Energy – Intuitive Martial Arts

Posture and Energy Transfer in Martial Arts

Posted on 22nd December 2024 Last updated on 12th January 2025 by joeharman8 | 6 min read | 114 views

The Back as a Spring: Energy Storage and Posture in Martial Arts

The back muscles are fundamental to maintaining upright posture and enabling efficient transfer of energy throughout the body. They counteract gravity’s natural tendency to compress us, allowing us to stand tall and balanced. So there is an upward extension of the posture against gravity. This frees us from becoming too pressurised. At the same time, without the downward pull of gravity there would be no me or you.

Understanding how the back functions as an energy reservoir is essential for mastering martial arts and cultivating both physical and emotional resilience.

Energy Storage and Posture

The back muscles play a key role in storing potential energy, which can be transferred dynamically during movement. This storage and release mechanism ensures that the body can perform powerful, coordinated actions. For the back to function optimally in this way, it must work effectively to hold the body in a relatively straight line. If the back fails to maintain alignment, slumping occurs, leading to postural imbalances and reduced energy transmission and efficiency.

Maintaining an upright posture ensures that the back muscles remain engaged, creating a stable energy line for movement. This alignment is not just a structural necessity but also an energy-saving strategy, allowing the body to respond fluidly to physical demands.

Posture and Striking in Martial Arts

In martial arts, striking requires a balance between forward motion and energy transfer. When extending a punch, there is a natural tendency to lean forward, compressing the chest muscles and abdomen. This compression relaxes the back and legs, facilitating the forward motion and transfer of energy. However, to prevent loss of balance and energy dissipation, martial artists counteract this motion by drawing the opposite shoulder back. This is one way to become more balanced.

For example, when punching with the left arm, the right shoulder extends backward. This creates a relatively straight line between the front and back shoulder, as one draws back and the other goes in. This coordinated action maintains structural integrity and ensures the efficient transfer of energy from the back to the striking limb. This concept of balanced motion reflects the broader principle of energy dynamics in martial arts.

Posture and Emotional Balance

Posture does more than support physical activity; it also influences emotional well-being. An excessive forward lean or slouched posture compresses the chest and abdomen, often heightening feelings of fear and vulnerability. Fear naturally encourages a closed, protective posture—a survival mechanism that can hinder both movement and emotional stability. At the same time, when the time is right one must be ready to fight for survival when necessary. What is not necessary is to make a way of life out of this need.

Actively maintaining upright posture counteracts this survival reaction, promoting a sense of calm and readiness. Martial arts has long emphasized the importance of balanced posture to mitigate the effects of fear. By aligning the body, practitioners align their minds, reducing emotional imbalance and fostering inner resilience.

The Spiral Motion in Martial Arts

An effective martial arts strike incorporates a spiraling motion through the body’s natural curves. When standing upright, the spine’s “S” shape facilitates this twist. For instance, striking involves a coordinated motion where one side of the body contracts while the other extends. This creates a dynamic, whole-body movement that channels energy efficiently.

This spiral motion can be compared to the actions of a javelin thrower, who loads their weight onto the leg opposite the throwing shoulder. By arching the back and extending the throwing shoulder behind them, the thrower stores potential energy, which is then transferred explosively during the throw. Similarly, in martial arts, this stored energy enables powerful, precise movements.

In martial arts, it is essential to maintain the right posture so that you are not unnecessarily aggressive and fearful. If you spend too much time in a reactive state of stress and aggression, you run this risk of shortening and disturbing the energy pathways which enhances one’s health and vitality. These energy pathways have to do with the connective tissues and fascia around the body, which works as an integrated whole for energy movement.

The Back as a Spring

The back and legs function as a spring, storing kinetic energy that can be transferred throughout the body. This principle is evident in both martial arts and biomechanics. While the back itself does not deliver the primary force—as in the case of a javelin throw, where the waist and core initiate the motion—it plays a pivotal role in energy storage and transfer. To counteract the any excessive arching of the back, martial artists often maintain a certain pressure within the abdomen, which becomes distended as they extend the back.

This energy dynamics concept applies in live martial arts practice, where rapid movements rely on this stored energy, and in meditative or stretching exercises. These practices allow practitioners to generate and store energy within the back and spine, which can then be distributed to other areas of the body, including the brain and internal organs, for enhanced vitality and health. Of course, energy is also stored elsewhere too, but proper stretching and extension of the spine greatly enhances this quality of energy transfer.

Yang and Yin: The Back and Front in Martial Arts

In martial arts philosophy, the back is considered yang, representing strength, tension, and outward energy, while the front is considered yin, symbolizing softness, receptivity, and inward energy. This balance is critical for maintaining harmony within the body.

Do not think that the front of the body cannot be yang. As I said earlier, there is a certain pressure held in the abdomen which prevents the front of the body becoming overly relaxed. This spot is known as the Hara Centre, which stores a lot of the body’s energy. So by enhancing the posture, the martial artists also enhances the energy generation and storage capability of the abdomen and Hara Centre.

Because the back is associated with yang energy, it has a natural tendency to become overly tense if energy is not properly released. This is why martial arts training emphasizes not only strengthening the back but also stretching it. Stretching helps release excess tension, restoring balance and preventing stiffness or energy stagnation. By keeping the back flexible and strong, practitioners ensure that energy can flow freely, supporting both physical performance and overall well-being.

Balancing Posture and Energy

The goal of martial arts has always been to bring balance—both physical and emotional—to the practitioner. By focusing on upright posture, martial artists can reduce the impact of fear and create a stable foundation for movement and energy transfer. The back, acting as a spring, not only supports the body but also ensures that energy is stored and released efficiently via the waist and abdomen, allowing for powerful, fluid motion.

Understanding and applying these principles in daily practice can transform martial arts from mere physical training into a holistic discipline that enhances overall well-being.

The Rise of Turbulence and Narcissism

Posted on 5th May 2024 Last updated on 5th May 2024 by joeharman8 | 16 min read | 117 views

“Let’s say you are in a boat that continuously changes direction. This leaves a trail of broken energy lines in its wake. If you sail another boat across this region, this is felt as turbulence. This is the way the human system works. Energy expression leaves a certain pattern in its wake. These patterns can be smooth and continuous, or broken and fractured, lacking coherent direction.”

Narcissistic attitudes towards winning have always predominated sport, and nowhere is this more true than in martial arts. Today, it is increasingly common for competitors talk about how if they lose a match, they sink into a depression. This is not a normal attitude, even if it is a prevalent one in certain circles. How did this come about?

In the past, there were more tournament formats, which you entered whether you were ranked or not. If you didn’t win you just turned up next time and tried again. Obviously there were also ranked tournaments, but I’m just reconstructing the thinking of the time. This was even so in Mixed martial arts around 25-30 years ago. During those times, you were obviously promoted if you won, but it was a long battle over time. This required continuous one pointed focus. At the same time you had to to get through a broad array of challenges. For instance, you prepared for multiple fights on the same night, not just one.

So in the past, you needed to be ready in general, not just specifically according to one particular type of opponent. This required a general flexibility, rather than almost weekly or monthly changes in fight preparation towards specific goals. This obviously extends outside of martial arts. For example, at work each office has a daily requirement and tasks to do. These change almost daily. In the past, the office demands was mostly unchanging. This meant that any personal shifts in mood or temperament were happening on a constant steady environment. This is no longer the case in many environments. So now, depending on the type of work you are in, you are likely to need a level of flexibility not seen in any other time in history.

Turbulence and Chaos as a Foundation

When you have to be well rounded, this makes it difficult to outwardly express energy in one direction. The need for well rounded lack of friction is needed today like never before. To be well rounded means you have a stable centre. When you move from this toward the edge, naturally you start to move away from the centre. This is one aspect. As a consequence of moving away from the centre and staying there, it is natural to develop a skewed personality which becomes increasingly empowered. It becomes increasingly difficult to navigate turbulent terrain if your inner compass is pointing the wrong way.

It is like if you sail a boat across the sea. This creates energy waves, or choppy waters. These are experienced by other boats long after your you have sailed by. Let’s say you are in a boat that continuously changes direction. This is the modern experience for not only athletes, but other people too today. This constant change of direction leaves a trail of broken energy lines in its wake. If you sail another boat across this region, this is felt as turbulence. This is the way the human system works. Each action within you creates a line or thread of energy. This weaves an internal garment. This can create turbulence within you if it becomes incongruent, as well as in your relationships with others.

Energy expression leaves a certain pattern in its wake. Let’s say you practice a punch. Various transmissions of neurological energy are imbedded. These become muscle memory. At first there is a jolt as the muscle fibres are stimulated. This helps with movement and energy. There is an initial explosiveness as the engine starts. These patterns can be smooth and continuous, or broken and fractured, lacking coherent direction. This is one simple example. So what you want is a coherent line of expressed energy so that the right kind of template for action is created for now and in the future. You then don’t happen in fits and starts but function optimally. This can happen in terms of activity of the mind, as well as the body.

On the other hand, energy expressed in different directions never gets a change to grow as a platform. It becomes a shifting landscape that changes before anything gets established on it. Energy just happens in fits a starts. This is useful for specific purposes, but in general you are teaching cells and your neurological system to function in a chaotic way if this becomes a habit. If the direction of energy is changing all of the time, it is difficult to establish a coherent pattern. So, the pattern that becomes established is chaotic due to severe fluctuations and turbulence that become normal in your experience.

Engineering the Power Generator

Today, many competitors get all out of sorts if they lose one match. Why does this happen? In one sense, they burn excessive energy on stressful and goal specific activity, rather than establishing inner balance. In another sense, the hyper developed ego has been deflated. Anything which you think about obsessively generally becomes an enslavement. This becomes an energy drain. Eventually after a few flashes of motivation, you are left empty. In other words, the light has gone out, and there’s no auxiliary, or power generator, to keep the power going. So this is why traditionally, the power generator was developed rather than the superficial light, so to speak.

As we have seen, for the modern athlete, superficial goals are considered the landscape. These goals change all the time. As we have seen, this was not so in the past, because there were more long term pursuits and less regular changes. Because of the shifting landscape and ceaseless changes, many people have made their own personality the rigid and unchanging element. In other words, their own personality has become institutionalised, rather than just the body. So many people develop rigid and tenacious personalities, rather than work ethics, to compensate for lack of balance in these shifting landscapes.

I do not mean to say that people are not hard working anymore. They are. It’s just that they work hard in an insistent and determined way that eventually erodes their energy system if they are not careful. But that is their choice. On the other hand, let’s say you just train all the time so that you are in a competitive condition, but not in any specialised sense. You develop a good generator but don’t waste it on emitting light all day long. You just use it when necessary, rather than all of the time. Lets look at what I mean by this in some more detail.

Goal Orientation Gone Wrong

Todays athletes are expected to change what they are doing all the time depending on who they are fighting. They have one very specific goal. This is sometimes done so that over a period of time this goal changes in different phases of the overall plan. However, the goal is predetermined so that the past is brought into the projected future. Anything which deviates is considered a distraction. This means that one minute you are building muscle, the next you are cutting weight, and then you do some specific exercises according to a periodic plan. This is different to in the past when people did everything at once but built up more slowly, a strategy which I think is more ordinary but better overall. But, this will of course vary according to individual needs.

So changing the direction of you energies all the time creates a certain turbulence in the system the more you do it. This is the up and down side to side nature of modern competitive sport. It all depends on someone else rather than your actual energetic and experiential needs in terms of action. This may be necessary sometimes but when it becomes a way of life this can be disastrous. One minute you are with the family, the next you are doing some media promotion. Each demand, training related or otherwise, is factored into a schedule of organisation. So the aim is to orientate oneself towards a goal, but the results are often the opposite to the intended outcome in the long term.

Because the energies are pulled in several directions, the only stable platform becomes the personality, which sits on top of a changing landscape. This becomes the investment, rather than the process of self transformation or development. In self development and transformation, nothing of the old remains in the end. You have moved beyond it. When you invest heavily in the personality in its current state, then this can become an enslaving process. This is because in order to evolve, you need a reason to move beyond limitations and obliterate them, rather than to empower them.

The Rise of Narcissism

So when this personality gets blown out of proportion and arrogant we call this narcissism. When you move beyond arrogance, this is called inclusion because something else a part of yourself. The problem is that when you fear the changes happening around you in modern living, you cling to what you do know, or create a rigid form. The larger than life superficial personality is the only constant thing, and you become a kind of parody of yourself. This is the other way round when you compare it to traditional martial arts, which sought to create a stable landscape and a flexible personality which was not hyper developed. This lead to more acceptance of others and a more flexible nature.

That is not to say narcissism is a trait associated with sport or martial arts, but it is reaching epidemic proportions within the industry. What do I mean by narcissism? I mean the kind of superficial arrogance which sometimes passes as confidence or self assurance. It is the loudest voice in the room, which represents the weakest person there. When one is in a constant state of stress, they become very loud. This is because when an organism is in decline, they generally become quite explosive as a survival mechanism. Rather than life becoming enhanced, this is understood in martial arts to mean life exiting the body in a dramatic way, often in instalments.

If you take a normal person, working on their trade and experiencing a generally happy life, there is a fairly steady cultivation of energy throughout the day. There is little in the way of excess or distraction (Yes, this is what I’m taking as a normal person). On the other hand, there is no real need to separate oneself from what they are doing in such a situation. This is because the day is steady and you go on autopilot. It is like if you fly a plane in the clear skies. You just guide it where it needs to go. In turbulent storms, you start to do backflips and god knows what else. You then think of yourself as special. When you identify as special, you naturally seek turbulence.

There is no need to dazzle an audience in order to gain attention for oneself. In martial arts this means there is little difference between what you are doing whether you win or lose, you just get on with it because it is a daily cycle of activity. Traditionally, it was about the battle. This was the daily cycle. It was not necessary to brag about how much you won, because the reality of training was a daily battle and this was accepted. Modern living has escaped this cycle, however this doesn’t mean there is no work to be done. In reality the work is only just beginning.

In the Shaolin Monasteries, it was common to undergo severe training which took everything out of you. This was not to train you for a one off fight, although the thought of doing so may have been used as a tool to focus the minds of disciples initially. So this level of back breaking work required that you didn’t look beyond what the task was in front of you. This was a way to focus the mind. This is a way of viewing martial arts as a means to an end, rather than some distant contest as a goal in itself. When you can focus on this task long enough, you eventually blend into it rather than stick out. You identify with the process rather than the goal.

Social Media

Today it is about social media exposure. These are the models which are being widely emulated, or we could say that these are the lights people see on the stage. However, in the past it was not about being lit up all the time. It was about cultivating and experiencing a certain level of vibrant energy to live a good life. So the energy level was higher, but the expression or emission of that energy was lower. Just think how much more work was able to be done by people in the past. Whereas today, the emission of energy is higher but the cultivation of anything is often lower.

Building the Energy Base

Let’s say you shine a light. Light is a projection of energy to illuminate the room. At the same time, certain other energy forms become less visible. Due to fixation on this artificial light, your surroundings, and the energy about them, becomes less obvious. In fact when people look at artificial light too much, for example LED light, this blocks out certain other frequencies of colour. This gives everything you subsequently look at a white or blow glow, which blocks out the horizon. In other words, you closer you look at the details, the more you can miss the big picture.

The nature of light is like that, on and off. Energy, on the other hand, is a platform to build on. So if you have a solid platform to build on, you don’t need to express the light so desperately. This is the whole problem today, people are too busy expending energy in the form of fancy light displays. On the other hand, when you have a strong energy base, the light will work anyway. You don’t need to directly work with the light up aspect. The sun works the same way. It is a big ball of energy, but when it’s cloudy, you can’t see the light. It doesn’t bother to shine any brighter, its just not as visible, but that’s fine. There is still warmth, and it is still there, but the light goes out in our visual perception. So appearances don’t really matter overall.

So the dazzling array of narcissistic personalities is like that. It blocks out everything else. This is so for the narcissist as well as the others they influence. This is precisely the danger with certain social media influencers. So we are incapable of seeing martial arts the way people traditionally did. Traditionally, martial arts was all about building energy. When the need to fight arose, the energy level was there so that it was possible when needed. But they didn’t go looking for it because there was no need.

Once you build up the energy bas and you want to turn on the lights, it’s not a problem for you. If you live off the energy consuming lights, then after some time the energy burns out. So they looked very ordinary, but building up a dazzling light display was not a concern for the martial artists of old. They just wanted the powerhouse to be built. There are many benefits to this, such as health, well being, and liberation. This inner powerhouse structure is known as the energy body1, or the aura in western spiritual tradition.

Let’s say the Earths Centre was to decrease in size. Then the gravity holding the elements in place would be reduced. In other words, the energy base would have decreased, and therefore the attractive force would diminish. This means that the subtler elements within the Earths atmosphere, the feminine dimension of energy2, would move away. In the human system, this means that if you don’t manage to maintain the centre within you3, then you end up burning out, or in a state of on and off. You are unable to extend yourself without being on and off. So to make the body more stable, this requires a certain amount of work. Anybody who lacks a substantial energy can generate a dazzling short lived light. However, with such a person, the moment the situation is over, they just go down again. This is the reason for so many short lived superstars today. So martial arts traditionally was about sustainability of that energy and making it more substantial and sustainable.

Martial arts and industry must be separated, because martial arts is not some commodity to appeal only to market winners. At the same time, there is no reason why you shouldn’t be able to market yourself just because you are not a big time industry winner. Marketability is about promotion, but in its extreme state it becomes about showing off. As I have tried to explain, this drive for self promotion causes a neglect of other factors, such as a stabilising influence. But this is only for certain narcissistic people who have to be competitive with everyone else superficially.

You can never build a solid foundation on the back of self promotion. So don’t bother trying to do that. It’s just a consequence of some activity. You are not working with the causes of success if you are focusing on just the outcome. When you work with the causes of success, it takes long but it last forever. When you work with the energy building up, it builds up in its own way, not according to what people want to see, or what you want to see. Every flower is different. If you try to manage how you look to others, then this shows nothing in terms of the expression of energy.

Energy expression is only an indicator of energy at some moment in time. If you are doing specific activities, then you might need to force the energies in some way. If you just manage your energies, or Prana, you can gain a certain security against natures dangers. One advantage is that you become insulated from such things due to the the protection your own internal energy offers. If you don’t have enough security against various dangers and worldly situations, then you will end up avoiding them due to a lack of energy for them. This is why you store it within yourself as a dynamic moving force. You are not really storing it, because so much energy is needed for just maintenance of the integrity of the energy base. So this insulation from the elements of the world and its dangers, is a security against such dangers which at the same time builds a strong base.

References

1 https://intuitivemartialarts.com/2021/04/12/the-dual-nervous-system-and-the-chi-body/ The Dual Nervous System and the Chi Body

2 https://intuitivemartialarts.com/2023/08/12/feminine-energy-and-intuition-part-2/ Feminine energy and intuition part 2

3 https://intuitivemartialarts.com/2024/02/13/hara-centre-seat-of-creation/ Hara Centre Seat of Creation

Hara Centre: Seat of Creation

Posted on 13th February 2024 by joeharman8 | 16 min read | 108 views

“The earths atmosphere, which is electromagnetic, would not be possible without the earths core being the way it is. The Earths core is hot and high pressure, like our own physical centre. The surround electromagnetic atmosphere of the Earth can be likened to the nervous system. So the core directly affects the nervous system, and the nervous system is not possible without the core. So you can transform you energy and situation by working with this core in ways that are not possible otherwise. “

When you perform an action from the core, it radiates outwardly to the periphery. This is the case for any martial arts movement. In fact, it takes a lot more competence to do this than to perform the move superficially. So the idea is to move the core, the abdomen, and then extend out from there. It does not happen the other way around, that you start with the limb first, and hope that this creates a whole body motion.

It is like how the Earths rotation begins at the core, and this moves the mantle and the plates. The plates and the surface do not move the core. In the same way, the chemical receptors on a plants do not make its roots grow. If pesticide is used too much, then this just impedes the plants overall development of certain internal processes which produce these things naturally. The same thing goes on in the human body. In terms of movements, the internal signals which are related to the core, function much better if the core is the initiator of the movements. This helps you memorise and imbed certain movements more deeply. Even on a superficial level, it is better to perform core movements because the core leads all basic movements. In this way the only things that changes is the particular limb you are using when driving from the seat of the abdominal core. So your kicking and punching becomes very similar.

Knowing the Unknown

When you do a punch, it is only a punch from the core if it starts at the core. This is why in martial arts they say “Hit from the core”. This core is the abdomen or Hara Centre as it is known. “Ha” means Sun in Chinese. According to the Indian Sutras, “Ha” means the same thing too, and “Ra” refers to a radiant sun, the centre of the Universe. So together, “Ha-ra” can be taken to mean the earths centre, or the universal centre. It is from the centre that the rest of creation happens. You can only illuminate the vastness of the unknown from the high pressure centre which eventually creates light. In the Solar System, energy starts as non visible. This energy only becomes visible light after some time when it extends out from the Sun and certain particles react at a certain distance from the source as the pressure drops. This is the case with Martial Arts.

The Hara Centre, the physical centre of the body, is the only energy centre which can transmit itself anywhere in the body directly. It manifests differently depending on the action. In terms of technique, it can go to the arms, legs, or elsewhere physically. This is why it is universal in nature. In others words, it is not just located in the abdomen, the energy can be transported anywhere. The lower abdomen is the source. For example, if you drive a nail into a block of wood, you do so from the core, just as you do with say, a golf swing. This applies to everything. It starts one place and ends up somewhere else. All these things are driven from the core. It is impossible to start from the end, because this isn’t yet in your experience. This is why in the traditional arts they never rushed learning, nor were they given to over analysis.

It is just because you don’t know how to do a movement before you have learnt it that we say “drive from the core”. You cannot do a complex kick before you have learnt to do this. So you practice something you don’t know by doing something you do already know. This is why I always say “drive from the core” first. Personally I don’t bother with explaining all the details of a particular move because this becomes obvious over time with the right fundamental platform. This platform is a strong core. It is not necessarily an athletic strength, but the right energy and maneuverability.

So develop the Hara Centre first. It is only possible from there to know the unknown. It is only when this unknown comes into your direct experience that you learn the mysteries of martial arts. The core functions much better in children. this is why they learn everything naturally. The adult core usually becomes lazy from excessive sitting and poor lifestyle habits which we develop in society. The point is that we can switch on this source to learn anything like a child does, even as an adult. So this core is like the little white dot in the Dark space of the Yin Yang symbol. This is called mastering technique, so that it manifests properly.

Drugs and Chemicals

The expression Energy takes can vary dramatically depending on a number of factors. But when it originates in the Hara Centre and finds expressions elsewhere, then there is some discretion and volition as to where it ends up. Otherwise, if it starts elsewhere, it is often an unconscious act, or simply accidental. Conscious acts are always intentional and consciousness is always a choice. Let’s say that the energy is taken in from external sources, such as some sort of chemical supplement. Such chemicals tend to inebriate the system so that it acts purely from a chemicals basis, or dampens other energy sources in the body. This is the problem with drugs and chemical supplements1.

So chemical energy is itself a manifestation of pressure and heat. These are naturally occurring when things begin in the gut. For instance, many chemicals can be created internally which people are now ingesting more and more because their system has gone taken a kind of backwards step. This takes a bit more time and particularly a mediative digestion, so that the body can rest and regenerate properly2. But people are “Go, go, go” all the time. It is for this reason that Excessive physical training can happen at the surface level, because the chemicals are just being replaced by supplements. It is like with plants. The soil quality is going down, so fertiliser and chemical sprays are needed just to get some fruit and ward off disease. None of this is necessary until you exceed the natural capabilities of the earth. The Hara Centre is like the Earth.

So chemicals come in, then they will run their course over a certain period of time and then dissipate at some level. Often, these chemicals are being abused, so the natural production goes down and a kind of external dependance happens. Of course, the biggest intoxication from outside occurs when greed and corruption take over in the mind. It is for this reason that in the traditional arts, they urged against competition and prestige. Competition is fine once you have develop the necessary mental fortitude. In my experience, there are so many life lessons which I have absorbed that it almost derailed me completely. So if I didn’t have the necessary inner tools of development, I would have been broken by certain experiences. This is why I stress “Meditation, meditation, meditation”, or some kind of meditative dimension and development of this.

Overcoming Self Deception

The biggest deception if from the intoxication of conquest. The lust for conquest brings about the same disorders as actual chemical abuse in many cases. This is a false high. This is referred to as Maya in the Indian systems, or simply self deception. This is because when you overcome the need for these things, it is as if they never happened and the events become meaningless. This is not so with any reality which is learnt from the core of truth, which is the Hara Centre. There is nothing wrong with chemical supplements, they can be taken if needed. But the very same things can be created internally, setting in process and lasting mechanism. The results are often the same but more sustainable. But what a difference it makes if you can produce these things internally.

Inter Transformation

We have looked at how the Hara Centre can transmit itself anywhere in the body. With the other centres of the body, such as the chest or head, these act as relay points, so the energy takes a more roundabout route. There are exceptions to this, such as Martial Arts masters whose physical body’s have failed them but they have developed the proper energy channels. These are exceptions however. With the Hara Centre, it can reach anywhere. It is like how you can create a heater with the use of electricity, there are transformers involved in that kind of technical process to convert energy. If you want to create heat, movements is needed for example. Movements is a kind of transformer in the human body. There is all sorts of mind work that goes into it, such as knowledge and motivation to move. This is why in many ways, reality begins in the mind. Importantly, the mind is linked to the gut, not just the brain.

The earth itself transforms heat into water, and then water into steam. All of these processes are only possible because of the earths core dynamo, which is molten iron largely. This is like the Hara Centre. The earths atmosphere, which is electromagnetic, would not be possible without the earths core being the way it is. The Earths core is hot and high pressure, like our own physical centre. The surround electromagnetic atmosphere of the Earth can be likened to the nervous system. So the core directly affects the nervous system, and the nervous system is not possible without the core. So you can transform you energy and situation by working with this core in ways that are not possible otherwise.

Let’s look at technique. If the punch begins at the shoulder, then you are not punching from the core. You can still do it, but a lot of additional steps are taken, often unconsciously. So the idea behind “using the core” or the abdomen, comes from this idea that from this centre of mass everything spreads outwardly. There is an inner intelligence that grasps this intuitively. So if you get this, then you are 90% of the way there. Why 90%? because the microorganisms of the body account for 90% of the body’s make up. And these guys are largely in the core and work according to the gut primarily. From the core, the rest radiates outwardly. In terms of cognition and learning, if the brain and nervous system attempt to perform a particular movement without the cores involvement, the results are limited. This can produce many problems, such as over use injury and a whole host of physical ailments, particularly later on in life.

From Gross to subtle

If you point a finger, this can be performed from the core, or you can simply wave the arm out and point the finger. If the action is led from the core, then the finger pointing is just the final expression at the end of the movement. In other words, it is the end phase of a core movement. You might say, that everyone can point a finger, what’s so special about that? However, anyone who doesn’t pay attention and concern towards these things on the path of martial arts is setting themselves up for problems. This is why in the traditional systems, the master would look at how you conducted yourself in every aspect. So to take care of the large, you can pay attention to the small things, which is required if you wish to transform these initial steps into greater possibilities. The idea that you can do something carelessly but repeatedly and yield good results is completely wrong. You go from basic to complex, from gross to subtle expertise.

So one initial movement sets up the possibilities for the next. It is the same with a punch. You rotate the core into the punch and there is a lot more power and transmission of energy as a result. This is because it began from the centre of mass and transformed into a punch as part of a complex process. It’s not like you get each phase technically correct separately and then it works. No, instead you have to transform one phase into another. It is like the pressure of the earth gradually dissipates as you move away from the core. This creates the complex physical reality around us. Due to this pressure release, other forms of energy, such as gravitational energy and electromagnetic energy, gradually express themselves. These act upon the physical word we experience. This is a complex process, but it is an intuitive one. Gravity can then act upon larger masses, whereas it is weaker the closer you get to the centre. This is because other more powerful forces of Chi energy, or radiation in Scientific terms are happening closer to the centre. This is also known as dark matter1.

So in the human being, when you perform a punch, it is only possible because of a release of energy which gradually takes another form. This is how you create something from nothing. This nothing actually contains the whole possibility, it just that this has not been Brough to bare in your experience yet. But it will the more you work with it. This is why there are no set traditions other than oral transmission in most traditional systems. You have to work for it internally.

Self Creation

If you just swing the arm at the opponent, then there is an entirely different effect even if it looks the same as a punch from the core. This is why there is so much emphasis on breathing from the core, digesting properly from the core, and moving from there in the traditional systems of martial arts. The diamonds are produced there. In the Earths core, Molten Iron erupts out of the surface from the core. It is only when the atmosphere changes that we see the diamond formation of this same heat energy, which has now solidified. These diamond are what we create in martial arts, expressions of high pressure which have materialised. The Earth doesn’t think about it, it is an energy intelligence. These diamonds can absorb electromagnetic waves from the earths atmosphere. So the Earth itself generates an electromagnetic fields which sustains the outer surface. The same thing happens in us, and this is entirely intuitive when you develop the right perceptions through practice. When you rely too much on physical strength of the limbs, you can easily forget about using the core properly. This leads to various injuries, which although inevitable sometimes, become chronic and excessive. It is just like if you exploit the nutrients of the earth more quickly than they are created, you will likely have issues.

Let’s take the example of digestion. If you eat whole foods, or healthy foods generally, then these have to be digested in the stomach properly. The thing about sugar is that it goes straight out of the stomach and into the blood stream. It doesn’t go into deep nourishment, such as bone and deep tissue regeneration. This is why it is linked with so many internal problems, even if it gives you a sugar hit. Healthy whole food on the other hand, goes into reproducing the cells and creating an entire person. Over the course of around seven years, Science has show the the entire organisms cells are likely to be replaced. This isn’t so if degeneration is happening too much at the same time as replenishment. So when anything is done at the surface level, whether that is learning or nutrition, there is a certain level of nourishment which gets neglected and undermined..

When blood sugar builds up too much, you can get a range of health complications, such as nerve damage, and inability to produce enough insulin. We have also looked at how osteoporosis may happen too, because the bones need nourishment, not just the muscles and blood. So when a person exists at the surface level, what you end up with is an irritable or excitable mood with a kind of frantic and compulsive disposition. This undermines health obviously. This can in itself lead many of types of mental health conditions, as well as physical ailments. The variety of these are countless, and exploding across the world. From this, we can see that a physiological problem can become a psychological one quite easily, once certain patterns of behaviour become habitual. So certain patterns of behaviour are thought replenish or undermine ones pre birth energy, or chi.

The point is that what appears to be a mental health issue, often has its origins in the physiological or energy realm. So by taking care of the physiology, you end up taking care of the mental side. This is the same with martial arts. It is often the case that people train with all sorts of gels and sugary liquids, just to keep certain chemicals active in the blood stream. From a performance perspective this has some benefits, such as making one more aggressive and reactive. This comes at a heavy price, because it intoxicates your system just like a drug. Drug and chemicals are just a different part of the cycle. You take them in and perform some activity. It is possible to take in various supplements properly, but that is something else. It requires a level of self restraint and awareness to perform certain activities properly. From a health perspective, over supplementation is not only stupid but disastrous. So when the body eventually breaks down with age and wear and tear, the solution for many is to take a cocktail of supplements to keep the game going. But this only hastens decline or fails to get at the source of the problem to change things.

References

https://wordpress.com/post/intuitivemartialarts.com/2227 Conquest at all costs: Drugs in Martial Arts.
https://intuitivemartialarts.com/2024/02/02/how-to-use-stress-for-your-own-health-and-the-importance-of-the-hara-centre/ How to Use stress for your own Health, and the importance of the Hara Centre.

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

Posted on 29th June 2023 by joeharman8 | 18 min read | 92 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.

The Economics of Martial Arts Part 1

Posted on 19th September 2020 Last updated on 19th September 2020 by joeharman8 | 13 min read | 151 views

Economics involves the distribution and use of scarce resources. Now, using up scarce resources so that they don’t materialise into anything more is a waste. We see this all the time, even amongst professional athletes. This concept of using up resources is clear from the simple fact that if we do not use up oxygen effectively we die. Similarly, in Martial Arts Training, if we do not allocate our energies effectively the outcomes will be less than impressive, even if we are trying hard and engaging in intensive work.

It is often thought that to get anywhere in professional Martial arts that you have to cheat and ingratiate yourself with key figures within the industry in order to gain privileges. From there, you are obliged to use up all your energies and resources for short term capital returns, in the form, say a title belt or money. Along the way you get a certain amount of physical abilities, tools of the trade. However, what is the point of all this if you are left impoverished, that is, injured and worm out, by the end of a short career?

In a sense, the organisation you are working for as a professional is like a shop. You are encouraged to spend, waste even, all your resources in the superstore. You are then rewarded with all sorts of membership deals, services, and reward schemes. In another sense, you become an advertising board, or a franchise shop. In yet another sense, you are given the opportunity to surpass yourself as something bigger and better. Depending on how you look at it, all of this is true. The important thing to remember, is that you will naturally want a return on your investment, that is, something better than you started out with rather than being conned into something with hidden long term liabilities. You might say “Well, in this fast paced world we have to just grab any opportunity we can”. Maybe, but it can at least be helpful to have your eyes open.

The thing to do is to use your energies and forces in such a way that you capitalise on the returns. For example, if you work hard what you get back should be more valuable than the time and effort you gave up. Training in such a technical manner as many people now do, you give up all your time and energy and the result is purely technical knowledge. The consequence of such superficial knowledge is often increased laziness and decreased personal initiative, which is a cost. In other words, you may gain some technical knowledge but you undermine the source of your own wealth – initiative, inquisitiveness, discovery, etc.

There is an eternal battle raging between the rich and the poor. The rich are said to keep the poor down, and the poor are envious of the rich. However, the rich don’t always stay rich for long if they hoard up all their resources. This is why you must keep giving away your skills, so that each time your practice is as if for the first time. That is, you must rid yourself of old habits and evolve ceaselessly. In this way, think of yourself as an entrepreneur who is ceaselessly investing his capital into new enterprises which, although you might not know what future developments may bring, end up surpassing the previous ones, even if you lose a couple of investments here and there. It is the daring effort to do this and never give up that is the true wealth.

If for example, you eat too much food and don’t use the resources it gives you, you will grow fat and lazy. Similarly, if you don’t develop your skills but instead live off the existing capital, without expanding your enterprise, you may well end up losing what you have worked for. In the same way, the rich who do not provide much need goods services to the relatively poor will find themselves in trouble. In this way, you should seek to give to the poor, or if you like those in need of your expertise, all that you have acquired. The poor then benefit from the rich and eventually become the rich who help the poor, instead of the rich simply exploiting the poor and the poor remaining helpless as is often the case. Then each individual will be like a nation passing through the industrial period into the new horizons of the future. In other words, weak people may suffer for a time but end up better off if they unite under the right conditions.

People get rich, generally speaking, by working hard and finding a service to provide in the market. Yes people get lucky, inherit money, etc., but generally speaking this is how it works. The mistake they often make is to lose motivation in this as they get more comfortable and lose their edge. The result is that they become lazy, flabby, and unenthusiastic, lose their zest for life, their impetus, and then can no longer enjoy the process of becoming enriched. This benefits no one. All they can then do is sit on their material wealth and squander it on amusements rather than developments, even though that does not bring them the happiness they had as captains of industry, or a leader. In other words, they rested on their laurels and became inwardly poor as a consequence of hoarding wealth. as you can see what happens on the large scale is true for the individual, both on the physical and mental level.

On the other hand, Many people who have never had to work hard or use their initiative to surpass themselves have remained poor and idle all their lives. They were too comfortable, preferring instead to remain idle, self satisfied and comfortable. This is what most people want, time to amuse themselves with pleasures a material gain. The problem is that this way of life kills their spirit and enthusiasm and they settle for mediocrity. And it has such a grip on people that it drives out all memory of anything more inspiring and noble.

What I am proposing is that you use all the motivation and determination to enrich yourself to reach a high ideal. You use all the means available to the capitalist to enrich yourself inwardly according to a glorious ideal, rather than just money a title, or comfortable arrangements. In this way you make the method of the capitalist the goal of your behaviour to reach the ideal of the communist. Symbolically speaking, you become the serpent eating its own tail, by uniting two polar opposites2. The two philosophies are not mutually exclusive according to this perspective.

Instead of the goal being some title and then stagnating after you’ve got it, aim for the stars and beyond using the means of determination, perseverance, and willpower3. These know no limits so there is no need to be ‘realistic’, so long as you are inspired and enlivened constantly. In this way it doesn’t matter if the ideal is unrealistic because the consequence it has on the human psyche has the effect of bringing about greater harmony than simply going with what’s immediately viable. In this way you make your training and development the priority and place the ‘goods and services’ you produce, such as skills and abilities, at the service of this inexhaustible ideal. Unless the ideal is beyond reach it will be realised and progress will stop. And to be inspiring enough humans, I would argue, need a goal which allows them to transcend themselves.

Once you have adopted this attitude, you are then free to become a communist in the true sense of looking out for others, providing for them, and treating everyone as part of a brotherhood. Even those who get in your way force you to develop and evolve, opening your eyes to new challenges4. Your enemies are often your true friends. The capitalist within you gets richer, and you pass on your abilities and skills to others, via the goods and service you continually turn over. Because old ideas are thrown on the scrapheap and you are obliged to evolve with the times, and you are continually required to work and surpass yourself, using your old products as fertiliser and manure for your new fields of production3. So you even also become an environmentalist in your mental life.

As you can see, for me at least, their is no irreconcilable differences between capitalism and communism. They are simple a duality within a unified whole, two polar opposites working for the same cause5, and the more you develop one aspect the more corresponding demand this places on the opposite aspect. It all depends on the perspective you view the whole from.

If you are concerned only with one thing, say, capitalism, then you will probably not look any higher to see how, further up the hierarchy, it springs from the same source as communism. To me this is obvious but it seems most people would rather be at each others throats. Just seeing how upset everyone gets about it says it all. Consider that the more skills and abilities you develop within your capitalist enterprise, the greater the demand there is for a corresponding spirit of communism to share your ideas. Otherwise you’ll just hoard the goods and never get them onto the market and contribute to evolution. And the greater the supply of your work in spirit of community, the greater will be the demand for your products, because others will be enriched, if only by your attitude.

And so, when you are a true capitalist, you are at the same time required to become a communist. If you have a great abundance of wealth and never share it, you just end up despised by others. It is only natural, because you will inspire envy and act as a model of selfishness. You then have to watch your back constantly, because of this. This becomes quite draining and saps you of enthusiasm and will power over time, in other words the source of your wealth. This is why so many fighters lose their edge, because they get so puffed up and look to dominate others, that they lose all perspective. Their own arrogance turns them as weak and vulnerable as someone who has never trained a day in their life. When people accumulate too much, they are often as unhappy as the ones who possess nothing. And if no one likes you or wants anything to do with you, you are obliged to hide away as a recluse because their is no demand for you. Therefore the capitalist mentality by itself is often very counterproductive, even if it appears to be the way to go for a short time.

Or, you might just become so bored and disgusted with yourself, because trampling all over others to get to the top of the pile tends to have a corrosive effect on character and self worth. So it is then that you are required to become a communist, in mentality, by offering a service to others of some kind, if only to selfishly save your own skin. Then you are not depriving anyone of anything, you simply convert the resources at your disposal to the service of others. It then doesn’t matter what people think of you, so long as you stay true to this cause and continue in your work, you are saved and invigorated daily. Why not extend this attitude across your whole life? Leave the others to their whining and boasting.

The best way is the middle ground, where you develop both your capitalistic tendencies and your communist side equally. Inside us there is an inner capitalist who creates wealth, symbolically speaking. This is achieved by working on your skills and abilities, often single mindedly without the community having much of a say. You have then satisfied your selfish tendencies rather than supressing them. The inner communist then distributes these goods to the community. They are often transmitted indirectly, through your motivated attitude and enthusiasm that you bring to the table in the occupation of your choosing, which may otherwise be dull and uninspiring. In this way you will be enriching your own otherwise mediocre day to day life even if nobody is receptive to you “goods” or products.

The capitalist within will want to hoard everything for itself, but don’t listen, the communist side should be in charge of distribution. On the other hand, the communist side will want to distribute before the goods have been made competitive. In other words, the inner communist will be so eager to share that it will want goods on the market which don’t benefit anyone and therefore don’t make anyone’s lives any better. So the inner capitalist must not listen to the inner communist as far as innovation and drive are concerned. In other words our drives and ambitions serve the communist ideal so that they are not purely selfish, but should never be killed off. The communist side leads the capitalist side and directs it. It is like a person riding a horse, they should never be led by the horse but must dominate and handle it, so that they can travel great distances.

On the smaller scale using in the example of martial arts practice, it is not the move that is important but the energy transmitted through it. In other words, if the drive and ambition to produce a powerful attack are there, and the senses supporting this are educated by hard work and knowledge, then the outcome will be a vigorous and lively technique. This is why I don’t personally care about form or technique, a person could never have practiced any form or martial arts and still have adopted the right attitude and I would congratulate them as a true fighter. If an inventor wants to bring an innovative product to the market, he needs inspiration and learning, drive and educated work, to bring it to fruition. The very next day he needs to do the same if he wants to continue evolving, otherwise his wealth, that is his inspiration and drive will dry up, even if yesterday he changed the world. We mustn’t be stifled by the past, but instead should make sure out present conditions are conducive to the future progress we want.

It is absolutely normal to want to posses power, knowledge, wealth, and all the rest of it, it is just the primitive instinctive side that often needs educating to better serve the wider sphere of life. In the true sense, we shouldn’t think of communism and capitalism as two opposing notions. For me this is absolutely clear. For example, I spend half the day working and serving others, and then the other half I spend developing myself and my capabilities so that I can continue to help and apply myself to the benefit of others. I don’t really concern myself with my own little ideas about what I would rather do, this is just the best way to demand the most from my efforts whilst supplying the best of myself, as far as I’m concerned. If I wanted to give without possessing anything then that would be of no use to anyone.

References

1 The High Ideal https://harmanater.com/2020/07/26/the-high-ideal/

2 Signs and Symbols in Martial arts part 2 https://harmanater.com/2020/06/06/signs-and-symbols-part-2-pedagogy-and-the-art-of-war/

3 Will Power https://harmanater.com/2020/05/10/will-power/

4 Self defence without Violence https://harmanater.com/2020/06/14/self-defence-without-violence/

5 Fight in Chaos, Live in Harmony https://harmanater.com/2020/07/12/fight-chaos-live-in-harmony/

Martial Arts and Health

Posted on 3rd August 2020 Last updated on 3rd August 2020 by joeharman8 | 11 min read | 92 views

We can think of health as energy available to us to live an intense meaningful life, free from disease and debilitation. It is this state that we should reach in order to train properly in Martial Arts. And so we must cultivate and live in this state as much as possible, so that we can put this energy into everything we do. That is, of course, if we want to devote ourselves to this path. We don’t need to go looking for this energy outside ourselves by learning all sorts of complicated moves, hoping this will give us power. No, instead we should move naturally in ways which correlate with the intuitive rhythms of nature.

Now that science has given us complicated explanations and exact methods of technical performance, we exploit the resources of the body in order perform these techniques. And yet, many people find themselves more unhealthy than ever and plagued with injuries, not to mention lacking in energy. This is because people think about performing certain moves, like a punch, rather than strengthening the body which animates them. They do all sorts of robotic moves unthinkingly, which just causes wear and tear as the years go on. In truth, much of scientific advancement has made us lazy and unwilling to do work.

Whilst skilled people don’t wear out overnight, the abilities they have developed, often during youth, don’t last forever, and before too long they end up stagnating or in a sorry state. Many people put all their energy into the move instead of cultivating health through exercise. What they are forgetting is that the move is just a means of expressing the goal of perfection. Instead they get it the wrong way round, thinking that the move itself is the goal, and perfection of this will lead to truth. They think “I’ll perfect this move and one day I’ll become perfect”. But really, People are deluding themselves if they think they will make long term progress in this way, because once they are worn out and no longer able to animate themselves with zest, they lose the impetus to grow and develop. The real goal is keeping this zest, as this is the means of evolution.

Yes lots of people get big muscles first, but even a giant brick wall will develop cracks and fall down if the foundations and alignment are incorrect. And it is the same situation for Martial artists. Say, for instance, you are driving a stake into the ground. If you take the mallet and hit the stake off centre, it might bend. If you hit it dead centre it will drive into the floor creating a stable root. In the same way, if you direct pressure through the ground using gravity, aligned from head to toe, you will be much more structurally sound and dynamically stable (Steve Morris, the authority on the subject talks about alignment and whole body tension extensively on his website). On the other hand, if you contorts the body in all sorts of unnatural ways, without the means of stability stability, it’s only a matter of time before you damage your structure2.

How do we learn these “Fundamental” means of action? There is an imprint of how to move, breathe, and learn correctly inscribed within us. If we follow these intuitive pathways we can, with work, learn anything relatively easily to our own specifications. Think of the body as your instrument, you might be inspired by other peoples music, but you yourself produce the harmonies which resonate with your requirements and tastes. You might copy someone else at first, to create a stereotypical impression, but this is not the end of it. You continually develop. This will ensure you never lose interest and keep on growing, which itself is the only real indicator of success. When you train intuitively, all the knowledge is already in your possession you just need the inspiration and living examples around you to bring it out.

So what about adding our own flavour? After we have a fundamental knowledge of how to train and work, we can then add certain embellishments on top of this these forms we create. What Most Martial Arts practice involves is putting on the embellishments first, rather than making sure the basics are in order. It takes many years to learn to walk, so how do you suppose you can embody more complicated actions quickly? This just shows how much work needs to be done, and if the great fighters have to do this, how much more so for the rest of us?

In other words, many people go for the martial arts form without working on their body’s structural capabilities. Many of them go on about persevering through difficulty, and being patient, but in reality they are often looking for the easiest way to learn as many moves as possible to earn a certificate or belt. When you see a fighter in action, ask yourself “Does this form or style embrace universal principles of development and practice?” And, “Can I embody this practice so that it relates to everything else I do?” If not then it does not represent the truth3. There is no point is beating others up around you whilst your practice becomes devoid of meaning.

A true Martial Arts Master takes no interest in mechanical dead forms. There is no point because they do not relate to everyday matters of health and life. In fact they often ruin health because moving so violently without art or grace wears out the joints and causes fatigue. The temptation to stop developing, through pride, dogs the heals of even the best Martial artists until the end.

Routinised, meaningless practice has a terrible effect on health and energy. And then what weapons will you have when you are older and worn out? What will happen when your inner weapons of energy and enthusiasm has gone? You will have nothing. But if you learn to increase your health, training intensely for only short durations4, you will be able to have a profound effect on your abilities whilst not squandering your reserves on mindless work. Yes it is possible, through intelligent work, to remain healthy and vigorous even into old age. This is how you know you are following true Martial arts practice, you will increase your abilities, happiness, and senses.

To the extent that a form of martial arts is useful, you should integrate this with your everyday behaviours and gestures which underpin movements in all domains. Obviously, this works by degrees. Then martial arts simply becomes another way of moving more generally. You simply take the forms in homeopathic doses, letting them colour your existing movement repertoire, and receive a new expression of the same intuitive movements you already posses. Yes, because we already have within us the means to learn, intuitive movement, enthusiasm, and intelligence, combine all three and you will learn anything naturally.

All movements share intuitive gestures and actions with which we should mindfully engage in order to connect the dots between seemingly different activities. In this way throwing a ball, swinging a bat, etc., is fundamentally the same as throwing a punch or kick. They are different expressions of the same truth. It is up to us to become aware of these connections. To divide is to destroy, what you must do is unify everything. You divide up simply to analyse, and then it becomes part of the whole again. Otherwise it becomes dead and disconnected. This is why once analysed, it must come back into our being adapted to the wisdom of the body. We want to work on this wisdom of the body, in other words, to embody knowledge, but what we often end up doing is practicing nonsense. The form is merely the model to aim towards within a discipline, but the greater form, the true form, encompasses everything.

We practice according to a perfect model, that is a representation of the higher self. This mental model, and physical representation, is always better than we ourselves are. It assimilates what is useful, in other words the essentials, and discards what isn’t. These are the fundamentals, and the intuitive movements we all posses like walking and grabbing are used as building blocks. I have no objection to practcing a specific style, they are good as far as the go, but the problem of inner evolution and and progress cannot be solved by an existing physical forms. But back to fundamental building blocks.

A baby can learn to crawl, and then walk, and then run.But adults often have difficult applying the concept to even more advanced movements as they grow in intelligence and power. Because they fail to capitalise ion this, they stagnate and go backwards. Martial arts is just an extension, and evolution, of these basic fundamental actions. Once they are tapped into, these basic movements stimulate and trigger the development of more advanced skills such as punches and kicks. They are not simply new movements disconnected from previous learning.

The flowers of one plant spreads and multiplies new plants which then blossom into new flowers. In the same way humans learn one skill and then cultivate it until it is ready to spread into new domains. The whole thing then goes on and on again, even into later eras after the death of the practitioner. These ideas are then passed onto someone else and then come back to where they began, inside the individual. That individual is then in possession of certain knowledge that he must then pour out onto others. If the flowers are uninspired, dull, and disfigured no one looks at them and it is as if they never existed.

By helping other develop, you will find solutions to your own questions due to this effort applied to the process of “blossoming”. Others around you will be attracted to your flowers as a bee is around nectar. Naturally, this is how ideas spread. In this way your own practice will develop, fuelling your optimism and abilities. There is no escaping this process. I know that this may seem naive and childish, and it may not be taken seriously, because as everybody knows that you need to flatter people and quote recognised authorities, otherwise you don’t get anywhere. This just proves that despite of the hostility and hazards around you, you must keep fighting, and it is these trials if you like which oblige you to develop will power and evolve. I will go further to say that this is a blessing in disguise.

People tend to be happy one minute, unmotivated the next, always changing theirs moods and ideas. The least little problem knocks them off balance. This is why we need a high ideal, or if you like a perfect model to orientate ourselves towards. Compared to this ideal we are weak and ignorant. We keep failing, making mistakes, making enemies… We then think this weakness represents truth, and we bring everything down to this level. And then progress stops because we have focused on our lower nature and its insecurities rather than treating the high self as a living being. So many people have received so called wisdom in this form, and became disillusioned by it. They think “That’s just the way it is, I’ve invested so much time is this big lie, and since my livelihood depends on it I’ll just be the one to lie to others as I have been lied to”.

But perfection does not have an enemy, nor does it make mistakes or errors. Perfection, of course will never be achieved, it just orientates us in the right direction. That is why it is without form, and greater than form.

Like the earth around the sun, we must become “Centred” around the high ideal5 which inspires us and keeps us in motion, keeps us revolving. All people posses this faculty, but they often spend their whole life not knowing how to use it. Some people think that they must resemble exactly the perfect form, other believe that having an ideal is a waste of time because it can never be attained. But really it is something for our will power to strive towards, representing essential truths symbolised by martial arts practice. All the forms are merely different representations of the same truth.

Our will power must desire perfection, because it has an infinite scope which can reach far beyond physical limitations. Only the best satisfies it and will empower you towards real success, and by success I mean reach your full potential6. It does not matter if you achieve the ideal, but the important thing is to keep trying.

1 Steve Morris http://morrisnoholdsbarred.com/

2 Alignment and Tension exercises https://harmanater.com/2020/03/22/alignment-and-tension-exercises/

3 Which Moves? https://harmanater.com/2020/04/30/which-moves/

4 High Intensity Work and Balance https://harmanater.com/2020/07/05/high-intensity-work-and-balance/

5 The High Ideal https://harmanater.com/2020/07/26/the-high-ideal/

6 Will power https://harmanater.com/2020/05/10/will-power/

The Skill is not separate from Work and Contemplation.

Posted on 4th July 2020 by joeharman8 | 11 min read | 113 views

Many people believe that if they practice the right skill a few times, such as a punch, then they will simply have it at their disposal. And if a teacher fails to give them the right instruction they go off and find a better one. If the instructor doesn’t have the right paperwork they are ignored. The problem with this attitude is that it robs the student of the only resource that matters: themselves. In fact, if you go about practice the right way, working hard and honestly, even if you didn’t plan to be very good success will be unavoidable. You bring it on yourself through cause and effect. What the Martial arts community thinks of you is then of no real interest.

The skill is only a small reflection of the reality behind it. It is the outer appearance of the inner evolution, and present form, that appears on the outside of a fighter. It is this attitude that should be embodied. I don’t wish to spend time instructing others on the “technique” aspect, as you can find all the details you want everywhere. However, what is often missed is the spirit of perseverance, overcoming adversity, time and effort spent, etc., which are all inseparable from the physical manifestation of any punch, kick, throw, or whatever. Like a shoot from a seed, the seed must be planted in fertile soil otherwise it cannot take root and flower. The fertile soil, symbolically speaking, is the mental attitude and work.

When a fighter “effortlessly” Ko’s an opponent, it is often imagined that he did it easily. Or when they are “super fit”, people think that this grace and physical prowess are obtained through some kind of external fitness program. However, as I have explained before, the skills that can be acquired from instruction are mainly superficial aspects. The source comes from within the fighter 1. It is this source of motivation and drive that you must aspire to work with, rather than have someone else manipulate your energies from the outside. Of course, if a coach or teacher has your best interests at heart, and knows how to bring only the best out of you, by all means allow them to work on you. However this is often not the case.

The inner states, such as motivation and energies, are the essential ingredients, the factors that count. The various expressions of these, such as specific skills, I have called non essential, because their form changes, and in any case is context dependant. Form is therefore unreliable as a source in itself. Focus on what is essential, the driving force. You might say “That isn’t fun, and it takes to long without all the answers given to me”. How do you know that? If people worked on themselves diligently and took their time to acquire knowledge and experience, rather than rushing towards mediocrity, they would be amazed at the discoveries they make. The work is too hard, supposedly, but because so many people don’t bother working hard to to think for themselves they lack all inspiration to go very far.

People argue about and try to imitate the perfect from. They work for years imitating a tiger, crane, or professional fighter, and end up exhausted and injured from copying these superficial aspects. They have never been taught that is is important to use these things as a guide only, or if they are to identify with them it should be in the spirit of full commitment rather than passive observation. It is far more important to maximise motivation and health by pursuing what matters, or the meaning behind performance. Neither moves nor world title belts are responsible for this. In other words, it is essential to embody the work that goes behind achieving any great goal.

Specific skills are the peripheral details, the mere expressions, and the central central prerequisites are work an energy. In other words, these existing natural resources must be given direction and specific form, or meaning. It is not possible to perform a skill properly otherwise. And also, it is not possible to think you have learnt something by going over some mundane exercises, and then hope to inject a bit of energy into afterwards. This is why the Masters of the East used to give their disciples symbols and parables to contemplate: It would draw on their internal resource in a specific direction without working everything out for them. Through this method of teaching the disciple embodied the skills they practiced and became inseperable from them. I wonder if this is at all clear? The work and ideas come before the skill, there is no other way of thinking about it in my opinion. If so few actually achieve what they set out to do, it is because this basic truth goes unnoticed.

Of course any ideas conveyed in stories and parables must be symbolic of some truth so that the disciple will later come to understand. Through certain powerful symbols2, the student of old would meditate on images within the mind until the physical manifestation later emerged. This tradition is virtually lost today with advent of scientific detailed explanations. Such explanations rarely inspire any kind of intrinsic motivation within the student, they do all the work for him.

If you want to understand how martial arts works, you should use your mind to contemplate and experiment with ideas. For example, Snake Style kung Fu is really practicing skills using the imagery of a snake. You can do anything in this way, and the mind has an innate tendency to work like this. You must imagine yourself darting in and out from various angles and snapping at your opponent. Your attacks should have venom and bite. Any skills you then practice will take on a life of their own. Hopefully you can see how symbols such as this become reality having started as an idea.

Alternatively you can imagine actually defending against a Snake, as Steve Morris often suggests. Here you can use your mind which is a tool that, unlike the body, never wears out. It is an inexhaustible arena of practice, and limitless in its scope. But it needs to be exercised by creative thought and use of the imagination. It is then that your ideas become materialised physically. I hope this is quite clear. When it comes to images in the mind, I’ve never found it very fruitful to imagine mundane things that correspond to some dull lifeless training centre. Although this is what is typically recommended. Instead I prefer to imagine myself on a mountain fighting some larger than life opponent, but more about that another time.

Another symbol used in martial arts is the circle. In Tai Chi for example, circles are made with the arms. It is very easy to practice doing this in your minds eye, because a circle is an accessible symbol recognised by anyone regardless of their training. Therefore, a beginner can begin to practice, awkwardly at first, until they are adept, with just this symbol alone. Such is the power of symbolic explanation. A simple idea such as the circle can undelie more complex ideas later on. This is why babies play with shapes in early development. They later understand more complex things. This is seen in all areas of life, for example the world is round, and so are stones, both of which rotate around an axis.

All I am saying is that we should have the same child like inquisitiveness for martial arts, which is only beyond the scope of out understanding if we have failed to contemplate what its all about for extended periods of time. We would not expect a child to understand, say, rotation around an axis or the solar system without first playing with circles and hoops. It is the same with martial arts, we cannot learn complex fighting movements and skills without first drawing upon our knowledge of symbols, shapes, and ideas which have created meaning for our adult lives.

But most people say “I get it, it’s easy”. As long as they’re having fun, the musics blaring, and the coach is shouting commands at them, they’re quite satisfied. They are like dough in the hands of a baker, tossed around and pounded into submission, which they call work. I’m not talking about that kind of work, I’m talking about inner work which is the real reason for martial arts practice4. Work is not just going through the motions and simple amusement, it is a chance to contemplate and accomplish meaningful pursuits. Many people would like an approach that inspired their better nature, and it is them that I write for.

At the professional level, it is very much the same story. Many athletes wear themselves out looking for some medal or glory, and end up so jaded and worn out by all the politics, deception, and debilitating training, that they ruin their health. “I’ll do it whilst I’m young and able” they say, not matter the cost. If they had thought about it, these athlete “development” programs do nothing but exploit their limited resources of youth a lot of the time. They draw on their reserves, absorbing them in some “peer system” of similarly naive athletes, rather than a wise guide, and then as their enthusiasm grows fainter and fainter they are left on the scrap heap. This is all considered perfectly normal, since this counsel of “talent development” specialists has given them a livelihood and has a right to use them as it sees fit. “Here is a guy who is driven!” They proudly proclaim. Not that they have particular admiration for the superstar, they’re just proud of their hold over him.

What is the point in pursuing all these achievements if you are incapable of enjoying them and lose all inspiration and spirit? In my view “A living Dog is better than a Dead Lion”. In other words, a lion who becomes worn out and incapable of anything is useless, no matter his past glory. He was living on borrowed time. Whereas a dog who is still going and has some fight in it will outlast the Lion in the end. I don’t wish to upset anyone involved professional competition, and anyway there are some exceptions, but it is up to individuals to chose their path. Everything can be found in the manuals of technical instruction, except what I am talking about here. The thing to know is that training is all dependant on how the energies are expended. Are they being absorbed in mindless labour, or is there some left over for contemplation and mental work?

Most animals die in mortal combat in the wild. Clearly, this is the law of the Jungle. However, if we wish to understand how to survive longer than animals we must take the perspective of the child who starts at the beginning. In other words, imagine that you are thinking about martial arts for the first time and work to gradually understand. This is really the case, when you consider how many years it takes to learn even the most simple tasks properly, like writing perfectly. Using the perspective of the child, even in adulthood, you can use advanced knowledge of walking, crawling, rotating the body, etc., and apply them to still more advanced moves like punching. Yes, having spent 18 years learning to walk, there is a further evolution. And then tactical applications. You should then feel as though you are approaching everything for the first time, rather than strutting around as if you are some hard nut looking to prove himself. Here is another example of symbols.

In boxing, you circle the opponent. In order to practice footwork it is a good idea to imagine doing this in your mind. You can first imagine circling round an opponent, and once this idea has been set in motion you can begin contemplating what the steps might look like in relation to this circling. Lots of people get mixed up with the footwork because they contemplate all the details of the footwork separately. Instead, it is better to think of the circle, everything else will begin to make sense when you hold this idea and work with it in your mind. Otherwise, you just end up learning some complicated footwork and it never becomes embodies or feels natural.

Symbols, work, and perseverance. Never rush this process!

References

1 Signs and Symbols in Martial arts Part 2 https://harmanater.com/2020/06/06/signs-and-symbols-part-2-pedagogy-and-the-art-of-war/

2 Signs and Symbols in Martial arts Part 1 https://harmanater.com/2020/05/16/signs-and-symbols-part-1-the-way-and-the-number-ten/

3 Movement and Breathing https://harmanater.com/2020/04/17/movement-and-breathing/

4 The True Meaning of Martial arts https://harmanater.com/2020/05/18/the-true-meaning-of-martial-arts/

Signs and Symbols Part 2: Pedagogy, and the Art of War

Posted on 6th June 2020 Last updated on 6th June 2020 by joeharman8 | 9 min read | 153 views

The ancient teachers and Masters of old used pedagogic methods involving metaphor and symbolic explanations. In Martial arts you have examples such as “Tiger” or “Dragon” style Kung Fu. For example the dragon metaphor is just another way of saying “Remain poised, vigilant, and dart in from all angles, waiting and stalking”. However, there are many interpretations and applications of the universal Snake symbol, which is known to provoke powerful imagery in the mind. Steve Morris suggests viewing the knife in the hand of an attacker as if it were a snake, to provoke the sense of urgency and danger required of a fight. In symbolism, most of the ancient examples are all quite obscure and impossible to understand if taken literally, and why this is so will become apparent in a moment.

Using the example of the dragon, or serpent, the disciple must shed their skin from time to time, that is, their old prejudices and ignorance. This takes time and happens many times for evolution to take place. All those who fail to make this effort remain at a lower level of evolution. Of course it’s tempting not to bother and stay in the same old familiar skin, but you must contemplate the new skin that awaits you in the form of a greater image. It all starts in the mind, and later takes physical form. Throughout history, man has had to make great efforts to do this in one direction or another.

Yet another illustration of the serpent is the Egyptian symbol of the snake eating its own tail. This means that the disciple must eat, symbolically speaking, their base motivations and passions represented by the tail, with the higher region, that is, brain represented by the serpents head. Another illustration of this was the Egyptian staff that showed two serpants wrapped around each other, representing the higher and lower self: that is the instincts and intelligence, married as one. Only then can disciples master themselves and direct their own forces at will, and move beyond good and evil1. Even ordinary marriage of two people is symbolic of something else.

Of course, this universal language of symbolism is necessary. Because then the disciple can carry about with him an internal method of reflection which requires no external teacher. This is the secret of internal teachings. Moves are not explicitly taught because they must emerge from a foundation. This is how children learn to walk, talk, etc., by watching little animals jumping around, animals who symbolise, in exaggerated form, some form of truth. The disciple must become a child once again, this time to their own intelligence, to learn more important truths later in life, often using the very same symbols they were brought up on in childhood.

Of course there have been endless foolish debates about whether mimicking a tiger or a dragon is effective, but this is besides the point. It seems that these images were invoked to make a powerful impression on the mind, and to teach complex movements by first using some familiar concept. This is an interesting point because this shows that the old Masters had knowledge about how the student can understand something abstract, like a mechanical fighting form, by first working through existing knowledge. In other words it’s always more effective to learn using metaphors and building on existing knowledge and experience.

Of course the situation is very different today, instruction is often devoid of meaning and highly unimaginative. Perhaps you are wondering if the advantages of the internal method are really any good. Yes, they are. By focusing on meaningful symbols, this encourages a creative energy that raises your imagination to its heights. Channeling ones energies is the real goal, to live an intense life whatever you are doing. Beating an opponent will never do this, even if you beat everybody. In this way, even the least gifted athlete can benefit and over time become a great martial artist in the wider sense. This is why I recommended mediating on these subjects for at least a few minutes everyday, and if you can do it for hours, then so much the better.

The process of inner focus triggers motivation from within, rather than from some meaningless external source, such as winning a contest or obtaining a certificate. To be fair, these are not meaningless in themselves, but the point is that vast quantities of these possessions and skills they are often obtained at the expense of quality. The problem is that many people are encouraged to switch off from the thought process entirely, with promises of learning some kind of self defence system within days. They will learn these skills, but their consciousness will have had nothing to do with it. Of course, thought take time and effort, but many people are unwilling to bother on the basis that they don’t get immediate results. Why? One reason is the pursuit of tangible or material results.

The old Masters were keen to put forward systems which neither individuals nor styles were able to refute. A higher Method. Because certain technical points differ from one school of thought to the next, you cannot eternalise a style in physical form. For example, one coach might says to punch from distance, and another might says to fight “inside” at close quarters. There is no point in debating which of these is right or wrong because these are just peripheral details which fluctuate with the times and depend on so many different situations. They often come down to matters opinion, as if an individual were able to refute the process by which we learn. However, you can instead use a metaphor which illustrates a universal point. This is why I don’t advocating learning from some organised system, instead you are better off relying on a method without form.

Take the saying “If the General be skillful, the spirit of his troops is as the impetus of a round stone rolled from the top of a high Mountain” from the Art of War2. In the language of symbols a mountain means from up high, which is where you must aim even though you might fall over, or overheat on the way up. Yes, there are many trials awaiting us before we reach the summit. A stone represents something which rotation occurs around an axis. This could be taken to mean “Sharply drop your centre of gravity into a strike” or “view things from the perspective of higher reason, with the use of natural forces”. It could also mean, in management of people “The leader does not gravitate around the troops, he keeps his distance so his followers are drawn to him. He is careful to not to be drawn to their level”. There are many more explanations of this simple sentence: use your imagination, that’s the whole point!

Even without knowing what they mean, you can begin to contemplate symbolic language and metaphors. This ignites the whole process. Because symbols apply to so many fields and on all levels, they must be kept deliberately obscure and simple. And this only increases their meditative value. Meditation begins by choosing a subject and contemplating it. Soon, the meaningful image you have conjured up quite naturally focuses your concentration. Then, eventually, eventually relate to it. Let’s look at some other examples of this phenomenon taken from the art of War, a classic text on Warfare.

Sun Tzu said “When the fire is at its height, attack or not as opportunity may arise”. This can be interpreted to mean “When the enemy has given themselves over to disorder, they will have lost their ambition and drive”. Equally it can be interpreted as “When you have channeled your inner fires, use them, or if they threaten to destroy you because you have been seized by chaos, then don’t”. But once again, it is not necessary to know the moves in martial arts to begin working with these methods. Some sayings and proverbs have such an impression on the mind that they provide enough motivation to run with them and teach yourself. It is not a question of their literal validity. And with enough motivation it is mathematically certain that you will succeed in your goals, using such symbols as an impetus for learning.

“War should not be undertaken because the Lord is in a moment of passion” Said Sun Tzu. Now many people have interpreted this to mean that there should be no passion behind practice, that their should be a void. But in fact, meaningful action is not possible without passion. Instead this statement can be interpreted to mean “If you are overwhelmed by your pure instincts, which have not been channelled by reason into power, then you will burn yourself”. Truth be told, many athletes, fighters, and other people, have never really wanted to channel their energies into something higher because they remain convinced that they would be unhappy. And for this reason it is impossible for many to see any truth in books like the Art of war.

The concept of Maya in Hindu Philosophy teaches us that what is immediately apparent is often and illusion. And that behind strength lies weakness. These deceptions are what the enemy uses to gain power over you. For example, Sun Tzu said “the Causes of defeat come from within. Victory is born in the enemies camp”. From this it is apparent that our own inner forces are liable to deception3. To overcome this, Sun Tzu said “the skillful in attack push to the topmost Heaven”. This is just another way of saying that the skillful fighter relates to a high ideal and channels his instinctual energies towards it. He notices the chaos around him, but like a laser focuses on the good.

Now the Chinese Divided Heaven into 9 levels. Similarly, the Yogis divided the self into 9 regions, or Chakras, the highest being at the top of the head. The highest point represents the high ideal, in other words perfection. Only by devoting all of ones energies to the highest form of motivation, rather than petty considerations such as ease and comfort (represented by the lower planes), can the fighter ensure intense vigilance and focus. Notice how, in the language of symbols, perfection is born from a foundation containing ignorance, or if you like the snake eats its own tail. This is what the fighter must aim towards: Perfection even if he falls very wide of the mark. Perfection is what inspires. The more powerful the symbol the greater impression it makes on the mind. Always use symbols and metaphors.

References

1 See Will Power https://harmanater.com/2020/05/10/will-power/

2 From The art of War by Sun Tzu

3 See The Higher and Lower Self in Martial arts https://harmanater.com/2020/05/04/the-higher-and-lower-self-in-martial-arts/