Category: yoga

How to Experience Victory all the Time

Posted on by joeharman8 | 11 min read | 114 views

When somebody wins a contest, they are ecstatic. When they suffer a loss they begin to doubt themselves, because their winning streak is over. This is a misunderstanding. It is because they have begun to doubt themselves that victory leaves them. Victory is not something that happens and then fades away the next day. It is something to pursue directly rather than dependant on some kind of situational advantage. If you sat on a chair in an unbalanced state, disorientated and irritable, you would naturally feel uncomfortable. However, someone who has attained a certain ease within themselves would feel comfortable on any kind of chair. So it isn’t to do with the conditions of the chair, the comfort level or the appearance, it is to do with the inner reality of the individual and the state they are in. This is what victory is.

Victory cannot be stolen by anyone, except by that person themselves. For many people, the sense of victory, or the inner balance within, has left them. This may or may not correlate with outside circumstances. These are just happenings rather than casual agents. Simply being able to train and to accept wins and losses as they are is victory. Victory has nothing to do with the contest of the social situation you’re in. These are just ways of defining it in a small way. For example, it was once understood in martial arts that you got better by undergoing constant challenge, whether or not you won. This prepared you for any major contest or life and death situation, not some prior experience of success or failure. It wasn’t necessary to win anything, just to undergo the most challenging situations that was appropriate for your development. This would vary from one person to the next.

Let’s look at a sporting example. To make an olympic wrestling team, it might be necessary to lose against the number one and the number two guy. This is normal, it just means you have lost to the best. This in fact means you have won in terms of extracting for yourself the best level of challenge and ensuring that you are motivated to improve. This stops stagnation which comes with being too satisfied with past results or limited expectations. So it’s just a case of following this process to the conclusion and eventually reaching the top. Many people drop out prematurely from similar situations when they are not used to this kind of atmosphere. This is why in Martial arts, one of the main tenets is humility. This does not mean getting used to being limited, it means embracing the best conditions for your development even if they are outside your comfort zone.

Victory is a process

So winning is not about a result but is a process. This includes ups and downs. In the situation of the olympic wrestling team, the number three wrestler might not know they are good for many years. this is necessary for their development, all they need to do is wait. If they can wait, without achieving what some of the others in the team are achieving, then that is all that’s needed. It’s just that people can’t pay attention to the process and just wait. This is one of the hardest things to do, because it seems as though others might be surpassing you.

If you can just train and wait for the process to take place within you, then everything begins to take shape naturally. For example, if the plant establishes a strong root, grows daily in a supportive environment, and takes its time, it will eventually become a big thing. It’s then able to create more leaves for itself, more pollen, more seeds, etc., Similarly, when you have created the right conditions, even the outside situations can be greatly enhanced. This increases your potential, even if there was none in the first place. So first of all, martial arts is about cultivating an inner potential. This is the reason behind the internal practices. They can be used to heal, in the so called healing arts, but at the same time they can be used before any damage has taken place. This is why traditionally, the Master in martial arts did not heap praise on the disciple, and in some cases didn’t even talk to them. All they needed to do was wait and to generate a potential which may or may not have been there or laying dormant.

A waiting game

If you take a nap under a tree, you do not call this losing at life. It is just taking a rest. It is a form of recuperating, so that the system can balance itself out. If you are asleep in the womb, the same thing happens. So each victory or loss, or growth, requires some kind of rest, which is not a loss but simply life functioning as its should. This is how growth happens, during some period of rest or down time. This can be done before or after a particular contest, for example. It can be done for no other reason than to generate some kind of energy, as in meditation. Sitting under the tree can mean sweeping the floor, or joining the lowly ranks for a time, symbolically speaking.

The fundamental reason why people don’t reach their potential is because their system is not kept in balance. In other words, they have not taken time away from the stresses and rigours of the external life. In martial arts, exceptional balance is needed. In this way, it is sometimes necessary to develop this balance with a persevering attitude by first establishing harmony, instead of plunging in before this balance is achieved. This is the reason for waiting. It is possible to charge ahead recklessly, as is done in the more athletic styles of martial arts. There is nothing wrong with this, it can be a tremendous development. But after some time, the natural urge to dominate and compete leaves the martial artists and after some accomplishment, it is natural to want to break free from it and move beyond it. In other words, to detach from identification with some kind of status, which becomes a limitation.

Planning the Process, not the Outcome

You determine what is victory, and what is defeat, just as you plan a strategy to win a contest. Exactly how the contest plays out and the conditions of your winning and losing are entirely in your hands. So you build the very victory in your mind, rather than the stipulations of the contest. When I say you build it, I mean the intelligence functioning within you to the best of its scope and ability. Whatever is built around that physically in terms o capability, is the outcome. So it is entirely up to the individual which kinds of conditions for victory they create. This requires a balance to be established, so that the system can functioning easefully. It is then possible to become a live process in the making rather than an outcome. In other words, you become the fight itself rather than an outcrop of it. Otherwise, all sorts of distortions and malfunctions can take place. So when you see things clearly, there is less of a need to do everything in such a conquest fashion. It is a disturbance in the system which creates this excessive need for conquest.

A grain of wheat contains within itself the means to create an entire plant, as well as to pass on itself to the next crop. In other words, it can reproduce what’s there, or transform itself into a growing life. At the moment, we are using our seed just to produce what’s expected of us in various situations. When the Art of war discusses the similarities between large scale and small scale war, this does not mean that you just fight like an army would on the individual level. Instead, what it means is that you mobilise the forces in order to change the world.

Inner Warfare

Depending on the situation in front of you, you either take over the world, or maybe bide your time. You don’t chose inactivity just because its not the situation you want. It’s about being active but receptive to the actual possibilities, rather than imagined ones. So you have spies, which give you feedback as to what is possible, where your weaknesses are within your kingdom, that sort of thing. The internal mechanism of the human has similar network which can be tapped into with such activities as meditation, mindfulness, and breathing exercises. It becomes obvious to even one who cannot see, because it is felt though the organism, through the to tissues and fascia for instance.

Your whole system is like a spiders web, and like the spider there are vibrational forces which you send through yourself by tapping into the breath. It is only though the subtle movements that the spider is able to send sonic forces through the entire web whilst maintaining its integrity. These forces or vibrations are not for therapy but to gather information, which is contained within an energy form. In the human, this is known as the energy body, which is said to have eight limbs like those of the spider, which includes the physical as well as the sensory aspect of the body. In other words, the sensory aspect of the body supports the structural capabilities of the physical. This is because if you become more intuitive, you can more easily sense damage and incoming threat by using this internal network effectively.

In the same way, you can mobilise the forces of your inner army to become the general and the troops at the same time. This means you plan the very process of engagement with the battlefield, the time and place, what you are willing to spend or sacrifice, all of these considerations. Otherwise it’s just endless skirmishes which go nowhere. When you think of victory and defeat in such a narrow sense, then war makes no sense at all. Unfortunately, increasingly martial arts is being throught of in such a narrow sense.

Victory in Defeat

You can work towards some outcome or become a process. Obviously, you can also fall somewhere in between. If you think of yourself as a winner or loser because of some result or some training you have had, you should know that you and a result are different things. A prisoner of war can be captured and then survive through sheer determination of his interior will power. It is not the house that stays standing but the experience of living in it, even in trying times. The blue print of a house might be good or bad, but it still has to be lived in. The builder may or may not know what they were doing when they made the house, and in any event, they may not know certain laws of living. However, when you learn to live in a house properly, it needn’t matter whether you are in a hut or a palace, you make the most of it either way. This is making victory out of nothing.

Victory is born within you, so in striving for it you will include everything that is involved with it. This includes defeat where appropriate. For example, you might think it’s all about winning over the enemy. This kind of thinking came about because somewhere people started thinking that they don’t need a rival to bring the best out of them. With the arrival or increasingly scientific methods, people started to think it was all about technical skills. This is like thinking a cultivated flower will be a tenacious as a wild one. It may look better, but it needs all sorts of artificial supports. This accounts for something but not everything. It is like if you fatten a pig on a farm, it seems like this is what a pig is. But as soon as you open the gate and it runs in the wild as nature intended, then its starts to drop the fat and returns to its usual state. Such a pig would be more adapted to the wild even if it lost its comfort level. So this is not really a defeat for the plug, only the owner.

The contest is half going on in the opponent and half in you. In other words, it’s inside and outside of you, it’s just that there is a thin bubble which separates the two which we are seeing as big barrier. This bubble is the boundary line between your inner experience and the outside, which are one and the same. So when the experience is felt only from within, you become like the fat pig on the farm which is functioning outside its environment. You don’t realise it, but you need the outside will environment with less comfort. The grain of wheat that came from a plant, doesn’t know where it came from originally nor does it care, it still was born of a process. In the same way, the pig that finds its freedom does so of its own nature, but with the existence of a wider experience functioning through it.

Uniformity or Organised Chaos? [Part 2]

Posted on by joeharman8 | 14 min read | 81 views

If you are hungry, you seek. If you are satisfied, you no longer seek. So remaining hungry is not in terms of winning a match here and there, or some other magnified glory which mimics day to day ordinary experience. It is to do with staying hungry for self expansion, which is the real urge. This can never be satisfied, it is just a question of ever expanding horizons. This is known as innovation, which can’t happen unless there is openness and space to become active.

Maintaining this awareness, there there is never an end point, is a tool in the arsenal of the fighter. Planned outcomes are limited. There is nothing wrong with pre planned strategies, it’s just they aren’t for everyone, but they are prescribed to all increasingly. They are important for professional contests which have to have a certain feel to them. It is entertainment and business. The crowd expects to see it play out in a certain way. There are institutional requirements. You’re paid to win in a specific organised way.

You can’t be crammed with conclusions and still remain open. So for the competitive athletes, there are certain conclusions to be drawn in advance about what to do rather than spontaneously deciding. At the same time, there are methods that top level athletes use to maintain a constant state of awareness as to what they need to do. When you pay attention to the organised chaos around you, which is the nature of the universe, you will not lose focus. In any event, what you are focusing on in terms of technical training is a reflection of the inner experience. The boundary line is so thin, but definite. Say for example you are in a martial arts match. The experience going on between you is very similar, it’s just that there is an outside experience and an inside contained experience. The key is to learn how to define the experience is terms of the whole thing, rather than just what you have accumulated in terms of impressions and technical expertise. This is known as letting go of assumptions. You don’t need to worry about forgetting, just pay absolute attention, the organism knows what to do.

How can you think more holistically, rather than just on technical details? There are some simple methods. In martial arts, if you train moving backwards rather than forwards, you are able to spontaneously know what to do because you maintain a space and awareness, including what your opponent is doing as they come forwards. This means you are adjusting all the time, rather than just because you want to or not. This may be confusing at first, because it is a new way of doing things. It’s not to be confused with evasion and escaping the contest. This is a positive strategy to maintain your awareness on you forward momentum whilst at the same time pulling back so they you keep that equal and opposite force to maintain equilibrium. This will bring inner balance.

In Muay Thai your strategy is to break down the opponent over several rounds, not avoid such a contest. So here, in Muay Thai, they are known to be able to fight moving backwards as well as forwards. This does not mean they are evasive, it simply means that they are active if the opponent rushes them, or they maintain their balance even if they miss the opponent whilst swinging at them.

The Creative Process

In modern martial arts training these days, it is more and more about practicing what you are going to do before hand, rather than remaining creative and spontaneous. This is a negative strategy which does not empower the fighter to systematically break down the opponent. If they thought only about doing this as a process, moving around in such a way as to remain constantly aware of their mission, this would empower them greatly. This takes time, and this is also what can’t be coached. However, it can be imbibed and transmitted through the right atmosphere quite easily over time.

Having an excess of rules and regulations simply makes it hard to understand what one is actually doing. when a culture has no room for diversity of individual flair, where no one has their own rhythms, then what you are left with is uniformity and stagnation. So the rules make it difficult to become creative, even if that creatively is supposed to be the goal. For example, as a fighter are you there to push yourself, or maintain a steady result? Many people want the experience of martial arts, not the so called results of winning a contest. Martial arts is what you can do, or it is what you can become. These are questions to ask sincerely. This is not at all clear in peoples minds, so what you often get a situation where you have people become disillusioned or get crushed by pressures they did not consider.

So the reason for centralised or regulated sport is not to control people or simply to use them as a commodity for the industry. This only leads to limited aspiration. Centralised control originally meant not for profit, either for glory or for funding. Martial arts has always been about aspiring for more than just fulfilling institutional requirements. The institution should provide some simple structure and organisation.

In the past, the knowledge was kept separate across the land or according to different disciplines, even within the same population. It was necessary to develop new ways of doing things by travelling from temple to temple, and from discipline for discipline. This was not centralised but there were people who could direct you. This was when there was a culture of seeking, rather than having everything under one roof. At the same time this united people across the land, because you had the opportunity to perform a different discipline which required a commitment and travel to that particular culture within a culture. For example, even in the West, American wrestling requires you to commit to that discipline, which later gave many mixed martial arts fighters an unbeatable foundation. It is then a case of add bits on to the foundation, rather than having a foundation that changes according to the latest popular trends. There are many kinds of Chinese martial arts across China, each insisting on similar commitments in their own ways. this is not really to suppress the martial artists, but simply because most people won’t make it by chopping and changing disciplines constantly.

Minimising Loopholes

In Mixed martial arts (MMA) which is one of the more realistic style of martial arts in many ways, you can avoid the fight by exploiting the rules in some way. There are all sorts of loopholes. This has mainly come about because people no longer see why they are keeping for any meaning other than winning. For example, you can avoid a contest by simply appearing active without doing as much as somebody else. Nobody would do this is the spirit of martial arts and the competence levels were fully on. Entire strategies have developed in terms of looking active to get points, but not doing much in terms of real activity. In an atmosphere of open honesty, if you were to ask people about this who are involved in martial arts, I would say that ninety percent of them would say that this is normal and they would also consider do this. There’s nothing wrong with any of this really, but let’s not dress it up as something it isn’t. In my opinion, to allow people to flourish in competition, what we need are simple rules and minimum loopholes, so that what has been practiced can be transmitted to the arena itself, rather than someones individual expectations.

What are these loopholes? In MMA they are not allowed to hit each other in the back of the head, so all you do is present the back of your head as a target to the opponent to shield your own face, which they would otherwise hit. This strategy has given many athletes the edge in key situations. Because you turn the head away from them in certain situations, they are forced to attack only that. Now if they hit you, they get penalised, not you. If you do this in a fight, you’re dead meat.

In Taekwondo, a style which I used to practice originally, it pays off in terms of points to fall down after kicking, pretending that you slipped so the opponent can’t get you back with a counter strike. This would not happen if your strategy was to break down the opponent and win by superior strategy. For example, if your attack was aimed at kicking the opponent and then landing in such a position that you were strong, there would be no need to fall down because you would exploit your own strength and superior positioning. This is why the greatest fighters have often been those who can fight moving backwards rather than stalling. Fighting is about superior will, and when the opponents will is lost, only then can it be called a true victory. This may sound brutal, but this is the reason for the harsh training conditions of the past, so that even if you failed, you failed spectacularly and won at life. If there is anything left, then the only way you can be defeated is if you give up. If none of this happens then you haven’t lost anything, just a petty scoreboard result at most. This is the law of the jungle, if you know how to live you will find a way, even if you are beaten down.

Winning the Match, Not the Result

The original aim of MMA in the West was to see which style was the best and most effective. This is what Art Davey, the original Founder of the UFC said in his book. Obviously MMA existed elsewhere, such as Vale Tudor competitions in Brazil. Some of these early matches, which can easily be found on Youtube, involved the competitors fighting in a mixed style and then backing off to give each other a break if for some reason the opponent got a cut or something. The fight would then continue promptly. They didn’t do this very often but it happened. I’m only mentioning this because these examples show how the culture has changed from upholding the contest to winning it for yourself. Letting the opponent back up may be seen as an act of weakness to finish the fight by many, however, these were the best competitors around at the time. And if an opponent is broken down, it doesn’t matter much if you allow them the courtesy of checking with a doctor if they can continue.

When you consider that the goal was not just to win but to win properly in a fair match, it immediately becomes obvious that although there were no rules as such there was an agreement of practice that the contest must be allowed to be true.

In previous generations of mixed fighting, there were no rules as such but there were points to follow, such as a fighters code. This may seem like a worthless agreement, but when there are no rules, trained referees, vast sums of money, or security, then the procedural knowledge of conduct is paramount. Otherwise you have a war on your hands when the different teams of trained martial artists feel cheated. There is simply no standing in such a community if you are seen as a cheat. When I say community, I don’t mean an organised governing body or anything like that. That is a governed community, not an organised chaos. What I’m talking about is an organised chaos between rivalled groups, which understood the dynamics were such that you couldn’t go round asserting yourself without paying certain consequences. This is life, which can lead to unecessary war if you’re careless about such matters.

Mixed Approaches to Martial Arts

There are various rules sets all with their own backgrounds and cultures within them. For example, in and around China, there are hundreds of styles of martial arts. It’s not like there is one system which created all the others. Each of them believe themselves to be authentic. When you consider that each group is free to develop themselves uniquely, this becomes a real possibility for all. I used to travel to Taiwan from time to time and I discovered that they had a self defence system which involved joint locks and other self defence practices. This did not look like a Chinese system as we are familiar with. Lots of people suppose all they re doing in Kung Fu or Tai Chi out in the far East. However, what I also found out was that the systems of self defence had evolved in the context of police training, rather than mixed martial arts competition. So these weren’t taught to everyone. Everyone needs a different approach. This makes sense when you thing of whether things are relevant or not to certain people, rather than getting the same system out to everybody.

Mixed Martial Arts is nothing new, the idea that it is prescribed as a sport or to everybody in a systematic way is the new idea. Not every has the capacity or cultural set up to endure such emphasis on brutality. This is why many of the MMA fighters who have retired have taken to violence or drugs outside of their careers. If you engage in violence without the right social structure, then it is very possible that the intensity of the situation will destroy you. I’ve seen this myself many times. So it is not because of the lack of knowledge that these things were reserved for only certain segments of society in the past, but because they didn’t want a culture of barbarians. In my experience, martial arts is such a powerful tool for transformation, and as such you can easily open yourself up to severely negative experiences if you don’t take precautions. This must have been why it was banned in many Countries following certain wars.

A very widely skilled martial artist will have to break hundreds of rules to reach the potential in what they are doing. That is if they confine themselves. However, just because you might be practicing Taekwondo, Shaolin styles, or any other type of martial art, does not mean you are confined to them. So what needs to be understood is that very specific practices, such as sports practices, aren’t the answer for everything. For instance, in Taiwan they were practicing Taekwondo and Tai Chi in various forms. That was for competition, and for health. As I was saying, the practical stuff was mainly taught to the police and authorities. So it’s not that they were unfamiliar with anything to do with what people call mixed martial arts, it’s just they that didn’t use it for competition so widely. Since nobody is attacking each other much out there, there seems to be no point investing so much into it when economic growth requires much more attention than survival necessities.

Say for example you are defending the border of your country. You won’t actually fight that often unless it’s an emergency because you have to be diplomatic, find ways around conflict, and plan in advance how to do all this. It is the same in martial arts. In a Country like Taiwan, there is virtually no crime. At the same time, there is a constant looming threat of potential invasion one from neighbouring Countries. Nobody attacks each other in the street, however the authorities themselves must be highly trained and have a certain martial attitude with practical value. So the only difference is that their practical styles of martial arts are mainly taught to the police and similar authorities, rather than the man on the street.

Feminine Energy and Intuition [Part 2]

Posted on by joeharman8 | 16 min read | 92 views

When it comes to training, the level of structured organisation often means that the athlete has to experience the fight largely in terms of imagining the outcome in advance. For example, they train various scenarios, and then think back to what they did in the past rather than responding in the moment spontaneously with something new. So they are in the moment, responding to the past. This can be disastrous for the creative energy of an individual, even if it yields short term results. It is as if you are looking at the truth of something evolving and you are trying to make sense of it by historical facts only. Obviously this is not enough.

So, often, when when martial artists are in the ring itself they have to experience the contest through memory of what they planned to do rather than what actually needs doing. This is ok as a support system, but not as a long term solution for growth. The common argument here is that it’s supposedly too difficult for intuition to govern response. If this is the case, it just means you aren’t good enough to use intuition effectively as a faculty, that’s all. There’s nothing wrong in that, it can be great to develop the more masculine side of doing things, although it is still possible to express intuitive action even under rigid social structures.

Actually, it isn’t necessary to burden yourself with knowledge, carrying it around like a collection you’ve gathered. When the integrity of your physical structure is bent and stretched through training, you might think that the body then resets to a state that it was in before. No, in fact it the body is warped by gravity and the space you create. So you take on a new composition. There are several ways of looking at this. In terms of the Karma you carry, whatever you do creates new possibilities. It is not a case of repeating the same karma, although that is a choice. It’s not like you are doomed to repeat things over and over. It is like how sometimes people are defined by genetics. This is the more modern way of enslaving people to certain societal notions which have no existential basis. This only becomes reality in your experience if you continually make the choice, consciously or unconsciously, to remain in a fixed state. So in a way, rigid training which does not evolve keeps one in a state of sameness. This is good until you have worked out your karma, or what is known as pre birth Chi in Chinese systems, into a greater possibility.

Stretching the Gravitational Pull

When you act according to the body’s intuitive need to expand and work with gravity, for example when you stretch a punch out, sinking down into your centre at the same time, you are stretched one way, and pulled in another. You take what you are and expand it. This can be done in a seconds, for a minute, or for year. There are different ways of going about it. The idea is that you transform you capabilities and potential through training, rather than just refine the existing capabilities. This is a subtle yet powerful way of transforming yourself over time. Because your composition is always changing, your potential is also changing. That is why genetically it is possible to overcome hereditary dispositions, just as it is possible to develop the same dispositions later even if there is no genetic basis. For example, say you inherit a bad heart. It is just as easy to develop this later through various lifestyle choices, and there are many examples of people overcoming such conditions through life. This is done in various ways by stretching out what was weighing them down.

The direction of your movements in space as well as the waves of energy you send through the body create what scientists call “Gravitational memory”. This has a universal as well as individual basis to it. This gravitational memory leaves a lasting impression on the body’s centre of gravity, the Hara Centre or abdominal area. This is stretched continuously as a child, when you run around endlessly. This is actually the body’s maintenance and growth centre, which means you experience yourself from here in many ways as well as the possibilities presented to you. So this growth happens unconsciously in children, but it must be done consciously in adults.

Just as gravitational memory happens in the universe as it interacts with energy, this is what happens in your own centre of gravity when you take action. Your own centre mixes with that of the wider environment, just as your own inhalation takes from plants and gives back to them. So half of you is actually outside, and the other half is inside. So as one gets older, they tend to move towards stretching themselves, either as part of a family or into wider society for example. This can be done on the individual level by bringing a more meditative dimension to your practice.

Changing Your own Memories

The body remembers just like gravitational pull within an object remembers. Memory is not just remembering in the brain, it happens outside too. For example, the brain and gut interacts to produce various hormones and states within the system itself, which we call experience and we remember this. This is because the memory is contained between two objects, the body and brain, it’s not an isolated system. So the more activity you perform, the more this impacts the memory. This memory builds up in terms of substantial potential energy over time within the human system, much like the karma you accumulate through action. For example, say you do a good deed, immediately you might not see the benefit. But the congruence and harmony you create in yourself and others around you allows energy to function within you more smoothly. So the wider environment impacts you, and you impact it. Your experience is to do with both. It is not a case of doing a good deed to be congratulated, I’m just talking in terms of causing less friction within yourself and therefore others. It’s then a matter of time before the structure begins to experience visible change, but it’s a process going on all the time. It’s the same with martial arts movements.

When you follow the line of least resistance physically, you are actually lightening the load of karma and becoming more receptive. This changes the foundation of your memory. It is even possible to experience many different lives in this one. This means in many ways you are becoming more feminine, as if you were creating a new child and experiencing its needs and life energies. Instead, you are becoming life’s creation rather than forming a new separate body. This is the meaning behind reincarnation, which is not separate from this life. You are part of the cycle itself. It is possible to become a process rather than an outcome. It is not necessary to die to be born anew, but death happens anyway. So this self transformation creates new memories or interprets the impressions you have received up until now in a new way, transforming your experience right now rather than the next time round. Otherwise there is no point in striving for much more than your allotted karma or pre birth Chi energy.

From Feminine to Masculine

Obviously, you need to work out the masculine side of your energy first, which is what the forms are all about in martial arts. So at first you are just working your way through the inherited karma, or what the Chinese systems refer to as pre birth Chi. This is used to create a platform rather than establish anything. This is known as the fire element, which requires activity and is the masculine in action. After a while of doing this, say ten or twenty years, you end up providing yourself with immense potential energy for conscious activity. Then if you chose to continue the same training, it becomes conscious rather than routine and becomes more to do with the water element, which is to say the feminine. So whether you are a man or woman, you move towards the feminine in the same way. You include both of course, its not an either or thing. The post birth Chi in Chinese systems in known as the Water Chi, which is to say what you acquire after birth. In other words, you move from masculine to feminine.

By making your actions conscious, as in becoming aware, you more wisely utilise energy which would otherwise dissipate at a more initial level during compulsive unconscious acts. This is what martial arts competitions were historically about, working out the fire element within the fighter. It was not about winning but transformation. It is only in recent years that the notions has come about that this could become a commodity or system to be sold as a solution. But if you get rid of the karma only to create more of the same then this is known as getting caught in a cycle. It is believed in Tibetan Schools of buddhism that the path to enlightenment involves escaping this cycle. So accordingly, once you evolve and transform yourself , you have done just that and you have become a life process rather than a repitition of the past. This can happen only by embracing the feminine, because the feminine does not know organised repetition.

Organised Repetition

Obviously it is is normal to act according to institutional demands in sports situations, where the athlete is paid to win. Here, in martial arts research on the opponent is done in advance, as well as the setting and other details such as time and place. However, when the outcome cannot be known in advance, nor the weight of the opponent or their character, this approach hinders direct perception of the unfolding reality in front of you, as in the self defence situation of life or death. Acceptance of death was always talked about more traditionally, but today this is seen less and less. This is like avoiding the elephant in the room, it just becomes more and more obvious. Because martial arts has largely moved away from matters of life and death, there has been an increased movement towards the theoretical rather than the experiential learning. All of these things were normal in the past, there were no weight categories or advanced preparations, time constraints, etc., so there were different ways of preparing. You needed an attitude of fearlessness, which is what black belt means.

This attitude of plunging into the unknown can be seen in mixed martial arts as early as 30 years ago, where there were no rules. You needed to be more spontaneous and exuberant in the moment, which is what the feminine energy is all about. Too much organisation simply dampens such faculties. When spontaneity and aggressive energy mix together, you can create an entirely new energy, which is at once intelligent as well as reckless. This cannot be understood theoretically, but experientially. So there is a need for the feminine, unbridled striving, fuelled the masculine, which is is raw externalised energy. If raw energy has nothing to aim at, then it just ends up blowing up. If the famine is not brought in then it just remains outside your experience, even though it is there.

Becoming Receptive to Transformation

The dimension of thought which is to do with acting in the real world, in the present moment, was in the past kept clear rather than stuffed with ideas. You cannot ascribe meaning to the process of martial arts, because martial arts is what is. Traditionally, conclusions were not formed in advance, but rather during the unfolding situation according to time and place. This was to develop and cultivate the feminine aspect of intuitive knowing. Any number of temples were consecrated so that this space could be supported in society. In terms of martial arts forms, any exercises were based around performing them until the raw energies of youth were worked out. Afterwards, it becomes choice.

So the true disciple in a way was willing to waste their time repeating the same things over and over again. It was only after some time that the value of this was perceived rather than known in advance. The platform for the development of the feminine is the masculine energy, which has to do with fire or heat. The heat needs something cool to temper it and channel it into something more than it is. At the same time, the feminine needs some energy to express itself. The fire is used up in this exchange to create an entirely new expression of energy. This is the meaning behind the burning of devotion, or the fire of belief. These were just things to get you to act, rather than conclusions to understand in advance. Whether this is religious fervour, or martial training, these thing shave been used to make the recipient more receptive to transformation by channeling the energies. Of course there is potential for misuses, but that’s true of anything.

According to modern notions, it seems as if little is being taught in terms of practical value if people are given space to transform themselves from within. For example, in traditional martial arts they told you how to do the move exactly, but never how to apply it in every situation. You were to go away and ponder rid. When you look at the temples of the past, they were wide open spaces, which would seem boring by todays standards, which are characterised by busy and colourful gyms. In addition, people are often sold conclusions rather than ways of seeking. If you have been sold a conclusion, it looks as if someone who is seeking is simply clueless. However if you make a conclusion, that’s the end of seeking. So to question and to believe at the same time, this was the way the masters encouraged seeking as well as activity. This ensured progress and transformation, if the disciple became receptive enough to the process.

Evolution cannot be known in advance, even if there are various possibilities which can be practiced in advance to reach some kind of end point. So these conclusions we make are just tools rather than outcomes to prove or disprove. These scenarios were seen as a support system rather than as a reality to aim at. However, those who practice martial arts with a spiritual side to them, are considered frauds in many circles. This is because their styles have been proven wrong in various scenarios. Anything which is not practical is often considered totally wrong, and especially if you have a master to guide you in this. such masters are considered total idiots by pragmatists. There are many instances of how people go and challenge martial artists from schools which are considered impractical, and the first thing they do is beat them up. However, some of them are able to fight back well, and the others are quite capable of socially handling confrontations without getting physically embroiled.

The need for planning everything derives from fear of the unknown. This modern variety of the fear of the unknown is largely a western phenomenon, which probably started after the Second World War due to the massive wars that went on previous to that. Following the Second World War, there was a move towards planning in terms of industry, education, and peace, which had been existentially threatened severely. In martial arts, this meant that the largely traditional arts were converted into exercise regimes and outcome based practices with a mass production framework to them. This is not a bad thing, but if structures are to function properly, there needs to be an element of spontaneity to compliment this organised structure so that it can evolve naturally.

Prisoners respond to excessive structure and routine, and are known as hard men, but often they lose all hope and competence when the certainty of their environment is gone and they get released. For example, prison has certain rules, and you just put fear in everybody to get by. On the other hand, there have been rare individuals who have functioned well in the outside world, and then if they end up in prison they just go with it without attachment.

Upgrading your Hardware and Software

In martial arts, the physical form is considered exact, but the expression it takes in changing reality must be kept fluid and formless. So the form is the dimension which should be analysed, the energy must remain fluid and open to evolution. The physical form is the hardware, the way it is used is to do with the software you upgrade. The capability of the software does not decide the potential of the hardware. Its just running at a certain point in time. This software also impacts the hardware and how it is used. This develops the form from within, rather than from the outside.

The problem I that today the hardware is hardly used in people, so for the physical movements to evolve their capabilities need to be stretched rather than becoming inert. Just going through routines isn’t enough to do this. The expression which martial arts forms take in various situation cannot be known in advance, except by those who have been through it. Even then, each individual is different, which is why there have been many factual versions of one truth. For example, it is a fact that many different martial arts are effective. But it is true that in order to reach a competent state you have to work and overcome many difficulties.

So this is the difference between fact and truth. It is true that in order to win, you need to overcome many difficulties and work. However, in fact, not everyone who wins has done this sufficiently to ensure their evolution. So in a way, winning does not represent truth. Truth is an evolving state, whereas a fact is according to time and place. Obviously all individuals want to win. Take the example of two competitors. They can win according to the process of the contest, or simply gain from it in a more personal yet limited way. So they can run the software as it is, according to a particular situational demand, or they can upgrade it. There is an in-between way too. So the contest is not entirely logical, or though logically it makes sense to win at all costs. By logical I mean the masculine aspect of the mind. So the feminine, which involves respect for the situation as a whole, rather than how it can be exploited, is a completely different way of looking at it. It even has a logic of its own which you can experience as truth.

Overcoming Tension – Stretching: Your Experience [Part 2]

Posted on by joeharman8 | 16 min read | 78 views

Psychologically, people build up winners and losers in a contest. But experientially this makes no sense because the whole thing is experienced as one. This occurs in many different situations other than martial arts. Say for example you are on stage and lost in the music you are playing as part of a group. Where it comes from is not important, it’s that you feel it enlivening you that counts. It’s not that you cause it it someone else doesn’t, how you feel is how you are. So here there is a fusion of people and a union between them, which is experienced in the situation as a whole.

Psychologically, you might get some boost knowing that you were at a certain situation, like a music concert. But there is no need to see this from the egotistical point of view. None of that would be possible without the atmosphere, the onlookers, the rest of the band, all of those factors. So when a start is born, it comes out of that atmosphere. So when you experience something to the full extent and it becomes part of you, it doesn’t matter where it comes from particularly, only that you are receptive to it. This is important in martial arts. Even the air you breathe isn’t fully yours, it’s coming from outside and you and running through your system, which you count as you. So in this way, you are both in and outside of the physical structure in your experience. There is no need to think it is you that produces all that you are doing by yourself. I use the example of breathing because this is the basis upon which all other others experiences are lived.

Create Room for Growth, not for the Ego to Take Over

When you stretch your body, or its capabilities, you are creating a space for growth. For example, if you stretch a muscle, you create new room for growth. This allows extended possibilities which have yet to manifest. It is not about cramming this space immediately. If this new room for growth is not established, there is no gap to fill, and there is no space to grow. When it comes to the body, If the muscles are continuously compressed over long durations, the cells actually actually die off eventually or degenerate into a fixed state without the flexibility they once had. They change composition, allowing less pliability and transformative properties. Modern science has proven this, because the wisdom of the body is such that compressions from every direction can cause tumours to form in otherwise healthy cells. This is because the fascia of the body stiffens. For example, you have two muscle tissues that begin to fuse together which were once two differentiated separate connective tissues gliding over each other. This is the beginning of problems.

So when cells no longer feel themselves being stretched, they begin to reduce the production of fibres and the entire structure becomes more hardened. This is because your cells no longer respond to the need to expand because there is no demand. The ego likes this because it means an easy existence where everything is in an established way. So you can become a tree that is solid but snaps in the wind. Instead, you want to become solid yet flexible, which involves challenging the ego.

How do you become solid yet flexible? We will look at this. Basically, the body naturally sinks to the earth through gravity, and it is you who must trigger and expansion in various ways. The higher nature within you, which is consciousness, needs to work against the natural earthly tendencies of inertia and stagnation over time. It is not a question of excluding this inertia but of working with it. This arrangement of expansion of consciousness and compressional forces of nature mutually interacts to produce an ongoing journey. This is what we call the wheel of life, because the inside forces are compressed by the outside forces to produce a certain stability.

Shaking the Bottle

There is so much going on in the ring or in a fight, that you tend not to notice the pain at the time. For example, you might get punched but usually the adrenaline will cause your energies to become so external that the pain is not experienced at the time. It is there, it is just that it is beyond your awareness. This idea, that you override potentially negative influences which are present, is true on many levels. This allows you to shake things up rather than stagnate. It is as if you are shaking up the bottle so that the bubbles expand into a given situational space which you are filling by your actions. They then go back down again changing form into a settled surface film1. This process has a survival basis to it too. By externalising the energies, you don’t notice you are in pain so you survive an event because you have changed your state in that moment. You have expanded the bubbles.

If you go to the office, once the initial apprehension is over with you fly though the day with nervous energy that gets channeled into productivity. You are more flexible. More than that, your state has transformed. Have you noticed this? Living in a state of perpetual anxiety is largely avoided by staying busy and channeling the energies properly. For most people, if they can find an activity they enjoy and can engage with, this sorts out the problem and they can convert their energies into something positive. They expand their experience to more than themselves.

Stretching the Bubble

When you consciously apply yourself to a task, you realise that there is nothing to lose because everything has to be gained. It is not that you need to seek reward, but that you become receptive enough to open yourself up to the changes experience within the system if it is kept in a certain healthy way. It is as if the bubble is being blown bigger as it takes in more air. When this is done for a long enough duration, as well as repetitively, you self initiate this process from within.Just as the stretching of a muscle can produce changes in gene expression, you can produce changes in yourself by making yourself more flexible when needed, like a bubble that expands.

When a muscle is hydrated and the surrounding fascia is flexible, this fascia acts like a bubble containing pressurised air. This allows for expansion of the muscle tissues, and greater oxygen flow to the muscles. Blood contains a larger percentage of oxygen than air. So it makes sense to increase circulation of blood more than it does to just increase the size of your lungs or the amount of chemicals in the blood stream. For example, it is common for athletes to turn to testosterone replacement therapy2. But these are back up systems. By expanding the bubble, which means increasing blood circulation to the muscles and creating that space for oxygenation, you bypass the need for external supplements to a large degree.

Testosterone is needed to produce heat and increase oxygen levels in the blood. So when you perform certain breathing and physical martial arts exercises which demand you to warm up and circulate energy, there is an increased amount of these chemicals produced. This is because there is an increased amount of oxygen in the blood which you obtain outside of yourself which transfuses into the blood. This is why traditionally, before artificial methods, certain martial arts forms and breathing exercises were taken seriously. The difference is that they are used up in the process rather than externally manufactured and placed into the system artificially. The problem today is that athletic performance has become totally disconnected from this process and in many ways seeks to extract work from an athlete in a non sustainable way.

A way of life

It’s not like you one day make successfully and you no longer have to put effort into transforming a given situation to your advantage. It is an endless cycle in which your are in the middle. You are the dot in the middle of the circle. So what seems like chasing your own tail becomes a journey towards self fulfilment. Like I said before, gravity pulls you down and creates a certain stability and compression when you counteract it with efforts to expand. Your efforts to expand create space. This goes on and is the life process in action.

In martial arts, it was traditionally the effort which was sustained for as long as possible rather than the results or outcomes. This is why it was a way of life rather than a results driven thing. In other words, the effort to support the life process was seen as more important that gaining this or that. For example, note taking did not take place traditionally in the Chinese Monasteries, for example the Shaolin Temples. This was not to keep anything secret as is popularly believed, but instead this was to ensure that knowledge was experientially transmitted rather than intellectually studied. It is useless to take notes unless you understand somthing through experience, you can only get a theoretical grasp. When something is analysed intellectually it is bound to be misunderstood. When it is experienced from within properly, there is no question of misuse or misunderstanding, there is just an evolution which goes on and on.

This is why there was an insistence in experiencing the training with full involvement, you wouldn’t notice anything in particular, it’s just that you were just observing a particular exercise until at sank in over time. You became a process of doing this, which was a way of life for those who chose to. You didn’t need to remember any secret moves, because when it is known from within, when the time comes to act the wisdom of the body knows what to do and it happens naturally. This is if your perceptions are fully switched on. It makes no sense at all to know somthing and then switch off the machine and expect it to work somehow. This is mastery, which initially takes a leap of faith according to some factual studying, but then becomes an experienced truth.

A change of State

Even if someone was totally inept, transformation is possible. In this way it is even possible to transform if you start out with no potential. Potential has to be created in an ongoing way. The potential for growth, that is. If you throw a stone in the air, it can easily come back down unless it is kept up. When you sustain an effort towards expansion, you welcome in change and transformation. Eventually this cause a change of state within, because the energies running through you allow for more experience as well as better health. With the example of the stone, you are not changing the stone, but you are changing how it operates by making it airborne. In other words, you are not transforming the aspect of you which takes flight, you are transforming the part of you which is a stone, which sinks you to the earth. The stone is becoming airborne. In this way it is like you were a meteorite which came from space as a meteor. You are just returning to a more original state, which you forgot you were.

The part that expands limitlessly, the spirit as we might call it, does not need to be transformed, because it includes everything in its experience ultimately. You just need to rise to meet it. This need not be physical effort, it may be energetic effort in maintaining a still posture in meditation for instance, or simply keeping the system in an optimally functioning way through day to day tasks such as walking, or even actions in the service of others. There are many paths. This is why students traditionally served the master, it was not for his benefit but for theirs. The Master asked them to work, that is all. So with positive action towards extending your range of activity, In doing so, the fear of loss or decline in motivation is largely taken care of because you have created a change within the system itself. You have created an upsurge that requires maintenance not only to keep it that way but to continue transformation. This is the nature of transformation, it is a continuous state not a fixed one.

Fear of Loss

There is fear of losing financial independence through some sort of debilitating injury, or losing the respect in the eyes of others. But this has no real basis in fact. For instance, when two warriors go at it in the ring, this makes for an exciting exchange where both fighters are immortalised in the eyes of others. Many fighters fear that they will never make such an impact. They play it safe and never get fully involved. This has some advantages, but will never be fulfilling totally. So the key is to become the best possibility that you can, always striving towards improvement and expansion of your own possibility. This will vary according to each person developed capabilities as well as circumstances outside of their own control. This is why it is important to focus on what you can control, which is your own conduct and behaviour, your own effort.

Outside of the ring, even if a person dies defending others, their memory is also immortalised. It’s not about glorifying death, it’s just about realising that no one actually loses face going out as a full blown expression of courage who has surpassed themselves. It’s not about going out and dieing for some cause. But in various situations, people that push themselves develop their capabilities by stretching themselves to the maximum. Once again, they can come back down just as a stone does that loses momentum. It is a question of keeping up that momentum which creates the best state. So in a less extreme example of losing a martial arts match and giving it your all, there may be a loss, but it’s a good one if it inspires many others and even yourself. There is no failure in taking flight only in landing and never taking action. Many fighters have felt honoured to be involved in a contest which was a full expression of the human possibility. An empty victory is less impactful in this way. So whether one wins or loses, both parties gain from the exchange if they prize the importance of the contest above their own personal results.

Some people may fear looking less powerful to their children or spouse if they were to lose a fight. So the biggest fear people often have is whether or not they can provide security for those around them they have chosen to defend. However, opening oneself up to the vulnerability of caring for others more than themselves has been a method employed in various ways by people to overcome their own self importance and limited identification. For example, when a monk is sent to a temple, they are charged with feeding others ahead of themselves and looking after those weaker than themselves. This means even looking after the humanity and life of an attacker who opposes them. This is why there is respect for the dead, even if they are your enemy. For instance, if an attacker is seriously injured by you when you defend those weaker than yourself, you at least must respect the life process acting through them, the same one you are reaching for. It is not about respecting their cruelty. This means constantly being aware of the humanity within yourself which does nothing unnecessarily gratuitous to a violent attacker. There is no need to respect the cruelty within yourself, so you just transform it. With the enemy it is the same thing.

The Purpose of Stretching

When you stretch the area of you concentration, you widen your awareness. In other words, you experience a larger expression of life. This can even apply to the somewhat distorted expression of life which is the violent attacker. If you can do that, you have ensured your own evolution because you have understood the reasoning. It’s not a moral thing really. This is the fundamental reason for showing compassion to the opponent. This doesn’t mean that you go and beat them senseless, and then if there’s time you think about whether to hold back and show some mercy. If you know this is what you are likely to do, then I suggest some preparations. For example, after you have performed your martial arts training, try returning to a state of relaxation in the muscles and system via stretching activity. You keep vibrant and fully alive, but the muscles are relaxed to circulate the energy. it’s not a passive state. This can last just a few minutes, and may seem a bit pointless, but in fact in doing so you will come down from the stress of intense training. By coming down, your energies are actually raised to a higher pitch and less rigid. This will allow your to become less hyped up about yourself and view things in a more balanced and reflective way. It might even save your life.

If you performing some stretching exercises before performing some activity, your system can take more pressure before fatiguing or stiffening up. If you do so after, you can return yourself to a less reactive state so that you can more appropriately respond to any kind of stressful situation more consciously and with intelligence. If the strength of a wheel were on the outside, the inside of the wheel would break. Essentially, this is what can happen to the human being if the energies remain too externalised for too long. This does not mean you do nothing in the face of danger, or second guess yourself when it’s time to act. It just means that you judge the situation more effectively so you can deal with it with confidence. Otherwise, it is easy to slip into a pattern of chronic stress and externalising thre energies as a matter of compulsion rather than choice. This is the danger of the macho martial arts practices.\

In the same way, if your temperament thickens in such a way, it is easy to become attached to this identity as an alpha, and fail to let situations slide over you. This is why so many martial artists have become so hyperactive over time. So situations often get out of hand not so much because this is what needs to be done, but rather because of a lack of return to a normal state of decompression. This dampens the faculties of rational thought and perceptions over time, leading to largely non voluntary response to stressful situations.

References

1 https://intuitivemartialarts.com/2023/06/29/inner-physical-practice-karma-and-riding-the-wave-of-the-inner-fight/ Riding the Wave of the Inner Fight

2 https://intuitivemartialarts.com/2023/04/24/conquest-at-all-costs-drugs-and-the-evolution-of-martial-arts-part-1/ Conquest at all costs

Overcoming Tension – Stretching: Your Experience [Part 1]

Posted on by joeharman8 | 8 min read | 85 views

The fear of loss in martial arts is not only to do with the fear of getting hurt. Essentially it has to do with losing face, or damage to the ego and reputation. This causes a tension within the system, which can create a fear state. At the same time, today fear has evolved with increasing pressures from society in many ways, which are different in nature from the past. For example, people now fear the taxman rather than a sabre toothed tiger! This is not to trivialise the matter, it’s just that fear has taken new forms and other dimensions. This is because fear does not have a basis in one particular situation or another. It varies between individuals as to what triggers it. There is no right and wrong here. Fear arises from the pressures we tend to put on ourselves for various reasons, whether this is to do with social situations or physical hardships. What can be done to alleviate these pressures, or more specifically, what mechanisms are there to decompress from these pressures?

Physiologically, pressures have always been there. Today, we have largely removed physical pressures, which have been replaced by mental pressures. In some ways this is more difficult to manage. In the past, between threats to ones life, which were few and far between, there were parties and celebrations within the local communities. This all changed perhaps around the time of the world war, where fear and suffering in the trenches became the experience of many who fought. At the same time, increases in communications left us feeling less tribal and less fixed to particular groups. For example, many people now associate across the internet rather than locally, and are even brought up on there from an early age in terms of socialisation. This involves a level of risk, because everyone is living at close proximity, yet who knows what their beliefs and values are. In the past, densely populated communities were managed by strict codes of conduct, which made for less friction in day to day life. The challenge now is to somehow blend diverse beliefs into a kind of organised chaos, rather than a melting pot in which everyone assimilates into the same beliefs.

For many people, fear and stress has become the norm. The world has changed dramatically in recent years, and it is difficult to predict what will happen next. So this is the basis of fear in the age of technological advance, fear of the unknown rather than fear of something in particular. This is largely the case today, even if it gets attributed to other happenings and gets labelled as something in particular. So in an age of uncertainty which is unwisely navigated, fear is inevitable. One way to get around this, as we will see, it to stretch the body and mind to experience something beyond the tension and insecurity which is felt during increasingly pressurised environments. One way of looking at stress and pain created by chronic tension is to see that it is not so much the result of the load being placed you, but the absence of a method to re lengthen the compression which has taken place. This is what martial arts is about, the balance between pressure and extension.

In martial arts, there is a certain fear of physical pain, but once you get used to and conditioned to it, it often becomes diluted down anyway, at least psychologically. You see that once you are capable of fighting back, there’s not much to fear other than being unprepared. So you just do the necessary preparation. Past a certain age, more physical preparation to restore the body to its natural state of balance is needed. this is not so for children, because their natural tendency is upward growth against gravity. So it happens for them usually automatically. So whilst a certain conditioning is needed, it is not good to get into the habit of experiencing pain. It will just be experienced elsewhere if it is blocked out. However, it does have some practical benefits for survival in the short term.

A certain experience of pressure and tension within the system is inevitable. For example, the tension experienced within a muscle helps to stimulate growth and activity within that region. So not only does it teach you that you need to extend yourself and grow, but tension is a kind of initiator, like an instinctive drive. The drive is a potential energy that is yet to spring fourth in a fully fledged way. So expanding the boundaries of the muscles afterward tension and compression creates new space for growth so that the pressure does not build to unmanageable levels. Animals do this when they stretch out after eating a meal or just to stretch for a variety of reasons. This is why stretching has always been important in martial arts. It is not just about flexibility of the muscles, but of the entire system. You also want to make space for organs to function properly1. This is particularly important after a stressful or traumatic events to flush out the build up of stress hormone.

Martial artists often describe how they couldn’t feel pain due to the adrenaline rush at the time of a combat situation. This is necessary when facing life and death situations, which if they become chronic can actually undermine the life process. Life is not survival, this is confusing a downward movement of life for the upward process of growth. If the system is not returned to a functioning state, or if chronic tension becomes the norm, this is the beginning of all kinds of ailments and diseases. This is why in the traditional systems of Chinese medicine they say the the cure for any disease is self created. One way of doing this is through stretching the body and organs, to create space for growth rather than increased tightening over time. There are other aspects such as diet, sleep, and just about everything else which are beyond the scope of this article. But basically, when a person needs to defend themselves against someone, that’s one thing, but when survival becomes the main goal and an entire pre occupation, then this becomes counter. Stress is important biologically, but relaxation and slowing down of the mind is needed. In the Chinese systems, Yin was given as much prominence as Yang. In other words, compression and decompression are equally important, but in different ways.

During a combat situation, there’s so much experience going on that it’s difficult to process just one aspect of the whole as though it were the defining factor. For example, there is fear, there is anxiety, and all those intense feelings. There is also awareness of the opponent, the environment, where the exits are to the area, and all such external considerations for safety. So to experience all this as though it were entirely yourself is a distorted view. You are experiencing what is not you as you, but it is not you. At least not entirely. Stress depends on external factors as well as internal, which means the burden or load is spread across the external and internal, and experienced across both as though it were one.

When the ancients talked about “There is no enemy”, this is the same as saying that you can learn to stretch your experience to include everything as one, and everything as yourself without discrimination. They didn’t say there isn’t an opponent, just that they aren’t your enemy, not really. This is symbolised by the yin and yang symbol according to Chinese tradition, which includes two aspects as the whole experience. This is why it was never the result of a situation according to personal outcomes which was considered the important factor traditionally. Separating victor from loser was necessary for the more theatrical events. Nothing wrong with that. However, the famous swordsman Myamoto Musashi said that it was a sickness to always be obsessed with winning. why is this so?

It is possible to make the fear of pain, or perceived damage of ones reputation, an all important factor. However, in doing so you lose contact with the reality that these things are not so important. It is even possible to experience the exhilaration of a contest as though you were a winner, even if in the eyes of others you are considered a loser. Personally, I have never cared about the result of a competition match. When I was involved in competitive sparring in Taekwondo, I just wanted to lose my sense of individual self in the experience as a whole. This has stuck with me ever since, and is a method I have used to contribute me individuality towards a higher purpose for myself. This is my experience at least. On a more practical level, my physical practice revolves around getting lost in the dance, rather than to focus on one aspect or the other. This may seem stupid to someone who sees things in terms of outcomes rather than processes. But even on the outcome level, you will find that your performance is better the more fully involved you are in paying attention to the whole process.

References

  1. https://intuitivemartialarts.com/2023/06/29/inner-physical-practice-karma-and-riding-the-wave-of-the-inner-fight/ Inner physical practice – Karma and Riding the wave of the inner fight

First There was the Word: Sound and Stillness.

Posted on by joeharman8 | 12 min read | 108 views

Martial Arts is an activity which can provide access to the inner most being of the individual. One way to achieve this is through sound. This is not really expressed through the industry as such. And so in this way what we refer to as martial arts should never be seen as an industry. What works and what doesn’t is not a matter of business but of experience. This experience can be sought well beyond industry boundaries. So there is an industry around martial arts, which includes trends, history, and commercial enterprise, but this is not martial arts. Martial arts itself is an internal form which includes a variety of factors. The industry itself, with multiple styles and forms of practice, may have become larger than the art form itself, whilst minimising the very nature of the art. But as an individual martial artist I don’t think you should ever allow that to become the main focus. One of the main focuses of the inner experience is sound.

One thing that is in everyones experience, but is not necessarily the focus of an industry, is the sounds you utter when practicing. For example, when you are performing a hard kick, the sound reverberation supporting the movement tends to match relative to the movement itself. Say you perform a hard kick. You send out a sound through the air waves, which transmits itself to some degree through the opponents apparatus. It also gives you some internal feedback. This feedback is felt internally, and also felt externally by the opponent. it is heard through the ears too once it is converted to a certain frequency. Otherwise you wouldn’t hear it. But really, It’s is all over the place, inside and out.

So the quality of the sound is important. When you express the sound, where is it coming from, and where is it being experienced? It is both inside and out. You don’t hear the inner sound because it is not tuned to the frequency of the ears. But it’s still going on. As soon as it is converted through the mouth at a certain frequency, you hear it. When the sound is converted appropriately into words or expressions, which also resonates with the interiority, then there is a sense of oneness about activity. Everything around you becomes a form of sound as well as everything within. It is difficult to put this into words, ironically, but it is an experience which unifies ones practice. So through working with sound, you create the basis for activity and a doorway to truth.

Some styles of martial arts focus intensely on the sound, and use it to perform various moves. They may demonstrate techniques very precisely, but these are not yet effective actions. Going through the motions of a technique is just a way through the door, to create an opening for the sound to travel and express itself. The Chinese systems emphasise the “Ha” sounds when exhaling. Thai Boxers tend to make a long “Shuu” sound to accompany the kicks. Both of these sounds, “Ha” and “Sh” are known sounds that make the exhale full and powerful. They achieve different results but the goal is to unify body and mind through sound. Instead of shallow sounds coming from the top of the lungs, the core is involved in the breathing to create these sound reverberations. These reverberations come from the depths of the core.

The effect of sound on the body is profound. You do not need to have any knowledge of a particular technique, but if you listen for the right sound and practice it yourself, you will be able to quickly learn a technique and perform it effectively. With some basic experience at this level you can transform your understanding of martial arts techniques, so that they are no longer empty just gestures requiring emotional force or physical strength to do the job. For example, if you listen out for a sound, this is an indicator of whether or not the attacker is going to do some serious damage. He need not express this through emotion or technical prowess. Everybody remembers the noise of a hard attack from a Thai boxer against the opponents body. This makes more of a lasting impression than the attack itself in many cases. The content, however, is not expressed solely through emotions or visual cues. This is because, actually, the sound and the technique are not actually separate. More than that, sound and emotion are not separate.

If you were to inflate a bag with air, it would lift off and make various forms. In many ways the human bag, the lungs, inflate and deflate which causes added or reduced pressure. More pressure means a greater sound potential for release. This makes you more or less grounded depending on your breathing techniques and practices. For example, if you exhale fully after a full inhale, you tend to make a loud noise conducive to a hard attack. This is why the exhale is so important in martial arts, because you are releasing the pressure, emptying the bag, in order to become more grounded. The sound you make as well as the loudness affects the output. Not only is air released, but there is a compression of the abdomen which allows you to sink down into the movement, whether that is a punch, kick, or whatever. All of these factors can be seen as supportive of sound. This is why in many ways martial arts is primarily to do with sound. Everything can become a sound.

So the most fundamental aspect of martial arts is the quality of the sound. Not only the audible sound, but the sound which goes above or below the frequency we can listen to with the ears. Whatever sound is being perceived cognitively is being interpreted through the ears and into the brain. There are still reverberations which occur elsewhere which go below the level of consciousness. For example, the sounds of the vocal cords aligned throughout the body are known to have an effect deep into the core muscles. So by creating the right sounds you are also training the abdominals. So they reverberate into the gut and organs, which relieve tension in the body and stimulates the organs by releasing pressure there. This need not make an audible sound, it can go on internally and still produce a result.

So we make sounds with the organs, bones, vocal cords and elsewhere throughout the body. So when you are making any kind of sounds to reinforce a technique, it should be performed with the entire body. What the Shaolin systems refer to as “Bone marrow cleansing” is just this, martial arts practice through the bones, transmitted through sound waves. It is said that the Shaolin warriors add weight to their bones rather than their muscles or tissue. This is a kind of practice with sound with is non verbal. In the same way there are techniques of organ washing, which transmit reverberations through the organs. These are all performed through breathing exercises primarily, supported by basic martial arts movements. Modern science is doing the same thing by transmitting energy, heat, and stimulation through areas of the brain and organs to counter act depression for instance.

So it is not a case of making a sound just with the mouth. If if you make no verbal sound at all, the sound can be transferred in many different ways. Everybody knows that bones are good conductors of sound, so next time you make an expression such as with sound to support technique, do so with the bones of the face and body. You will find that not only does the sound transmit and reverberate more successfully, but that it has an invigorating effect on the system allowing you to express movement and sound more effectively in general. In some situations it can be used to even transfer into and through an opponent. This is known as fighting without fighting when you send a positive energy through an opponent which reverberates in such a way that pacifies his nasty intentions towards you. In many ways, practicing self control uses energies of anger to transform them into an inner intensity which can be channeled and used to invigorate the system. This is not a passive acceptance but an intense energy which requires time, perseverance, and patience.

So there can be a pressure within the system, which builds up, and then is released through certain sounds. Otherwise it just externalises or dissipates at a low level. so what you want is to raise the pitch. This is the basis and reasoning behind mantras for instance. The sound A U M (om or aum) is used in yoga to create engagement throughout the body in breathing. Each sound relates to a particular area. A is related to the perineum, U or AU is related to the thoracic area, and M is related to the throat or neck. In addition, A starts off with an open mouth, and you gradually close towards M. There are different ways of looking at it. So together these sounds create a reverberation across the body and across the entire spine, which is also related to the jaw and head. The tongue is important here for articulating these sounds further into particular forms.

The syllables of AUM are not just a yogic phenomena, it is an existential reality that these sounds can be made without the tongue. So anything on top of these sounds involves the tongue and is an extension of these syllables. What kind of form this takes depends on the context and activity. We are looking at martial arts, but it could easily apply to music, performance, or whatever else. Whilst it is a fact that a word can be uttered which doesn’t contain these three letters, the truth is that without the tongue anything you say is one of these letters. In other words, they are a foundation for words and further sounds which we create.

Try this; close your mouth and perform some punching or other actions and feel the movement of the tongue. Do this subtly at first, because otherwise you are likely to need to open the mouth if you start heavy breathing. You may notice that the tongue moves to support the movement. If the mouth were open the sound would be expressed verbally to support the movement. As the mouth is closed, the tongue supports the interior by extending the possibilities of muscular action through a kind of soundless sound. This tongue movement is to extend the head or neck for example to support posture and an upright spine. Here, since the mouth is closed the non verbal sound happens internally and supports reverberation throughout the system in various ways. Where does this reverberation begin? It happens at the base of the spine, near the perineum, which extends to the tongue and even into the brain. This unifies top to bottom.

So even if you just sit there in meditation, you can feel this reverberation expressed through the breathing. This is why nostril breathing is important when the mouth is closed. This form of mediative practice may not be like a sound you are familiar with, but none the less it is an internal pressure through the system which is happening as sound at a band of frequency not experienced through the ears and brain in the same way. You are not creating a song to listen to verbally, or a noise through the air, but it is instead travelling internally through the breath. It is still music none the less. This soundlessness is what is known as the mute sound, or the door of muteness in Chinese scriptures, which is said to exit through the top of the spine or neck rather than the mouth. In stillness, no external expression of sound is produced so it is here you leave behind the noise of everyday life and plunge through.

When under extreme threat or pain, one tends to move from sound to soundlessness. Think of the deer in the headlights, ready to freeze and assess what to do next. They inhale air to prepare for an exhale. This prepares us to recuperate energy or conserve it to attack at a moments notice, like a cobra. Otherwise, it is quite possible that the venom we are experiencing may turn on us and strike from within. What this means is that when the stress hormone is released, further agitation through unnecessary movement is an expression of this stress but also lets everything in from the outside, making it worse. This includes impressions from the outside as well as conflict. It is like if you are attacked from the outside and you let the firewall down, you lose what you have contained within your system as well as exposing yourself to unnecessary attack. The firewall is there to shield outside dangers so that if there is a breach it is manageable. This firewall is the human discernment and wisdom to act effectively.

The Chinese scriptures say to lock the gate behind you when you reach the door of muteness, atop a twelve storied pagoda. The throat, where the door of muteness is said to be, is also the location of the Vishuddhi chakra in Indian systems, which is known as the filter. The throat lock, Jalandhara Bandha, locks this door and activates the filter. In other words, by performing jalandhara bandha you filter out the outside noise from within. This is done by raising the breastbone to the chin, extending the jaw slightly, and by using the tongue to reach for the upper pallet, sound becomes internalised as you focus on the rhythms of breathing. Touching the tongue at the roof of the pallet is known to produce vibrations towards the brain, which are used for mediative practices. In the video below, I go through various ways of using the neck to achieve internal stability through posture.

Inner physical practice? Karma and Riding the wave of the inner fight

Posted on by joeharman8 | 18 min read | 93 views

When it comes to inner practice, you might tend to think about meditation our the mental side of training. However, you can also train your physical body in such a way that you increase physical and psychological capabilities without unnecessarily breaking the body down or burning out mentally. In fact, it is possible to change hardship into a transformative process rather than causing unnecessary wear and tear. The aim of inner practice on the physical level is to use physicality in order to transcend the need for violence. Violence is a kind of karma, which instead of weighing you down can be used to dissolve certain elements within you freeing you prime pressure.

The thing to understand is that inner martial arts doesn’t mean avoiding violence altogether, because violence cannot be completely avoided. But nor is it a goal in itself. You might be happy that you fought someone and won, but that’s only because you didn’t get seriously injured, or because you gained some notoriety and money. So this victory is only momentary, it’s the very same situation the next day, the same challenges, the same need to strive for progress. In fact the more you grow and achieve the this entails continual development and work. it is the very same thing as having a child. This entails additional responsibility and competence to nurture and bring up the child. This is understood in the Eastern tradition as creating a karmic bond. All we are doing in terms of martial arts is taking the same responsibility towards the inner landscape.

So physical martial arts prowess involves using physicality as a developmental tool and a solid platform or foundation to build upon, whether psychologically, financially, or spiritually. To do this effectively, you must learn to externalise the energy when necessary, and store it back up again when you have used it as needed so that nothing goes to waste. This is known as circulating QI in the Eastern systems. So the idea is to become environmentally friendly. In other words, rather than letting it dissipate or externalise completely, you bring the blood flow and energy back into the life support system of the organs and internal structure rather than polluting the surrounding atmosphere. Or, on the psychological level, you make some sort of analysis rather than just leave it as it is, learning from the situation. Both create a more positive karma. Importantly, whether positive or negative, karma simply means working.

So it works on several level, this internalising the externalised force. Obviously you can then plan some kind off strategy internally, and then externalise that too. It doesn’t matter which way around, just that the two forces of the internal and external remain linked.

Stretching and compressing the body

For most people, training involves working on muscular skeletal alignment and energy expenditure. This is for health and fitness purposes. For example, you might learn to punch or kick, and learn all about the external mechanics of correct form. You then might repeat these in an exercise class. This is in an effort to perform certain actions repeatedly as a habit, breaking down and building up the muscle tissues over and over again. This increases muscle size and enhances basic fitness. This is because If the energy and blood collects in the limbs then there is an increased activation in the muscle fibres and they work more effectively. It is simply a case of allocating resources, or increase the supply to meet an increasing demand. In any case the demand goes up, which is to say karma is increased. That means more responsibility in working intelligently. The longer oxygenated blood pools there, the less fuel is being allocated to the organs, such as the heart. This puts them under increased strain. So getting the right mix of rest, output, recovery and balance is essential.

It is hard to know whether the muscles grow back stronger because of work, or the individual simply gets better at doing the exercise and the muscles grow back just the same as before. So it can be that no strength increase occurs but improved competency makes you stronger and better. In fact, it is well documented that with increased muscle fibres and neuromuscular activity, there is a greater output of strength. What is not clear cut is whether this is down to the nervous system or physical muscle size. In my experience it is more to do with the nervous system, which is strongly related to perceiving the environment and initiating response. The body just fires in an all or nothing way unless it is mediated by the nervous system. When the nervous system remains unpestered, it can renew the body energy fairly easily, because it isn’t fighting the compulsions of the body so much. However when it is in fight or flight this can become draining over time even if initially there is some boost of energy.

When it comes to muscular force, there are several ways to increase the surface area of a muscles. For example, by stretching the muscle, there is a lengthening of the tissue so that you create more operating space for blood flow and oxygen to fuel. The advantage of this method is that you don’y break down the tissue so much as you do in excessive physical labour, even if there is some stretch related tearing from time to time. By overworking the muscle directly, it grows back bigger than before rather than longer has in stretching. There is not really a need to go for just one method, usually a combination of the two is preferable, stretching and strength training. For most people a combination of both improves the overall integrity of the body.

Importantly, with stretching, there is an ease within the system which creates space for the internal organs to operate effectively when the muscle is lengthened over time. This can combat the excessive tightness built up sometimes experienced in strength training alone, which can compress other aspects of the system, such as the movement of the organs. So in stretching the body framework is used to support the the organs, so that even if you feel stiff and akward you persevere with stretching and everything eventually eases up over time with practice. For example, if you contract the muscles over and over, this can encourage tightness, which compresses the rib cage and shoulders, amongst other areas. If you use the muscles to remain erect in your posture, you eventually reach a state of ease and comfort felt mainly in the organs. Excessive tightness hampers breathing and restricts postural ease so that organs function more poorly.

Using breathing as a tool

If a muscle is stretched, the fibre lengthens so that there is a greater area of tissue and more flexibility to extend. Lets look at how this enhances breathing, not just limb flexibility. With repeated practice, new stretching of the muscles can allow greater lung capacity because the inner muscles of the chest and abdomen are no longer restricting breathing so much. So lung capacity has more to do with muscular flexibility and activity than size alone. The lungs don’t act on their own, it is only through the breathing apparatus of the thoracic region and abdominals that they are expanded. This is why it is so important to lift the body and move from the core, so that there is core activation as well as an expansive lift.

In fact, doing the stretching exercises should aim to stretch the breathing muscles of the abdomen, diaphragm, and chest, first of all. The limbs are secondary. This is why it is important to stretch the spine for maximum body length, whilst at the same time allowing full opening of the chest and expansion of the abdomen whilst inhaling. You also want to remain anchored to the ground for stability and to use gravity effectively. The greater heights you reach, the more the need to remain anchored. This is the karmic bond. That means when you inhale, you won’t lift away from the centre of gravity, which is in the lower abdomen and hips. Then, during the exhale the body can relax properly and fully sink down into the posture. This relaxes everything so that you feel at ease, even if you start of aching and in some pain.

After the breathing muscles have expanded, they naturally drop back down and contract. After the surface tension of the muscle has been maximised by stretching and extending the fibres fully, they relax and everything comes back down again much like evaporated water forms droplets of dew on the ground after rising when heated. This is because the muscles are mainly made up of water which changes state at high pressure and when heated. So just as water reaches high pressure and drops its heavier elements as it ascends to the air, a certain cleansing happens in the muscles fibres if they are stretched properly. This releases you from the grip of karma. This is why you feel relaxed and invigorated after stretching, even if you might feel depleted of energy if you over exert the muscles by over activity, whichis a way of creating karma. Creating and releasing from karma is necessary, because without the force karma brings, motivation drops.

When a bubble bursts, first it expands and then it returns back to the surface as a film. This is due to a change of state in the water, a change of pressure and and expansion of the molecules. This is symbolised by the mountain, which has a strong horizontal base, and as it reaches the peak vertically and becomes single pointed. In the human body, there is a thick band of muscle and fascia around the physical centre, the lower abdomen, which when subjected to centrifugal force, turns into a vortex or a rotational kind of energy. so from a stable horizontal base, it is possible to drive upwards. During activity, this sends a swirling energy up the spine due to the increased pressure created, which reaches the peak in the head. This is the interaction of the yin and yang overlapping forces. This is similair to how the rotational turning of the earth between the two poles creates the same centrifugal force which drives water upwards and out of the mountain spring, where it is purified and drops the murkier elements. In other words, when the churning and crunching of the abdominal organs experienced during physical activity create activity, and upward ascension happens if it is not impeded.

Going with the example of the mountain spring, once they molecules reach a certain threshold and have risen, a certain space is created where the pressure drops once again and things return back to normal. From high altitude the water returns to the earth and the cycle continues. What this explains is that you break the bonds created by activity by expanding the boundaries of energy so that the hold is loosened. For example, you build a strong body and then stretch it with physical exercise so that it becomes relaxed and expanded. This internal action is known as Kriya in Yogic sciences. This is the same thing described as the cyclical relationship between yin and yang In Chinese medicine, which has both internal and external practices.

When the muscles fatigue, the blood flow turns inward towards the breathing muscles of the abdomen and chest, including the intercostals and diaphragm. So once you have worked up a certain amount of intense activity, naturally this energy travels upwards to the lungs from the body physical centre, the lower abdomen. So whether or not the goal was to do this, simply by expending energy the body draws back in what has been expended, just as droplets of water descend back down to the earth once they have vaporised as steam. Everything can be used and re used. Again, once a certain threshold has been reached, this naturally happens. Or, if you work directly with the abdominals and breathing muscles of this region, then you end up being able to perform exercise with more vigour and energy because you have increased the capacity of circulation. So it is not important which way round you do it, only that you go through a process of expenditure of energy, a change of state which enables the cyclical process of transformation.

Internal and external energy expenditure

When a person is young and full of energy, then expenditure is naturally the way forwards. When one reaches an older age, where the abundance is not so natural, then generating this energy from within consciously becomes the way. Both are natural. So with the younger athlete physical activity tends to dominate, whereas with the older athlete perhaps the breathing exercises and mediation are the focus. This is why many athletes cannot understand how a Tai Chi practitioner can just sit or stand there focusing on the breath for long periods of time. However, the reason is that they are using their muscle skeletal system to keep their spine erect so that the breathing muscles, particularly the diaphragm, abdomen, and upper body, are able to move freely. The younger athlete is using up energy externally to achieve the same thing. In both cases a different expression of the same energy is created, a transformation occurs.

The the internal practitioner is not using energy and the body frame so much for massive expenditure of energy produced by high intensity physical activity. The body becomes more internalised in its activity. At the same time, when the internal organs are able to hang from the bodies frame like structure, rather than collapsed on top of each other, they are able to support maximal energy cultivation in a healthy way. So the sitting postures and harmonic movements are aimed at creating such a frame which allows the body organs to function properly. Because the younger athlete or animal can achieve this automatically in their prime, or at least without so much detrimental effects, this stage usually comes later. Although, it would be hugely beneficial if a younger athlete could experience this kind of work, but it is impossible to experience something like this unless there is a pressing need or an unusually grand goal.

When people take steroids, this increases the amount of testosterone in the blood. This basically means that hormones and activity levels increase which means that an individual can work harder and recover quicker. The young athlete is more or less in this state in their prime anyway. This explains why there is usually the goal of reproduction or athletic performance, because the same hormones are used for both. when one or the other is the sole focus, the other tends to dominate less. Desire is desire, and the object of desire might change but this doesn’t change the process of energy, which is to transform and reach a common state of dissolution. The question is can hormones be used used for internal, or spiritual purposes? It is definatly possible, anything can be used to enhance your own development. If you can focus as exclusively on practice as consciously as the survival process drives you, then you have total involvement with that rather than an external desire.

Steroid use decreases the amount of testosterone naturally created within the body, so most of the time it is needed by individuals experiencing difficulty producing hormones internally. When it is created from within naturally, it must go towards supplying the entire body, such as the organs, before going to the muscles. Both ways increase the karmic structure of the body. However, there is less left over when it gets to the muscles from the internal body than when it is injected in from the outside. When it comes from the outside, this situation is reversed and whatever is left goes to the organs. The latter is a terrible idea from a health perspective, which explains why organ degeneration is a common side effect of steroid abuse over time, because everything goes to muscle growth. So all activity is karma, which simply means a consequence of activity rather than a value judgement. Such abuse also undermines even strength and power in the long run, because only when the organs function well can health and fitness be maximised.

Imagine you rev the engine of your car and speed across the road at 150 mph. If you do this once or twice, you might get away with it. It may feel quite exhilarating. But if you do this repeatedly, then over time, you risk your life increasingly. This isn’t a good idea if you want to experience the drive properly, only if you are escaping from some kind of pressing danger. This is essentially what is happening when people over train and abuse their system, they are over practicing survival and attempting to curtail their demise, as if that is life. The, the body thinks it is fighting constantly. So this is also used as a way to trick the body into a reactive all or nothing response to beat an opponent. This too can be used as a spiritual process. Yes it’s a powerful way to do things, but it’s just asking for trouble in the end unless you transform this energy with inner practices. We will look at how this works. So maintaining a good level of organ functioning is needed if the whole system is to reach a balance and become functionally optimised.

Cheating Death

During fight or flight, the blood goes to the muscles to react to a threat. This is obviously needed sometimes. During this phase, the body thinks it’s going to die, and attempts to function in a limited way to prevent being wiped out. This is true of many reactive states. The heart rate increases and breathing becomes panicked. Here, the body is not trying to live, it is trying to not die. So the goal of inner martial arts is to ride this wave so that you create all sorts of buffers through breathing exercises, postures, and paying attention towards over riding the detrimental effects of impending death. Such exercises are not aimed at fighting effectiveness. So you could say that the inner processes are trying to to live, whilst the body alone in its primal reactive state is heading towards death slowly or quickly depending on the situation. Luckily, usually these things are not fatal, but in terms of experiencing life, emergency situations tend to sap the energy and undermine health over time without corrective action.

Inner martial arts practice is the reversing of this process, so that when your body thinks its going to die, you consciously find a way to bring the blood and energy back to the internal breathing muscles. It is not a case of deluding yourself or wishing away impending danger. This is a fools paradise, take positive action instead. You are just trying to put the brakes on your system so that you hang on and ride the situation as gracefully as possible. by riding the wave you do not stop it. The situation around you still unfolds but you experience it fully consciously, through the energy systems, breathing, and postures as a powerful response. In other words, you experience the event from an elevated position and understanding. The energy or Chi body, is part you and part your surroundings. The instincts are all of the body. This merging of two types is symbolised by yin and yang, which is the developed human being. This experience adds a new dimension to the same event so that it no longer overwhelms you. Since the body is always dieing to some degree, there are no shortage of opportunities to practice the internal side of martial arts which is aimed at prolonging life. You do not need to wait for a particular event.

The energy which fuels the muscles to fend off an attack or sprint away from it must have come from somewhere. The limbs and peripheral nervous system literally steal this energy and blood supply which is otherwise used for maintaining the system. You are looking to redirect this back where it was stolen from. So it makes sense to steal this back, or to use this situation to your advantage. The ancients talk of trial by fire. What this means is that the intensity of the situation can be used to tranform your inner state, just as we looked at earlier with the state of water.

Heat produces transformation, so that you become more flexible to experience without breaking. At the same time you take on a new experience under such transformation. So when a threat is dealt with, what you want to do is retrieve this energy back to the internal organs of the body predominantly, so that you are enriched. This is the science of inner martial arts. The external fight still happens but it is no longer as consequential as the inner exchange. You can even be covered in injuries and not pay much attention. Not that this is the aim, the aim is to transform your experience to the highest possible expression. The key is to remain in awareness as much as possible, only switching to attention of the opponent when necessary not by compulsion or reaction alone.

How To Sleep

Posted on by joeharman8 | 11 min read | 125 views

During sleep, the body renews itself and recuperates energy. The general guidelines are to have eight hours of sleep and to get a regular schedule in terms of when you go to sleep and get up. Personally, I like to get to sleep early, about 8.30pm, and then get up at around just after 4.am. If I get a bit less, it doesn’t really matter so long as in general I go by this roughly. The exact amount of sleep a person can get, or that they need, will vary from person to person. For example, people may need more sleep if they eat a lot. This is to make sure that the energy is processed properly through digestion and muscle growth, which occurs following heavy training during sleep predominantly.

In recent times, sleep has become more and more difficult, and many people resort to taking various drugs to help them, or sleeping with the television on to distract them from over thinking. In todays world, people in general are less active. For example, even in a busy job, there is emailing instead of walking up the stairs, and increased transport options instead of walking. Even in martial arts practice, there is a standardised way to do things, which involves being told exactly what to do rather than figuring it out independently.

In the past it was more normal to expend more energy so that you cultivated an emerging sense of accomplishment through trial and error. This is when seeking to become was more important than arrival. In other words, there was a certain amount of energy expended which was good for health, which would be considered inefficient in terms of technical performance by todays experts. So ambition to achieve more at a quicker rate has paradoxically made us more lazy and unhealthy in many ways. This has made many people more restless instead of more accomplished.

Because of the hectic schedules we live with, there is a need to switch off but at the same time there is a lot of confusion surrounding the best way to go about it. It is difficult to go to sleep and have a restful sleep if you are thinking in terms of what you haven’t achieved. What about that email you didn’t send? Maybe you forgot to reply to a text message quickly enough. All of these modern day problems can be played over in the mind and turned into problems. In reality, however much you achieve, there will always be more to do tomorrow. So it is important to stop trying to cram in so much everyday, because no matter what we achieve there will always be more to do. For example, if you are a salesman and you reach your targets they will go up anyway no matter how much you try to reach them.

When you try to go to sleep immediately after being in a high energy state, all that happens if you toss and turn in your bed. For example, if you bring the work mentality to bed at night, when you lie down you tend to be wired and tired at the same time. So sleep begins long before you drop off. For example, the natural cycle is to rise in the morning, and gradually wind down from midday onwards. It’s like the rising of the tides, they reach a high point and then recede back. This is because energy is expended and outwardly manifests during the day time, and then gradually settles back to the centre at night. If you picture a circle, the energy reaches the periphery in the day time, and then concentrates back to the centre and becomes small at night.

So to be up all day and night is like your inner sun is shining all day – the earth is bound to get scorched! So the temperature drops at night, metabolism slows, outward bound senses begin to decline. To sleep effectively, you want to be in a state of non activity. Or at least, this is what should happen ideally most of the time. This slows everything down, including the mind, which is otherwise be active during the day. This is all common sense. It is a question or resting so that you can work, as well as working so that you can rest.

So it is important to go to sleep in the right state so that you begin a new each day. Otherwise, the events and problems of the previous day tend to follow on to the next. In the Bible, God Himself is said to have rested after creation. This surely wasn’t out of laziness, but because not only is there a need for non doing, but also of breaking down the old. In Hinduism, Shiva is depicted as the destroyer. The relevance of this is that unless you destroy the barriers to the new, you will not get rid of the old. Obviously, there is a fear that if you destroy what you know, then who you are is jeopardised. However, what you are gets blown up like a bubble during the day, and all that happens at night is that this same bubble pops and flattens back down. There is a change of form but the materials are all there to be revitalised and rebuilt anew each day.

When you feel a renewal and fresh perspective, It is like being born again. This is why it’s best to tire yourself out with physical or mental work throughout the day time, and gradually wind this down in the afternoon to enter into a more mediative state. When one feels tired they just slip off to sleep easily because they have usefully employed their energy. If you just go out for a long walk, chop some wood, or do any kind of manual work for a few hours a day, then you will see what I’m talking about. This also gets you out in the fresh air, which obviously is a healthy thing to do.

So we go from activity to non activity, from energy to nothingness. This state of nothingness is often called death, but in fact a restful sleep is a bit like a mini death. It’s important to establish this idea of renewal and becoming anew each day in the mind, so that nothing is left unfinished from the previous day.

It’s not like you need to achieve everything in one day in order to rest. This is unnecessary holding on and leads to anxiety before sleeping. This does not mean that you do nothing in the day just because you think it will never be enough. It’s not that at all. It’s just about being realistic about what is actually possible and doing that, rather than what you imagine or what social expectations are. These realities are often very different. So you get to a point where its best to write off the expectations of the day at a sensible point, dropping them off and picking them up again as you would your luggage at the campsite. However, a lot of people hold on to their luggage and refuse to rest for the night. But what sort of state are they in the next day? Often they are unable to do what’s needed of them, and they regret not stopping earlier.

when you go to sleep at the right time, the bags are there in the morning ready for the next hike. It really is like that. A lot of baggage which we hold on to can simply drop off when we relinquish holding on to it. Knowing this and putting into practice can drastically reduce the need for so much sleeping pills or other interventions. So in the morning, you take it all, all the baggage, to the new destination is the next day. There is absolutely nothing to be gained from wanting to do an entire life journey with a heavy back pack in one day.

Further Tips

Certain sounds assists with dropping off to sleep, because they resonate with the heart chakra, the solar plexus. The solar plexus is known as the heart centre, because it is related to not only distributing blood and energy around the body, but because it is in charge of relating us to the wider environment, including the universe. So this chakra is more active in the evening and night, whereas the Hara centre (the bodys physical centre) of the lower chakras is more active in the day time. To assist with night time work, try listening to water sounds, which are related to blood and circulation. It is also beneficial to listen to Indian Classical Music, as well as Western classical Music. Personally, I find Indian Classical music only makes sense when one becomes meditative, I never had any taste for it before I that.

There is a tendency in Martial Arts to be in this mode of never switching off. This is a big weakness if it isn’t sorted out with appropriate strategies. The biggest strength of martial artists is the energy they bring. To compliment this, learn to develop the opposite complimentary aspect of yourself during rest. During a war, a soldier could either easily go to sleep because they would be so exhausted, or be kept up at night with anxiety because of bombs going off around them. The bombs going off around you are not anything you can change, but your self awareness that you should be winding down is entirely within your control to respond to. so if the work has been done, it even becomes easier to sleep under disturbance. So it is not so much about having perfect sleep all the time, but creating the necessary inner conditions for the best possible outcomes.

It is important to get enough sleep so that you are prepared for the next day. The key point is that it is a question of quality of sleep rather than just quantity. The more you get into the habit of planning and preparing for sleep properly, the more it becomes a habit like muscle memory. So at first it may seem difficult, but then on top of your efforts you will also have good habits going with you rather than against you. In this way you will be swimming with the tide rather than against it. Otherwise, sleep becomes a big effort that requires too much insistence and energy for you to settle into it and relax. What a burden it then becomes! It is the same thing in training, at first it’s a big effort but eventually habits kick in so that your efforts become easeful and relaxed, even though you are fully energised. So going to sleep has nothing to do with diminishing energy, it’s just the energies of the body go down and the inner subtle energies are used to revitalise the system.

You prepare for sleep as you would prepare for an exam, or even a competitive match. All the hard work is done earlier on so that you gradually taper off with confidence. If you try to do everything at the last minute when all this should have been done earlier, this just causes regret, anxiety, and all sorts of emotional states which interrupt clarity of the mind and restfulness. If a blacksmith tries to heat up the metal when it’s time to cool down, there won’t be enough time for it to set. This requires organisation. Similarly, if they try to heat it up again when it is setting, they risk ruining the finish by interrupting the cooling process so it doesn’t set. Sleep is very much like that, you heat yourself up with activity in the day, and set into the mould at night as you take on a new form.

In terms of sleep position, I recommend sleeping on the right side. The right side is usually the stronger side, the yang side of the body. This is where the liver is and pressure here helps to stimulate this area so that it works optimally. If you keep your knees slightly raised and overlapping, this also creates a bit of pressure in the abdomen, to help stimulate the gut. It also stops you rolling over so much. I’ve been doing this for years, and I’ve never had a problem with it. The key is to also stretch your spine enough so that your not compressed. The left side is generally reserved for circulation, so pressure here could become counter productive, whereas if you make it free to expand by lying on the right side, the allows for increased circulation. Of course its only natural to toss and turn from time to time, so these are just guidelines.

Sexual Energy and Martial Arts

Posted on by joeharman8 | 17 min read | 280 views

Note

In the following article, you may find some commonly held assumptions interrogated as well as some unusual perspectives explored. However, take nothing on faith. In the process seeking truth, many preconceived notions become limited, and others get brushed off as hot air. At the same time, all of the information here is easily verifiable with a quick internet search, so it up to you to find out whether these concepts are workable for you. Martial Arts is about fearless self study, and reaching towards an uninhibited life process that you are.

Reproduction

When people think of sex, they probably mainly think about procreation. Procreation is the main driver for survival of the species, which is why its such an enduring process in nature. During the physical manifestation of sex, both parents reach the infinite by passing on their genes to the next generation. In this way, the genetic material lives on even after death. So in many ways, the life force of the parents is passed on to the next generation. At the same time, it can be an extremely enriching process for the parents to bring up their children.

So reproduction is the earliest form of activity alongside eating. It was there from the beginning of evolution, unlike forms of cognition seen later in evolution. In nature there is a certain longing between two to become one. So reproduction is one way. In spiritual terms, this same energy manifesting within has been symbolised as Yin merging with Yang, or the masculine merging with the feminine. A basic example of this interaction is how heat warms water to change its state to more active, or how water cools heat to make it more temperate. Essentially, this is energy finding a a balanced expression through two opposite poles and becoming one. This attempt at merging can be successful, partially successful, or incompatible.

When you remove the psychological and emotional aspects of reproduction, you have an energy expression which has a form of its own. Obviously, this emotional aspect is highly significant in human relationships. On the other hand, the energy expression of the same energy which is referred to a sex takes on a different dimension within the chakra system, or energy body. The energy body, or Chi body as it is known in Chinese Systems, has two polarities within it, the Yin channel and the Yang Channel. This corresponds with the Indian Chakras system of Ida and Pingala, which is talking about the same thing. For simplicity, the Yin Channel is considered the feminine channel, and the Yang channel is considered the masculine channel1. So when a balance is struck within, and the two aspects of an individual begin to function as one, this means that a certain fulfilment and merging has taken place. This is so with or without two people.

Hormones and Energy

When the hormones kick in during puberty and beyond, there is increased testosterone in the system, as well as other sex hormones. It is well known that these same hormones are responsible for athletic performance, motivational states, and other energetic behaviours2. So when an individual starts arriving towards their reproductive prime, there is an influx of new states of energy which is responsible for increased physical and mental power as well as sexuality. This is goes on towards the age of, say, twenty five to thirty years old quite naturally. This is an increased activity related to muladhara, or the root of the energy system. In martial arts it is said that the martial artist must develop a strong root. This can be interpreted in many ways.

Historically in martial arts, it was important to engage the young practitioner in high intensity activity at around the age of thirteen or so, because the root system is highly active at this time. Common experience tells us that around this age teenagers can get despondent or easily distracted if their energies are not usefully employed. On the other hand, they can begin to show exceptional promise in certain ways. So they would be put either into traditional martial arts forms, which had an intellectual dimension, or fighting. This is similar to how in wider society, kids are put into sports clubs or perhaps a more intellectual or creative pursuit like Music or Science, or possibly all of these. The idea is that if the young martial artist can channel the energies into some kind of activity, then these same energies would naturally find an increased expression in this form of activity. Otherwise they would just dissipate at the level of Muladhara, the root, before flourishing within to their full potential.

Developing a strong Root

So activity to do with with the root chakra, roughly related to the pelvic floor and hip region, is strongly related to reproduction and energy generation. The hip and spine are the areas of energy generation for both reproduction and physical work. The root, the instinctive energies, is also related to the pinnacle, which is to say the head or conscious thought. So the whole process of evolution and raising ones energies has to do sending energy upwards from the base. This is why there has traditionally been great emphasis on work and energy expenditure in youth, because at this time the energies go up and down quite naturally as the root is strong. Establishing this root so that an oak tree can grow is a commonly used analogy which is extremely accurate. There is also the same need in later life, however once this foundation is established the later work can develop from this and take on a new dimension. So there is a need for the ground work to take place first.

What we understand as sexual anatomy also has another energetic anatomy in both the Yogic cultures and internal martial arts. The reason it can be important to look at the energy mechanics of sexuality is because this energy takes on a different form once it has been cultivated further up the system. This is why such emphasis has been placed on postural alignment in martial arts, to direct the energy from the root so that it piles up and expands throughout the system rather than just at the root level. In this way, the martial artist can turn an instrintive drive into a force driven consciously from within that takes on an entirely new form. This is all made possible because of the internal longing to evolve and transcend limitations from the ground up.

The Truth about NoFap

In recent years there has been a movement known as NoFap. The idea is that if a person stops sexual activity for a time, then there is an increased level of testosterone, and motivation, as well as general well being. In martial arts, some trainers promote abstinence from a variety of activities before an approaching bout to increase competitiveness and power. One thing that is often overlooked is that it’s not the testosterone or abstinence that creates motivation or power. It is living a healthy lifestyle. So wether or not this is necessary depends on the individual.

Increased testosterone is a stimulus which kind of pesters the system into action, or what the Yogic systems calls Rajas. So the whole point is to change these Rajas into Oojas, which are subtler energies. It is like turning fertiliser into productive soil for a plant. These Oojas are just Rajas transformed and raised to a higher energy pitch. So it is not necessarily that one who has more hormones is more motivated, it is just that it is possible to transform testosterone so that its influence goes down and is converted into oojas through activity in some way. It’s not that it just sits there indefinitely tely. In this way it has become useful whether our not that was the intention.

So bringing physical energies down through work is one way to transform energy. This can be very productive. When a father holds a child, the same thing happens and testosterone goes down. When it goes up, and one engages in work the same thing. So It is being in a stable environment, whether that is within or without, that creates the power and inner clarity to be able to focus and cultivate the energies. So traditionally, sometimes marriage was advocated, whereas at other times, under certain circumstances the disciple remained went to a monastery to work. In both instances either emotional or physical work and effort is going on in a big way.

Sex is just basic biology, and as we have seen there are many expressions of this same life energy elsewhere. Biology is neither something to be denied or glorified, nor does it have to be imagined in any particular way. If it is viewed romantically, the thoughts are different to when it is viewed energetically. It is up to each person in which they they explore it. When it takes on an additional transformed dimension, then this is inner martial arts.

Establishing Stability

When Martial arts takes on an increased inner dimension, it becomes necessary to establish a security within oneself. Traditionally, a person would go to a monastery or temple and remove themselves from certain influences which might draw them towards unnecessary sex content. For example, many of the television and internet influences have a lot to do with sex, in its purely superficial form. So this isn’t always the best place to make attempts to go deeper and to avoid the cyclical nature of fluctuations of hormonal influence. At the same time, there’s no denial of biology, it’s there. When it comes to the biological side of it, there’s no meaning or right and wrong by itself, it’s simply fact.

If you look at India, many of the temples are covered in sexual imagery but they are handled appropriately in a certain environment. These images are on the outside of the temple, the periphery. Once you enter the temple and move beyond this, there is a different ambiance, one of spiritual seeking. So once the way it is looked at changes, there is a shift in understanding first of all. Then there is further development. So it is about seeing the different aspects, to make an informed decision. When it comes to the Karma Sutra, this is a document that was looked at like any other anatomical text, because this is what it is. In the same way, books on Killing written by warriors, as well as Gods of war adorning Chinese temples, were looked upon with “No mind”. This simply means that these things were included in their proper place without undue fixation or obsession. So facts of life don’t need to become an obsession because they don’t have a philosophy or theoretical position attached to them beyond what is basic biology. So how to make a stable position out of this?

So what are these other dimensions of energy we were talking about earlier? When energy circulates and ascends, it is a different experience than that of ignition and dissipation, or start and stop. It is not better or worse, there is just a difference. There are many ways of looking at this. Essentially, when one is able to contain and distribute energy within themselves, having established a certain balance and stability, there is a decreased need to search for an object. This search is going on all the time, whether it is in some kind of conscious martial arts practice, the search for God, or simply in reproduction. The ultimate goal is that one want to find oneness of experience, and this search is limitless. And once there is no object there is no limit.

Reaching the Crown

In Tai Chi, as well as many other practices, when one seeks to expand their consciousness to a higher level, they are looking to awaken the third eye and to reach the crown centre. This is the whole reason behind meditative and inner martial arts practices. This is why the Asian systems insist upon extending the head from the crown, as well as extending the chin down. This stretches the neck, increasing the energy ascension from the root to the pinnacle3. The whole posture is stretched and through the stretched spine, energy transmission is optimised. If this is practiced regularly, then over time one begins to raises their level of awareness, even if they don’t known the exact mechanisms behind it. The goal is a state of no mind, or experience inclusive of everything. This is what is known in Tai Chi as the grand ultimate, or totality of experience. There are many names to it of course. Essentially it means that you include everything in its proper place and in a productive way, around the crown of your experience.

So the energies of the grand ultimate are always trying to come together, either through reproduction or through the spiritual process of universal oneness, love, or whatever you might call it. This is what sex means, and this is what martial arts mastery means. Union of energy is called the merging of yin and yang, or oneness of masculine and feminine energies. This is not some theoretical concept but knowledge which leads to methods of practice. These methods of practice are various forms which encourage harmonious movements and postures, as well as particular attitudes which are conducive to productive behaviour. So all kinds of postures and codes of conduct were established, which essentially are back up systems for the real thing, which is realisation of the ultimate nature.

In nature, the two types of energies take on certain forms which are commonly referred to as a male and female types4. However, these are also considered tendencies which are present in each gender. However, both of these opposite states of energy are really two dualities making up a whole, which is similar to the positive and negative pole of a battery. The two opposites contain power when they unite, which is why there is a strong attraction. This is why it is relevant to martial arts, because these two opposites coming together are at at war as well as drawn together intensely, depending on how you look at it.

When the battery is plugged in, there is an increased energy state which powers the system. For example, when energy particles in distant galaxies create high energy rays, these waves occur far from the Earth. The full extend of these high energy states is not felt on Earth, because they would fry the life on Earth. So, even though they are the most powerful they are tempered by the atmosphere for good reason. In the human being, the earth is the physical body. The Sun is the energy body. So the Earth never feels the full extend of the sun which powers it, because it would be burnt up if it did. The job of the Earth is to make up a protective atmosphere to take in moderate levels of the sun. At the same time, the full extent is felt. There is much confusion about all this. So it is not that if you increase the physical body’s dimensions you get powerful. The best way is to increase its integrity and potential to establish the right atmosphere.

Love

The symbolism of good versus evil and of love are essentially one and the same. The work of the aspiring martial artist is to establish the right atmosphere for successful flowering, or for war to play out as in the best possible way without division. When one achieves love within themselves, if it is not handled appropriately is is like the sword of Damocles hanging over your head. Otherwise it is great. So you could say that what is good and what is evil is a sort of temporary separation of union into a duality. When a balance is achieved there is acceptance and non distinction. In other words, when the two opposite forces within ourselves or the environment finds a common ground, there is balance and stability, which creates harmony. This harmony is a dynamic interplay of intense forces, which is tempered. Balance will be achieved differently according the the individuals type of need. There are many aspects to this.

There is nothing wrong with sex as it is. There is no reason to dress it up into something it isn’t. The various types of physical and psychological forms it takes have nothing to do with the internal side of martial arts. The romantic ideas about it are fueled by imagination and memory, not intuitive sense or direction experiential perception5. This is because in order for sex to become a psychological or biological process, this involves somebody else. However, when these two parts become separate rather than united, they become opposites rather than united. When this happens, all sorts of distinctions can be made between people, as if they are separate species.

If people break up from a marriage, there is an increased emphasis on differences, even if nothing much may have changed. It even sometimes happens there can be an increased attraction, but also an increased separateness. So separateness need not have anything to do with lack of attraction, and two becoming one doesn’t mean necessarily there is an increased attraction. This is because if we stay at the physical level, that is just the front end. In reality, for at least most of the time, there is a lot more which unites peoples than separates them. whichever way allows you to see this is unity between people the right path. When you realise this, you are looking cultivate your relationships with others to reflect this reality.

So when there is an increased separateness, there is a strong opposition, as well as acts of pursuit and avoidance. However, it is a simple biological fact that there is more in common between people than there are differences. The basis of sex is often that peoples differences are exaggerated, which is why there is a powerful urge to get together. These differences are really very minimal and not actually relevant most of the time in our day to day activities. It isn’t enough to make a whole reality out of small differences unless they are worked out properly.

So a very small aspect which separates us has become increasingly the basis of interaction between the sexes in many parts of society. This is largely because differences have often been exaggerated, and many people have become frustrated and alienated from each other as a result. So insecurity and limited identification with differences has gone up. This, in a nutshell, is the problem of modern society, that such a small aspect of life should become such a focus. This has lead to many frustrations. I’m not saying that differences are unimportant, but its just biology, and when you go about your day to day tasks, it’s a small difference.

In martial arts, there is no difference. For example, traditionally at least, every dressed and looked the same in uniforms. Strict social conventions were upheld, not as a way to suppress, but so that everyone looked around and saw familiarity rather than difference. This was the traditional view in its proper context. Normally, it was never about suppression of the individual because everybody knows that suppressing usually has opposite results to those intended. So as a reactionary approach, there was overindulgence. But that too failed to solve the problem of utilisation of energy in its most productive sense. So when you are seeking the best possible way to use your mental and physical energies, this is what martial arts is all about. Each individual will have to address this in some way, but how you go about that and to what extend is down to individual choice alone.

References

1 https://intuitivemartialarts.com/?s=feminine

2 https://intuitivemartialarts.com/2023/04/26/conquest-at-all-costs-drugs-and-the-evolution-of-martial-arts-part-2/

3 https://intuitivemartialarts.com/fundamental-techniques/

4 https://intuitivemartialarts.com/2021/04/05/balance-ida-pingala-ying-and-yang-mental-and-physical/

5 https://intuitivemartialarts.com/2023/03/31/from-knowledge-to-intuition-part-2/

Sexuality and Martial Arts

Posted on by joeharman8 | 13 min read | 109 views

The instinctive drive to reproduce has undoubtedly played a part in the evolution of Martial Arts. The laws of the jungle say that certain species are here for two reasons, to hunt and to reproduce. There are other functions too, such as being part of the ecosystem, but essentially the basic drives of animals are to reproduce and to eat. The masculine force is driven towards the feminine, just as Yin interacts with Yang. Most species go about this as part of a cycle, according to seasonal conditions for example. These factors have played a significant role in the evolution of humans, which is now increasingly under conscious control, unlike in the rest off the animal kingdom. So, the difference between humans and animals is that we have a conscious awareness and a certain control over the processes of the mind and body. An animal does not, it is simply alive because nature wants it to reproduce and make way for the next generation. It is driven inn a certain way.

How is sexuality related to Martial Arts? It is not actually related in any way. However, the drive to reproduce can cause animals, including humans, to become hostile towards others they see as rivals. This is an example of how conflict can arise. Conflict often creates a hormonally driven exchange of territorial activity between such rivals. Or, it can be the other way round, and hormones drive people towards certain activity. This is often the basis for fighting in the wild, just as it can be in a nightclub for instance. This instinctive exchange over territory is not really what martial arts is about, even if it is what often drives combat. So it is a part of day to day experience more generally, and certain drives function according to different inclinations.

It is not just a case of enhancing your combat capabilities just to fight over a trophy or territory. Above all, martial arts is a process, and a war against the destructive tendencies which often drive a species towards the the grave ultimately. There have been many codes of conduct in martial arts for this reason. So the tendency to engage in such forms of survival are there within the warrior. Codes of conduct and practices put restraint on potentially desk destructive tendencies. The methods for addressing these forces are varied, depending on the individuals inclinations and expectations of life.

Testosterone is one chemical which is associated with both sexuality and combat. Will testosterone drive action? Certainly it will, but the question is, do you want to be driven by chemicals, or drive them consciously as you would a limb? For the man on the street, this may be what drives him towards attacking somebody or trying to impress or attract a partner. another individual may focus more on channeling this in some way to become a different prospect. In fact, if you get into a heated situation with somebody who is trying to appear dominant in front of a potential mate, then this might go very badly no matter which side you are on due to the volatility of such a situation. For someone who is driven hormonally in such a way, unless they beat the opposition and impress a potential mate in the process, they are unlikely to be satisfied. But that is not necessarily a very good state to be in if you want to become successful in the longer term beyond the immediate situation in hand. So martial arts involves activity which will bring the need to engage in volatile activity down drastically if it is done effectively. There are hormones, but it is not hormone driven.

There have been many ideas about sexuality and Martial arts. For instance, some say you cannot have sex before a competition for example. This is a popular notion in boxing circles, because they believe this will make the boxer more competitive. As I said before, this has nothing to do with martial arts. If a certain pressure is to be maintained within the system, it needs to have the necessary flexibility and circulation. If an electric circuit doesn’t have the right transformers, dampeners, insulation, etc., then it becomes a potential problem. So energy is energy, it doesn’t have a goal, the same energy can power a city of create an electric chair. This is why in traditional martial arts there has always been an emphasis on deep breathing and circulation after intensive bouts of activity, to clear the system of blockages and interference. This fullfills the requirements to make clear decisions. Martial Arts ensures that stagnation of energy is minimised and tension is not held in any particular region. So this is a way of developing balance and tempered fire power, so that the drive for intense activity becomes fulfilled.

At the same time, for many people having the right relationship and family situation can provide the necessary social and emotional support to succeed in martial arts and provide meaning in their life. This is another way of fulfilling unfulfilled needs. So Martial Arts involves building a quality within that utilises everything in its proper place, so that the need to take further action is gone. For some, if their family is with them, or their significant other, this can not only become a psychological boost but also a union of souls so that they are not alone in the fight. But the outcome of a war is not decided based on social factors, but they can be tools in the arsenal contributing to the outcome. It is the same as anything else, it is the striving within to evolve and Bette oneself, by whatever means appropriate to the individual.

Martial arts is not an activity, but a process. So to make sweeping statements about “You can’t have sex” or “You must have sex” don’t mean anything at all. Sex itself is based on the Muladhara chakra region, or the Hui Yin region in Chinese Systems. This is known as the most Yin or feminine centre in the body. The reason for base chakras significance in martial arts is because the tail is related to the head. The Sahasrara Chakra, or Bai Hui in Chinese systems, is known as the masculine or Yang centre, at the head level. So, within the individual, there is a longing of the feminine to unite with the masculine, just as their is in many other ways. This is obviously the same idea of physical union of a couple. This is symbolised by Shakti rising to Meet Shiva in Yogic systems. There are any number of references. Essentially, when the tow polar opposite energies converge, they can meet the highest point and unify. Otherwise, one is said to be too yang, or too yin. For example, a street thug who goes around in an agitated way pulverising people would be considered excessively yang. Others might say they are too masculine in a certain way. Here, feminine does not mean a woman, and masculine does not mean a man. It simply means two polarities interacting to create powerful new possibilities.

Because martial arts is rooted in conquest, it will always appear as though this is what its about. But this is not so. At the root level, Muladhara, there is always a striving to rise. If you were to judge a flower by its roots, you would never see it in terms of fragrance and flowering which was achieved by rising above certain conditions. At the same time, the root is to be studied, accepted, and seen in contrast to the flowers. If a plant manages to master and move beyond the root level, it uses such a platform for growth and stability. When life exists at that higher level, there is an increased nourishment from other sources of energy such as sunlight and oxygen, as well as soil. In the same way, when a martial artist moves beyond the periphery of experience with acceptance of it, they develop new dimensions within themselves. So these new dimensions are established from the roots, but are not experienced at the root level exclusively. This is because, experience can take a variety of directions even though all life follows a common direction.

So it is not a question of this much activity or that much activity. This isn’t how the body works. It is up to each individual to decide the amount appropriate to them. Take the example of food. Some people must eat a certain amount to maintain a certain weight. If somebody else tries this it might not be appropriate to them. The same goes with food types. Some people get on well with one type of food, other people get on with another type of food. There is no standardised amount really, other than guidelines. There are guidelines which apply to the average person, but the truth is that this average person does not really exist in reality. Energy is formless, so to look at the physical properties only is limited. So the more you individualise your own potential, the more of an outlier you will become and the less you represent the average. In other words, the more you realise your own individual strengths and unique qualities, the more of an authority you become on yourself. This all depends on how your energies function, rather than your form.

Take one hundred people who are very different and you will get an average which represents nobody in particular. If someone is stressed this may cause them to lose weight even if what they are eating remains constant. This shows how diverse each persons needs and requirements are in reality. Similarly, if someone does intensive meditation this may cause the energies to circulate rather than stagnate creating the appropriate level of metabolism for them, even if there is not much physical action going on. For another person, they may require intense activity in order to reduce the stresses building up within them. So for one person, sitting still is a way to experience a sense of balance and energised alertness. Here, all problems can then be worked out because by imitating stillness and silence, one may realise that they are not defined by activity. Getting themselves lost is good if it is done consciously. For another, the situation may require physical work so that they work out all the pent up energy and stress.

Saying that you must or must not think about something often has to opposite effect to what was intended. So if you tell a martial artist not to think about sex leading up to a competition, then in all likelihood that is what they will think about. This is why general prescriptions are actually harmful. But sexuality is a small part of the individual which is often blown out of proportion. In terms of energy it represents the roots of the organism. But the root also represents the top in many ways. However, if the roots end up imposing definitions on the head, this is like the army leading the general. The nature of the root is to sink into the earth not take the place of the crown. In Yoga for instance, Shiva does not come down to meet Shakti. The nature of any instinctive drive is activity, and to subside once it has been accepted and worked out. Yoga, martial arts, family relations, and other situations have all been employed as effective channelling methods in this way.

If, for example, you feel extremely angry and do some breathing exercises or martial arts activity, you soon feel as though this instinctive drive has been worked out and channelled appropriately. In a way it has subsided, in another it has transformed. In other words, anger was the beginning of action rather than an end in itself. Of course anger can be used in its original form, but it can also be worked out energetically. This is the nature of an intense energy, it requires activity of some kind to transform it. Lots of people do not realise that like any instinct, sexuality has many potential uses. The key is to engage with deep breathing or meditative exercises, such as Yoga and Tai Chi for instance, so that a transitory state can subside and can be easily transformed in a short time into vigorous energy, or what is known as oojas, in Yogic terminology.

The body is not responding to your instincts or drives, it’s just that the energies of the body have a multi dimensional nature depending on the activity. According to function you assign your energies, that’s where they will expand. So depending on the discretion of the mind and the inclinations of the individual, various energy states can be transformed or set in motion off the bat in one way or another. Energy functions according to not only the space you give it, but also the situation it meets within you according to the work you are doing and the direction of your efforts.

It is easy to get lost in the initial stages of activity without a proper road map or full view of the goal to be attained. Actually, a lot of the time people may have a map but they don’t know how to read it. For example, people get into martial arts because they like fighting. They may think this is because they are bad people, but it might be that their energies have come to the surface and they haven’t found effective methods yet. They only realise this later after some work and self understanding. Other people get into martial arts because they want to develop this urge towards self mastery rather than conquest over others. In terms of experience, there is nothing wrong or right about either way. Individuals are in various states of seeking towards fulfilment. Socially and morally there will be various opinions about it. But what’s important is the individual subjective experience and whether their activity is beneficial or not to their own development.

When you sit in meditation, train diligently with full attention, or simply perform an activity with awareness, there is no experience of sexuality, there is just energy functioning according to the situation. In the Garden of Eden, we have all heard of the tree of knowledge and the forbidden fruit. Knowledge divides things up into good and bad, right and wrong. The idea to pursue the tree of knowledge came because the snake fed Eve that information. Because of that, human life was said to be possible. So the Tree of Knowledge represents a certain kind of idea. The energy addresses this idea by cresting a certain form. In Yoga, Shiva is depicted with a snake at his head. Here, symbolically speaking, the snake and energy has risen to a different dimension to create a different form of expression. This energy is known as Kundalini, or cosmic energy rising. This is to indicate that the same energy which is responsible for reproduction of the species is involved in self realisation. So there is one energy, responsible for many forms depending on what your circumstances and situation is.

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