as the other is working at the level of the chemical processes. But the two are not mutually exclusive. Say you were to practice certain hard styles of martial arts. This would raise the energies of the body, which over time would cause of build up of waste product within the system. This waste product accumulates over time and leads to various injuries and disorders which tend to develop later in life with many athletes. This has happened to many athletes. So the same thing which once kept you functioning optimally has now become a hindrance without the right corrective practices. This is where mediative and internal martial arts practices come in.
It is like if a rocket takes off and discards its launcher. The launcher has been used up and sends off the rocket into space. The rocket is now out of sight and has discarded its shell. The shell was what got it where it needs to go, and was useful to this end. Now, the launcher appears to be going backwards, but really it still hurtling forwards. It will eventually catch up with the rocket if the rocket stops. It is just that the forward momentum of the rocket is so greater by comparison. This gives the illusion that it is the only one moving out of the two. No, both are moving as they need to. In the same way, when you mediate, it is possible to soar off somewhere away from you mind and emotions to a large extent. They are still there but you, the rocket, is not. This is how mediation creates a space, which can be enhanced, between you and you emotional and mental experience.
The emotions and mind are still there. They will catch up with you again, because they have not disappeared entirely. The rocket eventually reaches a point where is can go no further, and you come back down to Earth. So a certain amount of activity is needed to build the integrity of the system, so that it can sustain and power itself for greater possibilities. It is not a question of which is better, physical or spiritual practice? This is why I say the human system is like a multi stage rocket, which launches and breaks away from itself. This is why physical martial arts as well as the mediative side have always gone hand in hand. This is a journey which happens over and over within oneself. So this is why the martial artist must remain grounded as well as airborne.
The Art of Martial Art
“It is not a question of destroying your enemies, but of transforming yourself to make use of your enemies and therefore greater use of yourself.”
Martial Arts means war turned into an art. This does not mean some frivolous or egotistical art of self indulgence. The art of war means to turn the process of destruction and creative energy inwards rather than outwards. The best way you can do this is to transform an enemy into a friend. In doing so you transform yourself. As I was saying before, if someone “falls in love” with you, they are no longer there as an enemy as they have been transformed and so have you. This is a beautiful thing, it is only ugly when misconceived.
So energy itself is the same fundamentally, wether or not it is used to create or destroy. The question is, do you want to hunt an animal for days, or do you want to run after it with everything you’ve got in one sprint? Both work perfectly well. According to your own tendencies and development, this will alter the path you take. Either way can be used to unshackle yourself. The key is to hold the utmost respect for the process of your own development and unfoldment. It is not a question of destroying your enemies, but of transforming yourself to make use of your enemies and therefore greater use of yourself. There are 7 Billion candidates for this role!
“Martial Arts has traditionally opted for creating harmony within rather than discord amongst yourself and your enemies.”
Respect for this body of energy, yourself, and a competence to use it properly is the only important factor in martial arts. When you maximise this potential, you are on the path of authentic martial arts. You might go to a trainer in this system or that, but these are encyclopaedias of knowledge. This is very useful, because such people can point you in the right direction. However, the knowledge itself is out there for any one to see in modern day. What is missing is the discipline and self knowledge. The problem is that todays knowledge is presented in such a frivolous way online, that you are almost encouraged to access it so casually that no sense of discernment or commitment is required. What you need as well is self knowledge and discipline.
What is this self discipline and self knowledge? When you encounter an enemy, you can either externalise them or internalise them. Poorly internalising a problem leads to depression or anxiety in many ways. Excessive outer expression of energy can do the same thing, or creates other problems, such as compulsions towards someone or something for your gratification. As I said before, it is about transforming this need so that none of it remains. Simply moving from one stage to another is not enough. What was once a self defeating thought finds expression in some sort of repetitive activity which needs to be sustained for self validation. This is not the most intelligent way to handle the situation.
Competition or Cooperation?
The best way to handle the external situation is to respect foster a sense of dedication and responsibility. This makes you more fluid and flexible to changing demands, whilst fundamentally strong. This is so everyone can benefit and you are also included and fully involved. For this reason, any duels or contest between two people traditionally put respect for each other and dedication towards each other as training partners as the first priority. This means that whatever war is going on, no one exploits the rules or makes advantage of some loop hole which fundamentally undermines the process of self transcendence. If you are not working for harmony, then there is duality and discord.
It is like if you marry someone, you respect them and dedicate yourself, which leads to a happy marriage. Then, what’s the problem if you argue? Anything is a means for harmony if the principle binding you together is strong. The dedication is there that you won’t run off. If you just use that person as an object, and take them for granted, then resentment grows and you fail to see them for who they are except a superficial image or an expectation. This happens all the time mainly because you begin to see others in terms of what they can do for you.
So in many ways, fights break out due to a lack of respect towards the Opponent, or the environment. Say you walk into a seedy bar, with people in there who are acting purely unconsciously, intoxicated with alcohol or other substances. This is not an environment which fosters respect or trust between people necessarily. At the same time, the sense of “us against them” is high. So now you’ve walked in, you have a problem. If you walk in and understand this clearly, you can walk in and out by not creating much friction, or even leaving immediately without hesitation, as if passing through. Instead of thinking “I have the right to be here, what’s the problem?” You clearly see the situation for what it is. Most of the time, you can anticipate this sort of thing easily with the right clarity if you practice in daily life. If you have to act you have to act, that’s all.
Seeing the situation for what it is, rather than what you think it is, is important obviously. In most cases, people flock around overly stimulating places because they are bored and in search of excitement. Otherwise, there is no need. If they had occupied themselves before hand proactively, the attraction towards these situations goes down dramatically. This is true in many other instances. So whilst it is not possible to eliminate all dangers, it is possible to eliminate the need for seeking out such risky situations by handing your own situation properly and avoiding certain environments.
The enemy within
How often does it happen that we think an enemy has triggered a certain reaction in us, when actually this happens just as severely in the absence of that enemy? Of course the enemy may trigger something within us, but at the same time, this would happen anyway if we have not attuned ourselves and handled our life properly in a disciplined and effective way. Martial Arts has always said “The only enemy is within”. It is this enemy which we are trying to transform into a friend in terms of mediation. It is there before a particular person exists, because these pressures are inherent in existence before any particular form takes shape.
If you take an aggressive and hostile person and put them into an intensive activity where the process of work is more important than an outcome, this will transform that person. For instance, this happens in the army as well as in sports. So you have somebody who could be a big problem, becoming a big success. A change of circumstance has delivered them from there problems without fundamentally changing who they are. Any particular outcomes of this takes care of itself according to the dedication and focus on the task.
In todays world, many of the algorithms and ways of presenting oneself, particularly online, are geared towards attention grabbing. For instance, you might see a martial artists posting videos online. A lot of the time, there will be a focus on their muscles and body image. This is entirely different to viewing such a person under the pressures of working and seeing them respond to life’s struggles in a dignified way, for example, as you might see them in a martial arts contest or in the army doing drills. It’s not the the army or martial arts centre is better, it’s just that it can be a more productive way of managing ones time and energy. On the other hand, forms of practice which glorify certain egotistical personas, tend to distort ones energies over time even though it appears as though they are very successful and attractive.
Focus on the Work, Not the outcome
“Ones scope for development and self transformation occurs in direct proportion to the expansion they allow for it.”
So these were always the fundamental unbreakable laws of martial arts, to focus and strive for improvement. Whether or not martial arts worked in any practical sense was meaningless in this context, because not only does work and dedication cause results and progress, but assumptions tend to screw things up. For example, if you assume that you will be able to beat an opponent easily with a small amount of training, then this itself is an impediment to learning and progress. On the other hand, if you have clarity and strive towards whatever you know best, preconceptions come down drastically. You get to the point of attaining what you never thought possible, rather than what you thought about on day one. In other words, ones scope for development and self transformation occurs in direct proportion to the expansion they allow for it.
Of course, it is perfectly normal to go around making enemies of people. People do this all the time. But it is certainly not an optimal way to function in most situations today. There are more and more people populating the Earth, so a certain acceptance of this and methods of handling things more diplomatically are needed. This is why Martial Arts has traditionally opted for creating harmony within rather than discord amongst yourself and your enemies.
“When you treat an object of desire with a level of deep respect, then you no longer view it as something to acquire and gain conquest over. So it is not a question of doing away with passion and desire, but of treating it with the same level of respect as you would a prize of some sort.”
When it comes to martial arts, many people believe that they must get angry in order to summon the energy to defeat an attacker. It is not so much that you must not get angry or taken by events. This happens whether you like it or not and is out of your control to a large extent. At the same time, it isn’t about becoming excessively reactive. What isn’t out of your control is where you steer this anger. In other words, it is about how you respond to the emotional situation.
The confrontation you enter into is fraught with emotional energy. It’s in the air. It is an emotionally charged atmosphere. So it is important to accept this within yourself. Planet earth would not exist without this kind of atmospheric pressure. Only when you accept the situation as it actually is, can you steer the emotion in the right way. This is why traditionally, martial arts involved dropping the idea of winning and losing. It was a tool to make you focus on the process rather than the result. It wasn’t to stop emotion from happening, but to stop emotion from becoming unbridled and leading to all sorts of excesses.
In the past, the master would put the disciple into some kind of aimless work. The more they did this aimless work the more they retained a sense of balance and equilibrium. This could be something as simple as carrying a pot from a well. In the past this was needed before taps became widely available. But long after it was needed, the rituals stayed. However, nowadays this sort of aimless work has lost all meaning. You simply call for a delivery. So we are becoming far removed from normal work which we now see as pointless. However, in the past cultivating the right state within oneself became paramount, rather than the fruits of this labour.
If you try to become devoid of emotion in a confrontation, you will not summon sufficient energy to survive an attack. You cannot shun or suppress emotion in such a situation, or any situation for that matter without become dried up and lifeless some degree. At the same time if emotion becomes unbridled, it becomes a kind of passionate madness. In the ancient past, you would be dead at a fairly young age in many places. So the game was up fairly early. Today however, people are living in states of stress and tension into later years which leads to inertia and chronic fatigue. This is why so many martial artists have taken to performance enhancing drugs, their sense of ambition becomes uncontrolled and has turned into a pursuit of stimulation to overcome inertia.
“The Master would put the disciple under such pressure, and then all of a sudden they would burst open. So after a certain period of incubation, the seed shoots out and grows. In this context stress must be understood as a stimulus for growth.”
When you become dried up, you will look for scraps or left overs to feed off of. For example, some sort of reactive situation to get into, like fighting someone. These are what stimulate such people. This includes all sorts of reactive states. This is why Martial Arts is often depicted as a struggle rather than a liberation. Initially, this is to be expected, but is not the end goal.
Unfortunately, many martial artists have learnt to associate deep experience with pain and loss. They toil and toil, and then at the end there is just pain. The majority of people don’t tend to develop pleasantness to its full extend. We will look at how this is done in a moment. So the long term progression of work became associated with pain and loss. No wonder people give up, if that is all they see for their efforts. They have seen drugs and heightened stimulation as a temporary escape to lift them out of such a pit. In doing so it is only natural to consider emotions as a problem to escape, because it carries them off into an abyss. The majority of the time is spent functioning in a state of stress rather than pleasant emotion. This is because many of the institutions and ways of society exploit the human being as a resource.
You don’t need to go about supercharging yourself full of rage and passion. Yes, this makes you more reactive, but it also makes you less responsive to more possibilities. This is why people become mad about beating people up. They become averse to losing and so they gain pleasure from winning. This is an instant gratification due to indulging in a state of reactivity. So it is said that you must fight someone in order to win some contest down the line somewhere, otherwise you will be unfulfilled. But this is not so.
However, if you were more pleasant in your experience, you would not think about objectifying some person as a means escape from stress. All sorts of alliances have been formed under such a limited understanding of emotions and how to handle them. With such a mindset, there is a deep sense of enduring struggle, there is less and less room for any kind of pleasant experience other than the pleasure of winning or beating someone. Of course, struggle is natural, but it is what we do with it that counts.
What to do about emotion? First and foremost you must make them into something very pleasant, rather than experiencing them in shoot form. The shoot is an initial burst of life which occurs during certain contrasting weather conditions. For instance, after the cold months, the air pressure changes and you get spring. This understanding of human beings is what gave rise to various master disciple relationships. The Master would put the disciple under such pressure, and then all of a sudden they would burst open. So after a certain period of incubation, the seed shoots out and grows. In this context stress must be understood as a stimulus for growth.
Various systems of martial arts have told you what sort of emotions will arise during a confrontation. Psychological studies have also shown what sorts of emotions are felt most deeply during such situations. But no one talks about how these can be incubated. More than that, emotions have been treated as static and unchanging. This is ridiculous.
Incubation means keeping emotions warm rather than burning them out. When you incubate something, it transforms under such heat. There are ways of doing this, such as mediation and mindfulness exercises. Mediation simply means sitting still or directing the energies in some way. Mindfulness means you concentrate unwaveringly on whatever it is your are doing, such as martial arts form. This is a way of quietening the mind so that you become focused.
So we end up studying emotions and theories about them in the initial stages rather than experiencing them to the fullest extent possible. But this is a stagnant analysis, rather than a live observation. When you become mediative, it is not that you become passive. It is just that you have travelled through emotion and come out the other side. You have used it for your growth, rather than being used by it and the provoking situation.
When you sit with pleasantness for a long duration of time, you begin to experience every emotion differently. This requires a certain experience of stress as well as a Deep acceptance. There is also a time lapse, because the chemical nature of the body requires time to process reactions into new solutions. The mind can get there straight away. This is the meaning behind deep focus. This does not mean you just sit with stress and accept it as it is. Instead you are transforming it with the right vision about what to do. Once you have done this, emotions are no longer a problem because they act as a springboard to something else. This is the true meaning of emotional development. Only when your emotions have transformed into something else will you take the time to look at anything other than survival and conquest over others.
For most people, the fullest extent of their emotion is passion. This could be passion towards sex, drugs, fighting, or whatever else. Whichever way, passion is used as a way into deep experience. The only problem is, the journey often comes to a halt prematurely. It is is like jumping off of a cliff to experience the rush. It is right to take the jump, but the problem is you didn’t think of hitting the ground hard! As a result, peoples deepest experience becomes associated with risk taking and pursuing some object which eventually causes them suffering. There is no limit to the madness of unbridled emotion, anymore than there is for your capacity to develop.
It usually never occurred to people that when you treat an object of desire with a level of deep respect, then you no longer view it as something to acquire and gain conquest over. So it is not a question of doing away with passion and desire, but of treating it with the same level of respect as you would a prize of some sort. This is why traditionally martial arts always aimed at inculcating a deep reverence and respect towards the Master or the forms of practice. The idea was to observe the thoughts and emotions passing by, just as the wind turns from high to low pressure. This is why it is important to reduce the hype of your activity and slow down the breathing and movement in mediative practices.
In martial arts, risk taking heightens the sense of adrenaline. This can become a powerful tool if you learn to use it wisely. This increases pressure within. It causes butterflies in the stomach, and anxiety associated with loss and overcoming pain. This is why some people develop heightened appetites and abnormal sensitivity to the environment. At the same time, when you learn to respond to intense experience towards martial arts practice rather than simply reacting, you are released from the fear of losing and the negative emotions associated with it.
It is all about searching for a bigger experience of life, which is what everyone wants anyway. So you have to become conscious of this. You need not stop at anxiety and adrenaline rushes. You use these reactive states as a root to spring from, a core of experience rather than a peripheral one. When the flower sprouts out of the seed it is no longer a seed. In the same way, when you overcome fear and anxiety, you no longer experience difficulty and pressure in the same way. You create a certain distance from it even though you feel it.
Say for instance that some weeds are growing on your flower bed. At certain times of the year, weeding takes up most of the day. The flowering happens as a consequence of working the land properly. Only then can you cultivate the flower bed expertly. If the weeds go unattended, then they can grow out of control. So you need to understand that you are working for something greater.
You may have noticed when it is cold and wet, and then the following day it is hot and sunny the weeds grow tall and gangly almost overnight. This is due to a collision of atmospheric pressures and weather conditions. Amidst this collision of these forces the weeds take full advantage. The same is true of your own pleasant experience. In other words, the same conditions which create negative emotions are the fuel for positive ones. This needs to be understood.
Most people have taken stress and anxiety as their own experience, and pleasantness and joy as some sort of fantasy land. However, it is just a case of putting in the necessary work. When you experience some level of heightened emotion, you go from low to high pressure. This is a stimulus, not a goal. This is particularly the case when you are in survival mode, the pressure suddenly increases. This is why in martial arts, you are taught to become always fully aware. This does not mean hyper vigilance, but perception of danger and readiness to act. They said stay ready, not stay reactive.
When you let the emotions develop within you, they can spring forth and take over the flower bed. These outcrops can be of different sorts. You can have weeds that take over, which is to say negative emotions of hatred, envy, and other reactive states. These flower into certain forms too. At the same time, the weather conditions permit the growth of other flowers. These other flowers include less reactive states which are a result of responding to situations consciously. For example, you can distend the Hara Centre or sink into a posture, rather than become rigid and tense in the shoulders and back1. Tension held in the shoulders and back leads to fatigue, stress, and headaches. This is a breeding ground for certain negative chemical states within the body.
Initially, there is always a reactive state of tension which you then respond to with a postural adjustment.This can be in any situation. It is not that reaction is better than response to it, it is just that tension is an initial stage in the cultivation of kinetic energy. This is just one example. If you don’t make this dimensional shift, then you leave yourself open to stresses and the build up of negative emotions from reactivity to events. You must instead be like the plant which uses the heat and energy of the stressful season to convert energy into transforming yourself. You then don’t let the weeds which have made there way onto your land define who you are as a person.
So it is about experiencing the storm to the full extend whilst doing the necessary work to create something pleasant out of the situation. When the branches of a tree bend in the wind, this sends a signal to strengthen the roots. If it snaps, this sends another type of signal that says it’s all over. This is the reason for pressure testing used in the traditional systems of martial arts. Pressure testing was used to develop flexibility. This has almost disappeared due to obsession with winning contests rather than being open to the possibility of losing. There is nothing wrong with winning, obviously it is a good thing, but the aim and orientation of your work needs to be correctly understood in order to get the most out of competitive forms of martial arts.
So when you have too many weeds in the garden, flowering is no longer your goal anymore, the flowers are a side effect of weed infestation. You then see these flowers as outside of your control, which they are not. You then become a bed of weeds, which take over the nutrients of the soil. More than that, the whole flower bed becomes distorted. Of course, you can weed it out, but it becomes a lot more difficult than if you had been aware of this happening initially. Better to start off properly. There is nothing wrong with weeds, but they share the same plot of soil as flowers and prevent the possibility of flowering. I hope you understand what is meant by this.
A martial artist must ultimately learn to treat emotions with reverence and respect. Only then will you be able to express them beyond their crude forms. If you are going to experience these things, why not cultivate them further than their initial expression? This involves accepting them and nurturing them as you would an ally or a friend, for this is what they are. The moment you accept a friend they way they are, they are more pleasant towards you than if you try to use them for some objective means. You then develop as a result of that relationship. Otherwise there is only suspicion and a mutual distrust between the two of you. Whole communities have developed out of both crude expression and cultivated expression. It is time to develop the right communities in martial arts.
Posted on Last updated on by joeharman8|16 min read|118 views
“Let’s say you are in a boat that continuously changes direction. This leaves a trail of broken energy lines in its wake. If you sail another boat across this region, this is felt as turbulence. This is the way the human system works. Energy expression leaves a certain pattern in its wake. These patterns can be smooth and continuous, or broken and fractured, lacking coherent direction.”
Narcissistic attitudes towards winning have always predominated sport, and nowhere is this more true than in martial arts. Today, it is increasingly common for competitors talk about how if they lose a match, they sink into a depression. This is not a normal attitude, even if it is a prevalent one in certain circles. How did this come about?
In the past, there were more tournament formats, which you entered whether you were ranked or not. If you didn’t win you just turned up next time and tried again. Obviously there were also ranked tournaments, but I’m just reconstructing the thinking of the time. This was even so in Mixed martial arts around 25-30 years ago. During those times, you were obviously promoted if you won, but it was a long battle over time. This required continuous one pointed focus. At the same time you had to to get through a broad array of challenges. For instance, you prepared for multiple fights on the same night, not just one.
So in the past, you needed to be ready in general, not just specifically according to one particular type of opponent. This required a general flexibility, rather than almost weekly or monthly changes in fight preparation towards specific goals. This obviously extends outside of martial arts. For example, at work each office has a daily requirement and tasks to do. These change almost daily. In the past, the office demands was mostly unchanging. This meant that any personal shifts in mood or temperament were happening on a constant steady environment. This is no longer the case in many environments. So now, depending on the type of work you are in, you are likely to need a level of flexibility not seen in any other time in history.
Turbulence and Chaos as a Foundation
When you have to be well rounded, this makes it difficult to outwardly express energy in one direction. The need for well rounded lack of friction is needed today like never before. To be well rounded means you have a stable centre. When you move from this toward the edge, naturally you start to move away from the centre. This is one aspect. As a consequence of moving away from the centre and staying there, it is natural to develop a skewed personality which becomes increasingly empowered. It becomes increasingly difficult to navigate turbulent terrain if your inner compass is pointing the wrong way.
It is like if you sail a boat across the sea. This creates energy waves, or choppy waters. These are experienced by other boats long after your you have sailed by. Let’s say you are in a boat that continuously changes direction. This is the modern experience for not only athletes, but other people too today. This constant change of direction leaves a trail of broken energy lines in its wake. If you sail another boat across this region, this is felt as turbulence. This is the way the human system works. Each action within you creates a line or thread of energy. This weaves an internal garment. This can create turbulence within you if it becomes incongruent, as well as in your relationships with others.
Energy expression leaves a certain pattern in its wake. Let’s say you practice a punch. Various transmissions of neurological energy are imbedded. These become muscle memory. At first there is a jolt as the muscle fibres are stimulated. This helps with movement and energy. There is an initial explosiveness as the engine starts. These patterns can be smooth and continuous, or broken and fractured, lacking coherent direction. This is one simple example. So what you want is a coherent line of expressed energy so that the right kind of template for action is created for now and in the future. You then don’t happen in fits and starts but function optimally. This can happen in terms of activity of the mind, as well as the body.
On the other hand, energy expressed in different directions never gets a change to grow as a platform. It becomes a shifting landscape that changes before anything gets established on it. Energy just happens in fits a starts. This is useful for specific purposes, but in general you are teaching cells and your neurological system to function in a chaotic way if this becomes a habit. If the direction of energy is changing all of the time, it is difficult to establish a coherent pattern. So, the pattern that becomes established is chaotic due to severe fluctuations and turbulence that become normal in your experience.
Engineering the Power Generator
Today, many competitors get all out of sorts if they lose one match. Why does this happen? In one sense, they burn excessive energy on stressful and goal specific activity, rather than establishing inner balance. In another sense, the hyper developed ego has been deflated. Anything which you think about obsessively generally becomes an enslavement. This becomes an energy drain. Eventually after a few flashes of motivation, you are left empty. In other words, the light has gone out, and there’s no auxiliary, or power generator, to keep the power going. So this is why traditionally, the power generator was developed rather than the superficial light, so to speak.
As we have seen, for the modern athlete, superficial goals are considered the landscape. These goals change all the time. As we have seen, this was not so in the past, because there were more long term pursuits and less regular changes. Because of the shifting landscape and ceaseless changes, many people have made their own personality the rigid and unchanging element. In other words, their own personality has become institutionalised, rather than just the body. So many people develop rigid and tenacious personalities, rather than work ethics, to compensate for lack of balance in these shifting landscapes.
I do not mean to say that people are not hard working anymore. They are. It’s just that they work hard in an insistent and determined way that eventually erodes their energy system if they are not careful. But that is their choice. On the other hand, let’s say you just train all the time so that you are in a competitive condition, but not in any specialised sense. You develop a good generator but don’t waste it on emitting light all day long. You just use it when necessary, rather than all of the time. Lets look at what I mean by this in some more detail.
Goal Orientation Gone Wrong
Todays athletes are expected to change what they are doing all the time depending on who they are fighting. They have one very specific goal. This is sometimes done so that over a period of time this goal changes in different phases of the overall plan. However, the goal is predetermined so that the past is brought into the projected future. Anything which deviates is considered a distraction. This means that one minute you are building muscle, the next you are cutting weight, and then you do some specific exercises according to a periodic plan. This is different to in the past when people did everything at once but built up more slowly, a strategy which I think is more ordinary but better overall. But, this will of course vary according to individual needs.
So changing the direction of you energies all the time creates a certain turbulence in the system the more you do it. This is the up and down side to side nature of modern competitive sport. It all depends on someone else rather than your actual energetic and experiential needs in terms of action. This may be necessary sometimes but when it becomes a way of life this can be disastrous. One minute you are with the family, the next you are doing some media promotion. Each demand, training related or otherwise, is factored into a schedule of organisation. So the aim is to orientate oneself towards a goal, but the results are often the opposite to the intended outcome in the long term.
Because the energies are pulled in several directions, the only stable platform becomes the personality, which sits on top of a changing landscape. This becomes the investment, rather than the process of self transformation or development. In self development and transformation, nothing of the old remains in the end. You have moved beyond it. When you invest heavily in the personality in its current state, then this can become an enslaving process. This is because in order to evolve, you need a reason to move beyond limitations and obliterate them, rather than to empower them.
The Rise of Narcissism
So when this personality gets blown out of proportion and arrogant we call this narcissism. When you move beyond arrogance, this is called inclusion because something else a part of yourself. The problem is that when you fear the changes happening around you in modern living, you cling to what you do know, or create a rigid form. The larger than life superficial personality is the only constant thing, and you become a kind of parody of yourself. This is the other way round when you compare it to traditional martial arts, which sought to create a stable landscape and a flexible personality which was not hyper developed. This lead to more acceptance of others and a more flexible nature.
That is not to say narcissism is a trait associated with sport or martial arts, but it is reaching epidemic proportions within the industry. What do I mean by narcissism? I mean the kind of superficial arrogance which sometimes passes as confidence or self assurance. It is the loudest voice in the room, which represents the weakest person there. When one is in a constant state of stress, they become very loud. This is because when an organism is in decline, they generally become quite explosive as a survival mechanism. Rather than life becoming enhanced, this is understood in martial arts to mean life exiting the body in a dramatic way, often in instalments.
If you take a normal person, working on their trade and experiencing a generally happy life, there is a fairly steady cultivation of energy throughout the day. There is little in the way of excess or distraction (Yes, this is what I’m taking as a normal person). On the other hand, there is no real need to separate oneself from what they are doing in such a situation. This is because the day is steady and you go on autopilot. It is like if you fly a plane in the clear skies. You just guide it where it needs to go. In turbulent storms, you start to do backflips and god knows what else. You then think of yourself as special. When you identify as special, you naturally seek turbulence.
There is no need to dazzle an audience in order to gain attention for oneself. In martial arts this means there is little difference between what you are doing whether you win or lose, you just get on with it because it is a daily cycle of activity. Traditionally, it was about the battle. This was the daily cycle. It was not necessary to brag about how much you won, because the reality of training was a daily battle and this was accepted. Modern living has escaped this cycle, however this doesn’t mean there is no work to be done. In reality the work is only just beginning.
In the Shaolin Monasteries, it was common to undergo severe training which took everything out of you. This was not to train you for a one off fight, although the thought of doing so may have been used as a tool to focus the minds of disciples initially. So this level of back breaking work required that you didn’t look beyond what the task was in front of you. This was a way to focus the mind. This is a way of viewing martial arts as a means to an end, rather than some distant contest as a goal in itself. When you can focus on this task long enough, you eventually blend into it rather than stick out. You identify with the process rather than the goal.
Social Media
Today it is about social media exposure. These are the models which are being widely emulated, or we could say that these are the lights people see on the stage. However, in the past it was not about being lit up all the time. It was about cultivating and experiencing a certain level of vibrant energy to live a good life. So the energy level was higher, but the expression or emission of that energy was lower. Just think how much more work was able to be done by people in the past. Whereas today, the emission of energy is higher but the cultivation of anything is often lower.
Building the Energy Base
Let’s say you shine a light. Light is a projection of energy to illuminate the room. At the same time, certain other energy forms become less visible. Due to fixation on this artificial light, your surroundings, and the energy about them, becomes less obvious. In fact when people look at artificial light too much, for example LED light, this blocks out certain other frequencies of colour. This gives everything you subsequently look at a white or blow glow, which blocks out the horizon. In other words, you closer you look at the details, the more you can miss the big picture.
The nature of light is like that, on and off. Energy, on the other hand, is a platform to build on. So if you have a solid platform to build on, you don’t need to express the light so desperately. This is the whole problem today, people are too busy expending energy in the form of fancy light displays. On the other hand, when you have a strong energy base, the light will work anyway. You don’t need to directly work with the light up aspect. The sun works the same way. It is a big ball of energy, but when it’s cloudy, you can’t see the light. It doesn’t bother to shine any brighter, its just not as visible, but that’s fine. There is still warmth, and it is still there, but the light goes out in our visual perception. So appearances don’t really matter overall.
So the dazzling array of narcissistic personalities is like that. It blocks out everything else. This is so for the narcissist as well as the others they influence. This is precisely the danger with certain social media influencers. So we are incapable of seeing martial arts the way people traditionally did. Traditionally, martial arts was all about building energy. When the need to fight arose, the energy level was there so that it was possible when needed. But they didn’t go looking for it because there was no need.
Once you build up the energy bas and you want to turn on the lights, it’s not a problem for you. If you live off the energy consuming lights, then after some time the energy burns out. So they looked very ordinary, but building up a dazzling light display was not a concern for the martial artists of old. They just wanted the powerhouse to be built. There are many benefits to this, such as health, well being, and liberation. This inner powerhouse structure is known as the energy body1, or the aura in western spiritual tradition.
Let’s say the Earths Centre was to decrease in size. Then the gravity holding the elements in place would be reduced. In other words, the energy base would have decreased, and therefore the attractive force would diminish. This means that the subtler elements within the Earths atmosphere, the feminine dimension of energy2, would move away. In the human system, this means that if you don’t manage to maintain the centre within you3, then you end up burning out, or in a state of on and off. You are unable to extend yourself without being on and off. So to make the body more stable, this requires a certain amount of work. Anybody who lacks a substantial energy can generate a dazzling short lived light. However, with such a person, the moment the situation is over, they just go down again. This is the reason for so many short lived superstars today. So martial arts traditionally was about sustainability of that energy and making it more substantial and sustainable.
Martial arts and industry must be separated, because martial arts is not some commodity to appeal only to market winners. At the same time, there is no reason why you shouldn’t be able to market yourself just because you are not a big time industry winner. Marketability is about promotion, but in its extreme state it becomes about showing off. As I have tried to explain, this drive for self promotion causes a neglect of other factors, such as a stabilising influence. But this is only for certain narcissistic people who have to be competitive with everyone else superficially.
You can never build a solid foundation on the back of self promotion. So don’t bother trying to do that. It’s just a consequence of some activity. You are not working with the causes of success if you are focusing on just the outcome. When you work with the causes of success, it takes long but it last forever. When you work with the energy building up, it builds up in its own way, not according to what people want to see, or what you want to see. Every flower is different. If you try to manage how you look to others, then this shows nothing in terms of the expression of energy.
Energy expression is only an indicator of energy at some moment in time. If you are doing specific activities, then you might need to force the energies in some way. If you just manage your energies, or Prana, you can gain a certain security against natures dangers. One advantage is that you become insulated from such things due to the the protection your own internal energy offers. If you don’t have enough security against various dangers and worldly situations, then you will end up avoiding them due to a lack of energy for them. This is why you store it within yourself as a dynamic moving force. You are not really storing it, because so much energy is needed for just maintenance of the integrity of the energy base. So this insulation from the elements of the world and its dangers, is a security against such dangers which at the same time builds a strong base.
