Tag: nada

The Yogic culture has a form of practice known as the Yoga of sound, or Nada Yoga. In martial Arts, the sound is used to support the various movements. This involves knowing about proper breathing and how to do it. Just as the painter knows which brush stroke to use on the paper, so too does the martial artists know which sound form to use. Both do it as it needs to happen. The painter strokes up and down in a descending or ascending order. The breathe works the same. So even if you are breathing rapidly in and out, it is even possible to follow a certain ebb and flow, which is actually going on outside of you. So these are universal laws rather than artificial ones. Otherwise you end up cacophonous and out of sync.

In martial arts the sound form can be audible or inaudible, that is, it can be silent or external. When you are meditating, it tends to become silent. You can even get to a point where the breathe becomes still, although there is still an in and out happening. This is because there is a flow which happens externally too, which has to do with the atmosphere and the subtle universal influence. So generally speaking, the slower breathing is less taxing on the body and lowers stress. The more rapid breathing create a certain inner pressure, which also creates lower pressure elsewhere. In this way, the Hara Centre, which is in the abdomen, creates a sustained pressure through martial arts practice. This naturally creates a lower pressure in the upper aspects of the body such as the chest and brain.

So even if you are doing heavy work, you will benefit from a lower base level or an ability to slow down at will during certain periods. These low pressure periods also create the opposite tendency elsewhere, and one who is aware of this can use such changing weather states to their advantage. It is exactly like the changing of the weather, high pressure creates a vacuum somewhere else. This is why warriors of the past spent around half the day meditating and the other half fighting. It was understood that by creating a certain inner pressure, and then moving this upwards, you could create the very basis of growth and power. There are many aspects to this. This is known as separation of charge, which essentially means that you are both high pressure and low pressure, which creates the right kind of atmosphere for development and evolution.

When you are exerting yourself physically, the breathe becomes more externally bound. Even then however, you may want to control the breathe rather than let it all out. For example, if you want to control the breathe so the opponent doesn’t perceive you as scared, this obviously has practical benefits. In the past particularly, warriors would have to hide from deadly animals who could pick up faint breathing sounds, so they disguised their breathing in many ways.

Because of various constraints in the past, such as lack of writing tools, the sound forms were passed on from generation to generation by physical demonstration only. This is known as the oral tradition. The oral tradition was effective for demonstrating the quality of a form, so that that this would be kept. The physical details were not so important as they are today, because everybody has their own different physical expression. This is particularly so with adepts, who look to become something unique rather than what has already been produced.

In martial arts there are particular subtleties which do not lend themselves to the written form. For example, the up and down movements of a block come out and then go back in the reverse of it rapidly. This is similar to how a snake snaps out and then goes back along the same path. So the snake was used to demonstrate this particular sinuous quality, which is considered more like the human being in terms of energy. Obviously another man looks more like a human body, but the energy aspect was what counted here. It is like going up and down an ascending and descending scale, rather than a beginning, middle and end. So in the book it will look like a preparation, execution, and recovery as demonstrated by a person. This is not how it is in reality. Everybody knows what a snake looks like and how it moves, so this picture paints a thousand words.

In the next part we will look at the particular syllables and utterances used in martial arts. We will also look at how the coloured belt systems represent the twelve and seven notes of sound. There are of course also seven or twelve colours depending on the system. This is not arbitrary and played in important role in the formation of traditional martial arts. Each of these sounds and colours represents a particular quality. For example, the “Aa” sound represents the beginning, and is used to relate the breath to the physical centre of the body, the Hara Centre. The breathe is used as a thread, just like a thread holds together beads into a structure. So the “Aa” sound links the sound to the form, ensuring that you have a stable base. This is why in martial arts you shout “Ha!” or some variation of this sound in a forceful exhale.