breathing – Intuitive Martial Arts

“Weapons are instruments of ill Omen, despised by the Way of Heaven”
“What is gained or lost by winning of losing is trifling”
“It is not to kill people, it is to kill evil”
Yagyu Munenori

Despite what many people think, the true meaning of martial arts is not to maim or destroy your opponent. Neither is it to dominate others and reign victorious over them. No, instead the only enemy to overcome is yourself. “What kind of philosophical rubbish is this” you might say. “I want to be able to intimidate and impress people!” Let me assure you I have gone over every argument you could think of already, and more. At first sight, the self dominance and inner enemies may seem like an evasion of fighting spirit, a passivity and inertia. But in fact, it is the highest form of activity and intense training.

Whilst people may have injured you, or slighted you in some way, it is you who chooses to see them as the enemy. By the time many people realise this choice, it is often at the eleventh hour and they may end up in a very sorry state, having wasted years on trifling matters, ignoring what’s good for them. No matter, because these trials and errors are the only way the vast majority will learn. This is why it doesn’t matter how many mistakes you make along the way, how many beatings you take, and what poor circumstances you might find yourself in. The important thing is that you learn.

This is the path of water. It twists and turns, flows this way and that, crashes against the rocks, and endures turbulences. In the words of Bruce Lee and others, “Be like water”. Most people assume that a martial artist should be hard and tough like solid rock. This is a mistake because as time goes on a rock is worn down and erodes. How true this is of individuals, and of course to some extent all of us.

Water gains momentum as it journeys, and is adaptable and receptive to its changing outer environment. But it retains its essence. In fact, we are more like liquid than solid substances, or should be. Even when we put food in our mouths, it takes liquid salva to break it down and taste it. Don’t be like a rock, developing cracks as you are weathered by circumstances and unable to act fluidly. Water on the other hand retains its qualities and moves forward. Yes, be like water instead, constantly in motion

Many martial artists out there, fancying themselves as tough guys, go around dominating others with their overbearing attitude. This is a huge error, because there will always be someone bigger and tougher out there ready to take your place when you’re worn out and disillusioned. Unable to come to terms with this you’ll end up exhausted and embroiled in a losing battle. Just think of Napoleon. The world is not lacking in such types. This is not the way to spread your influence far and wide. What’s required is a kind of humility, a submission to higher reasoning.

Instead of bullying others and dominating them, I suggest making friends of enemies and showing them positivity. They will be so in awe of your generosity when all they have shown is bitterness or hatred, they will end up showing deference to you. And whilst some battles can’t be avoided, you should do your utmost to avoid them. This approach may take a while, but it is the ultimate form of victory in which everybody gains. The goal is to “entrance” an enemy as the Swordsman, and Zen artist Miyamoto Musashi put it, so that “adversaries themselves are influenced by this mood, becoming less enthusiastic”.

Miyamoto Musashi said “think of your adversaries as your own soldiers”. You might say “What nonsense is this?” I’m motivated by hatred of the enemy, he’s after what’s mine!” But it is not nonsense, because every interaction with others and their hostilities can be seen as a war, a situation requiring diplomacy and command. It is a mistake to just think that one day you might have to throw someone to the ground and that all the training is about one event. This is why Yagyu Munenori Said to “observe the dynamic of situations even in a group as an art of war”.

In fact, by showing your best side, you bring it out in others. This is what Myomoto Musashi referred to as infection. You must not let others infect you with their negativity, you must dynamically engage in positivity so that you are full in the presence of others, and unable to be filled. You must not be passive to the chaos of others. This is the only way to battle negativity: By being ceaselessly engaged in higher thoughts of an inspiring nature. Everybody has ordinary thoughts and is open to whims of doubt and aggression towards others. There’s nothing great or inspiring about any of this, it’s the norm. This is why it’s important to love what you do. No one is saying love what is bad in people, what I’m talking about is an impersonal love of the best possible outcome with the goal of achieving this. In this case through martial arts.

Not only does your vision of the world and other infect your opponent, it principally infects you. So why waste time on infecting yourself with negativity, when there is nothing to be gained in the long run? This is a technique in and of itself. Forget about all the drilling, and which punch is the best. Insistence on merely physical pedantries is itself a form of negativity, because it obscures any thought or discussion about the truth: Which is that the devil is in the details.

You could even say that criticising others on the basis of their technical skills is often a form of self deception, a form of self congratulation that you look better. None of that matters very much and distracts true progress. Just think how much time is wasted doing this! What’s important is to focus on concentrating all your efforts towards overcoming weakness in even the most seemingly insignificant events. The outer transformation will then take care of itself, there is no magic formula or ultimate system. It just takes time, and I assure you that even though others go racing ahead exploiting people around them, the reality is that they fade from the scene and end up losing ground.

Sun Tzu said “incitement must be given to vanquish the enemy.” Yagyu Renya said “Greet your opponent”, and Gichin Funakoshi said there is “No first attack in Karate”. Kyuzo Mifune said the soft beats the hard. It all means the same thing, symbolically speaking. This is the meaning behind turn the other cheek: You don’t give in and let them abuse you. You show the opponent your better more evolved side and win thereby. Many of the greatest truths seems contradictory, overly simplistic, or unintuitive, so people ignore them. But the reason for their simplicity is that they are universal principles and could apply to anything. Analysing them to death often makes you feel less in touch with them, so they have to be lived.

No one wants to face off against someone who they instinctively feel is high in the pecking order. It is impossible not too look up to someone who is a living example of all that is good. This is why the great masters of the past talked of the “empty sword” technique”. For a technique is an inner strategy, not an outer attack. Just as a goal is a process, not an outcome. This is why Musashi also said “intending to deal a powerful blow with the sword, you will not be successful… and will wind up being manipulated by others” Of course this takes a lot of practice, and no one devotes their time to this anymore. No wonder people give up on martial arts or don’t dedicate themselves to it as they used to, they’ve lost track of this rich source of inexhaustible wisdom!

Yagyu Munenori said “Keep the mind attentive”. What he meant by this is to keep it occupied with positive and constructive thoughts. He said don’t let the mind wander off. This is why such emphasis is placed on breathing and concentration on it. It is a means ready to hand to practice concentration on something essential, rather than dwelling on non essentials. Breathing should be rhythmic and brought to the level of consciousness, so that this rhythm can infect your organism and its processes. Breathing is an inner example of the to and fro motion of not lingering in one place that we should aspire towards. Keep the mind attentive towards such harmonious examples. When we concentrate on the non essentials, peripheral matters, we lose balance and perspective.

When we think of punishing someone, or how they have insulted us, we disrupt our breathing so that it becomes rapid. This can cause disordered functioning such as heart rate increase, anxious thoughts, and then a focus on trivial matters. This is how focus on outside things has a knock on effect to disrupt our internal equilibrium. Before you know it you are wound up by the most trivial of matters. You might tell yourself, “Well, that’s life!” But it is a mistake to think that life is about constant disorder and chaos. Sure, life is difficult and requires constant vigilance, but this is simply a pre requisite, a motivating force, to reach great heights. It’s the other side of the coin of success. There can be no fire without heat1.

When we are preoccupied by pettiness, material status, popularity, etc., this is our lower unconscious self, the instinctive side, asserting its influence2. It will convince you of all doom and gloom. But don’t let it devour you, let it feed the fire of success. The higher self, the conscious self, should exert influence over the lower self with its higher reasoning. This is what Sun Tzu meant when he referred to how the General must lead the troops and not the other way round. Using the analogy of War, the Art of War is actually a practical handbook to help solve many of the problems of existence. There’s an individual equivalent to this representation. The general is the intelligence, the troops are the instincts. In fact, the two self’s work as one, but usually the instincts are given the leading role!

By identifying with higher reasoning, create a high ideal, and think of all the most positive and grand inspiring ideas in your mind. Imagine yourself thriving there, as a powerful and courageous being. This is Jung’s archetypal God image3. In other words, you create an inner environment with everything you need to cultivate the inner man. By focusing on the inner environment you can influence the outer environment. Athletes call this “Imagery” training. They will tell you the environment and the self in it are very real. But for now, back to breathing.

Now rapid breathing isn’t necessarily bad for short periods of time, such as when under genuine threat or for example when exercising. The point is however, that most people today rush about in this frenzied state all of the time. This is why the monks and Yogis have insisted on breathing for thousands of years as a basis for concentration and exercise. By focusing on breathing through will power, you bring it to the attention of consciousness, rather than bringing to your consciousness disorder and worry.

The “Hara centre” or the solar plexus, solar referring to the centre, should be the focus of concentration. And so that by working with it you can synchronise your consciousness with the harmonious rhythms of breathing. That is, the breathing sets up everything else. It is then much easier to tune in on a wavelength conducive to thinking positive ideas. But instead modern man has chosen to analyse and make the focus of his life the very disorders that have arisen from undue focus on problems and negativity. He is the architect of his own destruction. This is what Musashi rereferred to as a sickness. Man then needs all sorts of distractions and stimulants just to feel alive or motivated.

In the context of martial arts people focus on technique, winning and losing, or reputation, etc., as they think this will set everything in order. According to this reasoning success is obtained from the outside. As I have reasoned here, success takes place first inwardly. Inner work isn’t just something to do when you have a spare ten minutes as most people view it. In this way, every challenge, and pitfall, can be tackled inwardly by mentally channeling outer stresses into positive constructive thoughts. This is the real battleground. Success at this will affect your breathing and therefore health, releasing constraints in the muscles and diaphragm for example. This then affects everything else.

I don’t need to tell you that there is constant occasion to practice inner work. Which is why there is no point going out and looking for medals, people to dominate, pats on the back, etc., the inner work is a relentless battleground of glory. Most people hope to obtain all sorts of material things hoping that this will clam them down and settle them. More often than not, the reverse is true: People begin to think they should have no need for inner work, and then when they find themselves depressed and anxious they feel bad about it. Because after all what do they have to be depressed about? They have the job, the car, and everything else. But ignorance and suffering is the natural state of man, it is success and intelligence that needs explaining.

The true martial arts master aims to bring about success by working on their inner thoughts and organs, such as breathing work, so that this harmony is brought to the level of consciousness. This is done rather than thinking about personal gratification and indulgence in comfort. Because the rhythmic breathing communicates this to the rest of the body, this is where they start. The brain perceives this state and conducts it through the nervous system. Call this “The Way”, “Nirvana”, “Infinite Wisdom” or whatever you like, it just means you a free from ignorance and the limitations around you. Instead, most people look to stimulate their nervous system with outside interventions, eroding the very foundation of their health and happiness.

By focusing on peripheral matters, you stray from the centre, or in other words, by focusing on effects you lose track of causes. For sure, no amount of focus and attention to the wrong thing can turn it into a beneficial good. I know that modern conditions aren’t very conducive to inner reflection, or even slowing down, but try to think and act in accordance with these laws whenever you get the chance.

References

1See Strength of Weakness https://harmanater.com/2020/03/12/strength-of-weakness/

2 See The higher and lower self in martial arts https://harmanater.com/2020/05/04/the-higher-and-lower-self-in-martial-arts/

3 See The Shadow and the Archetypal Man https://harmanater.com/2020/03/28/the-shadow-and-the-archetypal-man/

Most people engage in Martial Arts practice solely to keep fit or to learn to defend themselves from physical threat. These considerations are important, but they only scratch the surface. All martial arts practice worthy of the name is symbolic of something else, some other useful life lesson to be learnt. If practice doesn’t inspire us to look at broader considerations, then for me it is a waste of time. It’s got to be seen as part of something else.

In the act of breathing, we don’t just breathe to take in air, we breath to compliment the actions we are performing and everything else, even our mental state. We must breathe and move slowly in order to wind down, so that this also calms the mind. Similarly we shouldn’t just practice moves without any purpose behind them. For them to be effective and meaningful they must adhere to certain laws inherent in all dynamic and powerful actions. For example, martial arts utilises many different basic movements, from gripping to throwing, even in something as simple as a punch.

All effective movements share a common core. It’s just the expressions, or if you like the details which are different. One scientific version of this theory is called the “Generalised motor program”. For example, the punch uses the same rotation of the hips and shoulder as the kick. The trunk moves in the same way. This is why you can learn any skill from a true knowledge of one discipline. But you might say “In boxing they do it like this, and in Taekwondo they do it like that, they’re not the same at all!”. All I would say to that is, there are certain laws of nature upon which all movements are based and which nobody designed. These should be the main focus of training, not the thousands and thousands of details which just confuse everything. By knowing these fundamental truths, you can practice a simple set of skills which represent everything else. Steve Morris talks about this in depth on his website and DVD’s. I recommend searching them out. Steve says on his website:

“There’s lots of ways we can move. The combinations through the number of joint articulations makes for a lot of movements. But there are only so many successful ways we have moved over the course of time. Standing, running, climbing, pushing, pulling, swinging, catching, throwing…you know. All those things kids do! Those are the fundamentals. And beneath these, in order to facilitate a dynamic equilibrium of change, are the reflex patterns which allow you to work at an instinctive level. We’ve inherited them from our animal ancestors. You don’t have to think about how to maintain this equilibrium of change; the body is reflexively designed to do that for you. Indeed, any attempt to interfere with this process by motor oriented response, negates it. That’s why you end up with robotic movement patterns.”

What all this means is that you have every opportunity throughout the day to practice what we already intuitively know. There are instinctive actions we perform to achieve more complex movements. More complexed movements spring from these. These “Blueprints” are evident in everything, from when you reach towards the shelf for a cup, to when you tie up your shoe. Someone who is very conscientious of these things will see this in everything they do, and use the most mundane situations for effective training. All movements contribute to martial arts practice, and the more of these you turn into training exercises, the more effective your practice becomes.

Even breathing can be turned into an exercise. Just focus on breathing rhythmically, fast or slow depending on whether you’re relaxing or training intensively, and this will have a major impact on your energy levels and attentiveness to yourself and what’s around you. But look at how many people walk around mindlessly, thinking about what a chore it is to so much as walk to the shop or get out of breath They’d rather take the car! Avoid this kind of thing, and see every moment as an opportunity to strengthen yourself where possible. Again Steve Morris makes some interesting points about breathing:

One of the things is that your breathing mustn’t be timed to your arm movement, but to the body movements which are producing the shots. And it’s that movement of the body including the rectus, the obliques, the diaphragm and muscles of the pelvis (all those muscles that support ‘core stability’) that produces the basis and dynamics of the shot.

From this is clear that whatever we are doing, breathing and movement must be in synchronization. And if that’s true of punching then it’s true of all movements, because they all share a common core. In other words, the more you practice this principle in everyday situations, the more it will come to your aid when needed unconsciously. In this sense all movement is training.

For martial arts practice to be effective it must be inherently interesting and be intuitive. It should draw inspiration from all forms of movement, from everyday gestures to athletics. In this way it will relate to our subconscious mind, our instinctual side, and influence it. If training doesn’t do this then how can it be reinforced by our powerful motivational behaviours? Not only does it become dull, it becomes ineffectual. You’ve got to draw upon the same states which motivated our ancestors if you want to achieve anything and remain motivated long term. You might well get away with routinized training if you’re young and are just doing what everyone else seems to be doing, but eventually mechanical forms simply wear out the joints and muscles.

Many people think that performing violent actions will simply encourage unbridled aggression and bring out our worst instincts. This is sometimes true in testosterone fuelled environments where violence is glorified, but really these tendencies are already there. They certainly don’t need to be encouraged! How many people find this out to their horror when they end up behind bars? Instead, our instinctual side needs to be controlled. I don’t mean controlled as in repressed because this is also damaging since our vitality depends on these forces. But harnessed and developed in their capabilities through training.

The real idea is to develop our subconscious instinctual side and cultivate it towards a constructive goal, such as self mastery. In this way we are using powerful raw materials for modern circumstances. As I said at the beginning, training is simply symbolic or something else, and personally I have no desire to go out and fight anyone. It’s channelling energy and fighting to realize my ideals which interests me. Our instincts are there for us to evolve for new purposes. There functional operations include elements from our more primitive past. However, the laws of nature upon which they are based are still the same. This means that we have to build on the past because it lives in us and we can’t erase it. It doesn’t really matter what we are doing as long as we are practicing these timeless truths.

Tag: breathing

The True Meaning of Martial Arts

Movement and Breathing