By Jospeh Cardillo
– Water is a symbol of purity, birth, and rebirth. When you embody the characteristics of this life giving force, you are going with the flow. You fill every moment with living, you force nothing, you become, you experience, you interrelate. In going with the flow, you become tranquil and peaceful. Ideally, we strive to always and everywhere be like water—for water is gentle, and yet it is powerful. It can be still or in motion. It can absorb. It can go over, under, around, and through things. It can dissolve things, float them, or float atop them. It can become hot, cold, heavy, light, invisible, solid, or vapor. It is formless, yet it can adapt to any container.
– Though martial arts began with the development of language itself and can be traced back more than three thousand years in China, it wasn’t until thousands of years later that these combat disciplines fused with philosophy. In A.D. 525, a Buddhist monk from India named Bodhidharma visited the Shaolin Temple of China. (He’s who introduced the breathing exercises, animal analogies, and spiritual practices of martial arts)
– In the 1800’s the addition of the concept of “da” (the way) enters the picture as there was more peace in the Orient.
– Students were taught many ways and means to serve those ends and encouraged to do what worked, not what was directed by a culture. They were taught mushin, which means to empty the mind of guilt, doubt, fear, hatred, and other negative emotions that only get in the way of achievement (or, for the warrior, in the way of winning the fight).
– I wish you a warm heart and a joyful soul, strength, and beauty in all the days ahead.
– The Chinese word chi (or ki in Japanese) refers to our internal life-force energy, as well as to the energy of the Universe, the Infinite, which is present in all things. Everyone is born with a certain amount of chi, and we all have the ability to gather even more. Chi is the ore of all existence.
– In everyday life, chi supplies us with the power to break through areas of our lives where we feel stuck, trapped, or limited—either mentally, physically, or spiritually. Chi is the force behind good health, confidence, happiness, strength, power, self-esteem, focus, virility, increased mental effectiveness, and success.
– The major location of chi in the body is within the Lower Dan Tien, a space located just a few inches below the navel, and, interestingly, your body’s center point of gravity. Thus, within each of us is a profoundly nutritious energy, which is the energy of the Universe, the Infinite, and our connection to all things, for everything contains chi.
– I remember he told us to position our hands in front of us as though we were holding a basketball, our right hand on top, left on the bottom, fingers pointed sideways…He was teaching us how to center. Centering is believed to harmonize the body, mind, and spirit, as well as help in the development of chi.
– He told us to close our eyes. “Let your weight follow its course downward. Feel the gravity without giving in to it. Relax each joint and muscle. Feel the ground below you. Feel your feet becoming one with it. This is called rooting…Let the earth’s energy enter you. Breathe deeply through your nose and exhale through your mouth,” he explained. “Let the air travel through your entire body—throat, abdomen, limbs.”…He asked us to keep our eyes closed and to visualize our breath as pure white, nurturing and healing everything it touched.
– “Our bodies are vessels,” my instructor said. “And they can hold only a limited amount of energy, good and bad.” He asked us to continue focusing on our Lower Dan Tien and to visualize our chi as a white light, pulsing vibrant with each breath. “Try to extend your chi outward,” he said. “Feel it enter your hands. Feel it with your hands.” Regulate breathing, coordinated with the summoning and releasing of chi, helps cleanse the body of bad energy and replenish it with good.
– Where the mind goes, your chi will go
– I relaxed myself, as my instructor had told us. I regulated my breathing. I centered, concentrating on my Lower Dan Tien and envisioning it blazing with energy. I imagined my breath downward, white and healing, flowing through my body.
– I had learned that positive energy helps us through tasks and creates joy.
– Our bodies are vessels. They can hold only a limited amount of energy, either good or bad. Find your center. Cleanse your body of bad energy and replenish it with good. Feel restored. Feel animated. Let your daily work energize you rather than deplete your energy. Create joy.
– Your centered self is who you are at your core deepest. Listen to that voice often. Think and act from a place of balance.
– Remember, there is only so much energy you can hold. Negative energy will empower your opponent. Vanish it. Positive energy nurtures us, heals us. Use it to help create the life you want. Let it empower you.
Exercise
– The ballon exercise. Relax the mind. Hands in front of the lower dan tein, like holding a balloon. Fill it with chi. Dissipate the skin of the balloon. Still feel the chi. Feel it grow. Coming through me from the ground. (And from above). Level 2: Hold my hands out in front of me and feel the chi and let it go into the world. Level 3 – Use breath only to gather and move chi.
– Mushin, or empty mind, is a calming technique practice by most martial artists. The point is to free our mind of all assumptions and negative emotions such as anger, guilt, doubt, fear, and hatred. Whether on the mats or in everyday situations, a clear and still mind will react more fluidity and efficiently. We are less apt to chase decoys or get bogged down by actions extraneous to our goals.
– Martial artists try to avoid assumptions and negative feelings because they are an all-around losing situation. This kind of mental poison slows you own and even telegraphs your reactions, making you less effective. Negativity makes you rigid, and when you lose flexibility, opponents can easily target techniques around you as simply as water can circle stone.
– You want your body and mind to move as smoothly and naturally as possible. Imagine your consciousness as a cork afloat in a stream, reacting spontaneously and harmoniously to any movement around it—alert and light and unfettered.
– An old adage says, If you’re looking for something, you will never find it. The rule sparring is: Don’t assume you know what’s going to happen before it happens.
– It seemed that whenever I thought I knew what I was doing, even when I did things by the book, I’d wind up getting tagged.
– We began a light spar. HIs movements were soft and easy. His eyes were wide and deep like a cat’s; they seemed like mirrors—focused entirely on me, alert and yet paradoxically unthinking. This is what many refer to as the martial arts stare. I had the sensation that my teacher knew what I was going to do before I even did it. I could literally feel his strength, and he was doing nothing.
– I knew what he was referring to. When I had been sparring earlier, the kind of intensity I’d shown was the same kind of grunting, growling aggression you’d use to chop wood. That kind of energy is complete intention.
– Mushin keeps us agile—helps us fit in when we want and where we need. A sticky mind is not free to concentrate. A sticky mind is the result of assumptions and prejudgments. It creates confusion where we need clarity. Mushin, on the other hand, teaches us to accept thought without adhesion, like a lake allows images to float over its surfaces. As a result, we can move and think more freely.
– In terms of life skills, mushin is a technique I practice daily. Why? Because it is too easy to start chasing bad thoughts, emotions, anticipations, and so forth, and begin clinging to them. What’s more, it’s dangerous and often destructive or counterproductive to make assumptions.
– I had learned many lessons that day—not only that I could apply mushin to life, but also that anger pitted against anger will only yield more antagonism. Furthermore, the assuming mind, allowed to run loose, will contaminate relationships and limit successes.
– Eliminating negative emotions and assumptions is difficult for everyone, but there are great benefits to be achieved as soon as we begin trying. The trick is to flow with the situation, not control it. Give yourself permission to let go of negativity. Don’t trust it. It works against you.
– Practice mushin. Empty your mind of emotional residue and unyielding reactions. Anger is your energy. Avoid assumptions about yourself or others. Don’t assume you know what’s going to happen before it does. Be alert and widen your vision. Practice active non-action. Generate positive energy. Trust yourself.
Exercise
– There are two different versions. One is visualization. The other actual. Visualize a person or situation that you feel negative emotions about. Feel these. Let them rise. Identify them clearly. Then: 1) visualize yourself writing their name and their transgressions on a piece of paper. Really see yourself writing neatly and the ink bleeding onto the page. Say to yourself, “I am getting ride of these feelings ________ because they are holding me back, restricting my power, and dampening my appreciation of life. These emotions no longer have any power in my life.” Then see yourself putting this paper into a fire and watching it burn until there is nothing left. 2) Actually do this. Write, neatly and legibly, the person’s name and what happened. Say the line above. Then either place the letter in your pocket and carry it for a week, noticing the tool it takes on you each day OR place it where you can see it every day. Really feel the toll it takes, energetically and now many more, better, healthier things could be done with this energy. Then, take the paper outside, with a pan, and burn it down. ALL OF IT. Until there’s nothing but ashes. Blow the ashes into the wind.
– All things are our relatives. (Black Elk of the Oglala Sious)
– Good martial artists don’t rely on prescribed moves. These only get in the way of seeing what’s actually happening at the moment.
– I got burned several times. I had to learn how to move by watching alertly, with a clear mind, and by reacting only to what the flame was doing, not what I presumed it would do. Finding the right path or movement came through constant observation. For as long as I stayed in harmony with the movement, I was able to maintain a sense of safety.
– Whether or not I initiated the movement, once I closed the distance between myself and the flame, my hand had to fall into a certain orbit to avoid getting burned. Likewise, the flame gave up its original position and entered into movement with the hand and thus could avoid being snuffed out. It was in this third or mutual movement—the harmonized or shared orbit—that each was safe. Once in this space, there could be no my-way-is-the-only-way attitude because the way was constantly changing from moment to moment.
– Strategically observing and listening to others creates an overall sense of personal well-being in our relationships.
– I gathered my energy and made sure I was cooled off. I did my best to clear my mind of any preconceived judgments, remaining open for any opportunity to enter into what would be our third movement.
– Interestingly, his mood lightened ever so slightly when I mentioned getting him what he wanted, which was the right outline. That was my opening. I’d started a new movement and he’d gravitated into it.
– That’s what harmony does. Besides smoothening you movements, it helps create compassion and peace.
– It’s not always easy to initiate action that helps transport and sustain two or more misaligned people onto a mutual path. With practice and heightened states of attention, however, these paths will often reveal themselves. As we strive to empathize and become more compassionate with those around us, they will begin to open up to us more freely and generously. We will notice our relationships getting more comfortable and peaceful, rather than distancing and creating anxiety.
– We must remember to observe and listen to others. This allows truth to surface naturally and without conflict. For like the flame and the hand, we empower each other when our actions and reactions evolve from harmony rather than discord. The attitude with which we approach each other will be nurturing, compassionate, and respectful—which will allow us to see more clearly how to create responses that will gather more goodness and love into our lives. We will become light and less conflicted. We will see more goodness in others and they in us. Our actions will work toward lightening their load and theirs toward lightening ours.
– Don’t rely on prescribed reactions. Have patience. There is no need for rorcing solutions. There is no need to dominate. Gentleness will safeguard strength. Observe and listen to others. In harmony, leading and being led become the same movement. Direction is spontaneous. Be the flame. Be the hand. Harmonize. What you need will come to you. Respect others. Enjoy your gained respect. Feel safe. Feel good.
– “Through harmony all things are influenced” (Confucius)
Exercise
– Dancing with the flame. Palm facing the candle. Close enough you can feel the warmth. Begin to circle the flame. Play. Try to feel, as opposed to think or see, the path forward.
– This is important because in this form (relaxed yet alert state of empty mind), your thoughts become infinitely more capable. Observe and listen to yourself interacting with the other person.
– Stay in it, soft and open—completely alert, forgetting everything you have ever felt about this person, bringing nothing but your awareness with you, expecting nothing, judging nothing, wanting nothing.
– There’s a secondary exercise. It’s visualizing an interaction with someone where there was some tension. See the situation. Set it in a space you typically share. Enter the empty mind. Listen and observe the other person. Imagine one of us is the flame and the other the hand. Enter the mutual energy field you create. Find the third way and the dance between you two.
– “Stop talking, stop thinking, / and there is nothing / you will not understand.” – Seng-st’an
– Although we cannot stop pain from entering our lives, we can control our responses to it. Most martial artists learn early on that the first step in dealing with pain is to distinguish a real threat from a nonthreat.
– “Most of the kicks that immobilized you,” he explained, “wouldn’t have reached you in the first place. They were being fired from too far away.” He explained that like many new students, I was still having trouble conquering my fear.
– Assessing threats is always difficult and something we constantly need to work on.
– Getting rid of fear helps us focus on the right things.
– Whenever you use these skills to help transcend a daunting situation, you will walk away revitalized. You will have pride and confidence in your power to protect yourself. You will feel freer. You will be more content. You will live more heartily, experience more, and accomplish more.
– You can control your response to pain. Practice assessing threats. Conquer your fear. Use your skills to respond to real threats and help dismiss nonthreats. Stay calm. Be flexible. Flood yourself with positive energy. Trust in yourself.
– Avoid entangled thoughts, that you may see the explanation in Paradise. – Divni Shamsi Tabriza
Exercise
– Imagine a painful situation. Visualize the events, people, circumstance. Consider all the details. Determine what are real threats and what are nonthreats. Dismiss the nonthreats. Tell yourself, “This <blank> has no power over me.’ Summon your chi. Allow it to flood and fortify and protect you. Feel love and power flowing through you. Ask your inner self, “What do I need to bring to the situation to dissolve these threats?” Listen for the answer. When it comes, imagine someone I know who has these abilities handling the situation. How would they respond? What do they bring to the situation that would make it a successful response? Add these tools the the ones I already identified. Summon them all. Feel them coming.
– When we open ourselves to others and their gifts, we create the possibility of receiving those gifts.
– See with your skin. “Sensitivity,” he would say, “is a key that will unlock many doors.”
– The word sensitivity itself can be traced to the Latin sens meaning “to feel.” It can be defined as “understanding something well enough to act on it.”
– “Close your eyes. Eyes can be deceptive,” he asserted. “You have to learn how to see with your skin.”
– Use all of you. The more you can feel, the better you will be at determining how and when to react to an opponent—or if you need to react at all.
– “Once you make contact with an opponent, you should be able to sense what his or her next move will be,”
– There are two types of sensitivity, internal and external: yin and yang. Yin (internal) is connected with our mysterious powers of intuition, while yang (external) is connected with our powers of reason. Yin is the energy in the Universe that is reproductive and creative, whereas yang is productive and rational.
– Seeing with our skin is, in essence, shifting our attention inward, where responses do not rely on net muscular strength, but rather on a keen awareness of chi.
– At the precise point at which we intuit a movement and then act upon that knowledge, we are shifting our attention from yin to yang or from the internal to the external—and thus are maintaining a harmonious flow of energy in our actions and throughout our lives. Making ourselves aware of this shift in attention and practicing it regularly helps strengthen sensitivity and intuition and gives it a say in what we do. We begin to move more fluidily. We are able to find better balance with others and the world around us. We connect with others more often. Our mind quickens and experiences deepen.
– Sensitivity and intuition require softness and calm—otherwise we may not be able to tune in to them. We have to stay loose, unassuming, and acutely present.
– Sensitivity and intuition help us know when to make a move and how to fit in where we want to be. They help keep us from being manipulated. We become better communicators and partners in all our relations.
– Go inward where the mind is free and infinite. Practice seeing with your skin. Instead of simply having, “thoughts,” learn “being” your mind. Trust your instincts. Live serenely and purely. Live freely. Fit in.
– Chi sao demonstrates that we can fully express ourselves and, at the same time, fit in—that is, exist in harmony with others—by using sensitivity and intuition.
Exercise
– A partner exercise based on Chi Sao. Stand facing each other. Close. Like able to tap the other person on the forehead close. It’s about moving together. Make and X your arms to start. Move forward and back together. Eventually it morphs into trying a light strike on the chest. Eventually it moves to taps on the forehead? Google Chi Sao and come back to pg 43
– “Truth comes in between breathes” – Buddha
– He was explaining how slow, deep breathing intensifies attentiveness in meditation and strength in form and combat.
– I’d already figured out that truth-coming-between-breathes was a sort of combat strategy—that an “opening,” or vulnerability in my opponent, would manifest itself if I controlled my urges to hit where I wanted to hit and actively waited; if I simply surrendered myself to the flow of the match.
– I soon figured out that I was losing because I was thinking about how to apply what he had told me. In martial arts, as in life, you quickly learn not to think too much. You have to do. While you’re thinking, you open spaces where an opponent can successfully strike at you. The more you think, the more vulnerable you become.
– But controlling urges isn’t easy. I gave myself room to stumble until one day it happened. I wasn’t thinking, just moving, when my sparing partner opened up, and there it was, right in front of me, big as a billboard: an enormous, open target.
– Little by little, you being to trust the process, and it gets easier. In time, your responses quicken and become more effortless.
– You learn that the targets you’re looking for come in between what you think is going to happen (or think you can make happen) and your opponent’s actions. You learn that the truth of any moment comes in between the breathe of your thoughts. You learn to remain calm and attentive, and equally as important, you learn the virtues of controlling your urges, of waiting for the right moment before taking action. Sometimes you need to get out of your own way in order to see the real targets. Then you learn to go at them swiftly and directly and with the appropriate force to hit the bull’s-eye.
– I was anxious to get everything done, and before long it seemed I was spending every waking hour thinking or talking about my sabbatical. As I became more anxious, so did everyone around me. You know the situation: After a while, you’ve said all there is to say, and you still don’t have the answer—you’re only mulling over what’s already been said, and you know that’s not good enough…I told myself to put my martial arts skills to work and simply forget about the issue; resolution would come. I had to control my urges and wait. I assured myself that truth would come.
– All the smaller (but often more taxing) hassles of life resolve in the same way. You are having a family disagreement that goes on for months. You torture yourself looking for a way out of the problem. You try things to resolve the issues even though your heart tells you it wouldn’t be happy with such a solution. You don’t listen to yourself and make yourself even more miserable. Then one day you’re in the shower. You’re not thinking about anything, not even washing. You are in what we all refer to as automatic pilot. And suddenly, out of nowhere, the answer flashes at you—“big as a billboard.” Every cell of you knows it’s the right answer, too. You sue it. I works.
– Accept this pattern. Learn from it. You will save yourself all kinds of time and heartache. You will waste fewer days beating yourself up looking for solutions to problems before the answers are about to give themselves to you. And perhaps there is a reason for the wait. For in waiting, we learn.
– Life is constantly demanding solutions to one thing or another. Nevertheless, stay calm, control your urges, and actively wait: Go for a jog, take a drive, chop wood, listen to music, wash and put away dishes, sweep a floor—anything you can do to slowly get your mind off the urgency. If you have to, act as though you have already taken care of the problem, until you actually do—just to get your mind off it. Be attentive. You will be amazed at how easily solutions can come.
– Waiting isn’t easy, but acting when the time isn’t right can make us vulnerable and further distance from what were are trying to achieve. We don’t have to judge or justify. We can make a conscious decision to simply act as if all will be fine as we wait for life’s openings to manifest. Our job is to control the urge to strike—until the target is right, to live attentively, enjoy our lives, and wait for the right moment. Truth will come.
– “Where every ‘where’ and every ‘when’ is focused” – Dante
Exercise
– Think back to a time when you tried to force things and how that worked out. How could that time have been used better, the waiting? What steps could I have taken to slow myself down? Then when’s a time when I did wait and the opening presented itself and the solution came? What were the stages of actively waiting?
– “Flexibility masters hardness.” – Jiu Yuku Go O Sei Uuru
– All martial artists are interested in finding ways to intensify the power of their techniques—and at the same time not get hurt by the backlash. Sound familiar? Probably. You don’t have to be a martial artist to want to make your moves from a point of strength and avoid negative repercussions.
– Pulling away in martial arts refers to the retraction of strikes. At a basic level, students learn to pull back a shot primarily so that it doesn’t “hang out there” and become a target for their opponent, and also so that it can be used again if necessary.
– At some point, you learn that there are other, perhaps less obvious, reasons for pulling away. These other reasons have to do with issuing power or, more precisely, with the transfer of close-range, explosive power known as cun jing (inch power) into a target without being harmed by the recoil of energy.
– There is support for ideas of energy transfer outside the world of marital arts. A good example of this comes from the teachings of the late philosopher-theologian Joseph Campbell, who defined consciousness as something that does not exist in the head (or mind) but rather is directed by the mind. “Consciousness and energy,” said Campbell, “are perhaps the same thing.” Thus, when we direct our energy, we are also directing our consciousness, and vice versa.
– Then, from no more than an inch away, he launched a quick punch that, after contact, he retracted almost instantly. For a second, I felt only the thrust of the shot—and then, a curious swell of energy about the size of a golf ball moving through my abdomen. It was uncanny.
– “There are three key factors to making the technique work,” he added. “First, relax. Then, pur your whole body into it. Lastly, you have to develop two speeds: a forward thrust and a retraction. Both are equally important.”
– We begin to train staying loose, putting all of our relaxing and centering techniques together before attempting to issue a strike. You can’t be tight at all when trying to generate power from this short distance. The softer you remain, the less tension your muscles hold, the faster you can move.
– We had to start learning how to condense our chi and channel it to generate the power we were after. This sounds complicated, but it doesn’t have to be. We worked the basic adage, Wherever the mind goes, your chi goes.
– we trained directing chi by visualizing it moving in sync with our breathing. With our in-breaths we visualized drawing chi from our extremities to the center of our body, condensing it tightly into a smaller and smaller space (like sunlight tightened into a dot by a magnifying lens). Then we channeled its concentrated form back into our arms and hands, feet and legs with our out-breaths. This technique of using breath and mind to direct the flow of chi greatly intensified our issuance of power.
– Little by little, we learned how to stay more softly focused, channel energy to those parts of our body that needed it to deliver a technique, and build up the power we needed to execute and retract a shot powerfully and without harm to ourselves.
– Tension of any sort gets into the muscles and the mind. It slows us down and restricts movement.
– The most I calmed and faced the situation, the more a solution began to materialize—and, in return, the more relaxed I became. The effect was synergistic.
– Paraphrase – tension blocks energy. Thinking about the worst case scenarios or what’s been lost does too. In these moments of agitation, feel and release then energy, then breathe and calm. Channel and condense chi and then send it where it needs to go in the body.
– I promised myself that when I finished (the paper he lost right before a deadline), I would immediately shift (pull away) from the job and treat myself to a dinner at a good restaurant with my wife—no matter what the time. That was my manner of pulling away from the intense expenditure of energy. There are many tactics for pulling away—physical, verbal, situational, emotional, spiritual, and so on. Which you choose is determined by the particulars of your situation. But as the concept goes, you cannot output large amounts of energy without pulling back. The risk of recoil is too great.
– Life is full of situations that require quick and intense force. You can learn to deal with them powerfully and avoid potential backlash. Relax, heighten your attention, and stay in the moment. Practice intensifying your effort. Channel your energy. Take your shot, and remember to pull away.
– “See first with your mind, / then with your eyes, / and finally with your body.” – Yagyu Munenori
Exercise
– read it. It’s very initiate of the seven fold veil, colors and circles.
– “Do not permit the events of your daily lives to bind you, but never withdraw yourselves from them. Only by acting thus can you earn the title, ‘a Liberated One.’’ – Huang Po
– All martial arts emphasize that good rhythm is essential for responding appropriately to any given situation. Developing a high sensitivity to your internal rhythms, as well a the rhythms of others, will create many opportunities in everyday life, just as it does on the mats.
– By definition, rhythm refers to patterns, and life a series of patterns.
– Good rhythm helps us move naturally and effectively toward what we are attempting to accomplish and with whom, by putting us in sync with other movement in our environment. It helps us create and take advantage of life’s openings, as well as protecting ourselves against vulnerabilities. It can overcome inequities in size and power.
– To respond appropriately, you have to know when to attempt to get what you want.
– What’s more, in order to know when to take your shot, you have to find an opening. There are several ways to create openings. The primary way is simply to pay attention and identify patterns.
– All of us have patterns—physical, emotional, spiritual. Perhaps you know someone whose pattern of activity just before an argument is to become quiet, then distant, then quick with responses in conversation. Conceptually, these kinds of movements aren’t much different from what you look for on the mats. Identifying patterns such as these can help you divert conflict before it occurs. But you have to be attentive.
– So to respond appropriately, you have to watch carefully. Once you recognize the pattern, though, all you have to do is look for the spaces between beats and slip your strike in there.
– Anything that disrupts a partner’s rhythm—decoys, new rhythms ,strikes, and so forth—can create openings of make existing ones bigger. Your opponent basically loses focus; by the time he or she regains it, you’re in.
– You’ll discover that the best times to use these approaches are whenever opponents are repositioning from a movement, pulling away, or beginning an attack. At these junctures, they are committed to action; putting a cog in their intentions will generate a pause as they reassess what they are doing. This will create space for your to respond and put the advantage on your side. No matter if it’s real life or on the mats, if you don’t like the way things are going, just change the rhythm of the game and keep changing it until you create a space to respond appropriately—that is, to your advantage.
– It didn’t take long for him to talk himself into a more favorable state of mind. At that point, we were able to shift again and move on to issues concerning the project we were assigned.
– Again, if you don’t like the way things are going, just change the rhythm of the game. This is one of my favorite anthems.
– Whether you are on the mats or in the middle of an everyday situation with a coworkers, feeling the rhythm of the situation will help you respond appropriately. Good rhythm will de-stress your movement, mentally and physically. You will know when and how to approach others as you work toward your goals. You will increase your confidence and chances of success. You will perceive life as more cooperative because you have learned how to cooperate with it. Many good things will come. Identifying partner’s rhythms, look for (or create) your opening, and, when the time is right, make your move. Then change patterns to avoid any potential backlash.
– Water these seeds (of rhythm and paying attention to a partners body language and tells), and you will delight in their graces.
– Those who attain the Tao… Can jump into fire / without being burned, / Walk upon reality / as if it were a void / and travel on a void / as if it were reality. / They can be at home / wherever they are. – T’u Lung
– Most practitioners attempt to find their best range and excel within it. They soon find, however, that being able to float from one range to another will provide the greatest advantages and freedom on the mats—from more adaptability per situation to less predictability as an artist. Thus, one of our most critical goals is to develop proficiency in all ranges.
– Whether on or off the mats, some people’s modus operandi is to draw themselves close to those in their environment, while others like to maintain distance, and still others occupy regions somewhere in between. These are ranges in which they are most comfortable.
– Our reactions to such individuals are opportunities for self-discovery. These tell us a lot about our own life ranges, especially those in which we are most and least functional.
– proficiency in other ranges will expand our own comfort zones. We will feel freer in movement and thought. As a result, we will allow others those same freedoms. We will get more done. We will be happier people.
– The road to expanding your comfort zones is one of discovery.
-Our job was to discover our best range(s), but it was equally important to become as skillful as we could in the others and to float between them as the need arose.
– Attributes were everything. Those of us who liked to maintain a distance had to cultivate speed and footwork to make ourselves functional. We learned to make ourselves evasive, and to move swiftly. We discovered ways to put everything into a single kick or punch when an opening occurred. Those who liked to be up close had to cultivate more rapid hand movements. They learned to trap an opponent’s arms and redirect energy. They had to resist putting everything into a single shot and determine how to save some energy for the next.
– Know your attributes. The more I trained, the more I became aware of my own attributes, especially speed and sensitivity.
– I realized that my comfort and skill zones were, in fact, good at long range, but were even better at close range, which became my first area of specialization. What an irony, considering how, when I began , all I wanted to do was stay as far away from my partners as possible.
– My original preference for distance training was based on all the wrong reasons. I was running from opponents rather than learning how to work with them. What an exciting eye-opener it was to find that the very space I most feared was the range in which I could shine.
– What is it about life that keeps us looking in the opposite direction from where our true talents await us? The answer is simple: Our fears and other negative emotions play a big role, but mostly we do not give enough voice to our innermost self—to knowing the person we really are on the inside.
– There are always those students who are most comfortable at long ranges. Many times, these students sit in the far recesses of the room. Interestingly, a lot of them know how to make distance work. Long range gives them time to deliberate and plan. When they see an opening they want to fill, they are swift as a crane soaring in to answer questions, or offer opinions and debates.
– Then there are those who are comfortable at close range. These students often sit in front. They are eager to get into conversations and debates and don’t require as much planning to respond. They don’t mind being part of a discussion before they actually have an answer. They are confident that they can create openings and that an answer will come.
– Knowing the attributes and limitations of each range helps me customize questions, discussions, and so forth. This way, everyone gets a “target” that he or she can hit. This helps everyone feel good about themselves and fosters a friendly and effective environment.
– So I chanced getting closer, a little at a time and delicately. I paid attention to how my colleague talked to others with whom we mutually interacted; to the tone of her words. I discovered that she was not usually emotive, but she was personable and conversational, rather than formal. I made myself attentive to how others talked to her and her reactions—when she seemed genuinely excited, when she did not.
– I noticed she liked to be polite, but not personal and certainly not intimate. She liked to float straight down the middle. Interestingly, whenever anyone got too close, she would back off to her most distant range. My close-range skills were misaligned with her mid-range comfort zone.
– I decided to wait for an opening to emerge, during which I might try to meet her in her own ranges. In the meantime, I tried to remain present to the attributes of those who had successful relationships with her, and to focus on which of these could most naturally be cultivated in my own rapport.
– We are all born with a natural aptitude in one or more ranges. Find your range. Expand your comfort zones. Become proficient in as many other ranges as you can. Learn how to float, without hinderance, among them. Keep hold of your center. Like tranquil water, stand attentive between directing yourself and being directed, as if at a point of impartiality—and move from there. You will get the best out of yourself and others.
– “Zen is to have the heart and soul of a little child.” – Takuan
– Sometimes martial artists become consumed with tagging their opponents in any way they can. The majority of our attention focuses on trying to get in the shot—any shot. We eventually learn, however, that what’s important is not necessarily landing a strike, but rather landing an effective one. We soon discover that we may even have to give something up in order to gain some.
– I thought about it and realized that the senior student hand’t really gained anything with his fancy move…His move, which had effected little to no gain, looked impressive only to untrained eye.
– I would have appeared the aggressor. And equally as ironic, I was. Why? Because I felt he was in complete control of me even though he wasn’t doing much of anything. I, on the other hand, constantly felt that I had to be doing something to gain the upper hand. Every time I did—you guessed it—my shot would backfire, and I’d get tagged.
– “You have to know the difference between a gain and a loss,” he explained. “It’s kind of like playing chess. You’re going for the pawns while I’m going for your king and queen.”
– From that day on, I tried to put vanity aside. Whenever I felt the need to be doing something, anything, to feel I was in control, an alarm sounded in my head, warning me that I had lost sight of my priorities—in which case I was serving myself up on a silver platters.
– But you have to look at every circumstance individually. What could be considered a gain in one situation may very well turn out to be a loss in another.
– The mats showed me that it was possible to turn losses into gains. Once I realized this, I began testing the concept at every opportunity. For example, instead of becoming anxious for misjudging a move, I worked on staying cool, looking for the real targets, and executing the turnaround—turning the loss to my advantage. I once heard someone say that mistakes were really “Zen blessings.”
– As long as you stay alert and don’t panic, an error can give you whatever perspective you need to get the job done.
– There’s an example Cadillo gives about calling a company and being put on hold a bunch of times and was tempted to lash out, but didn’t, and it worked to his advantage, the time on hold was a loss he took, responded with kindness and pleasantness, and turned it into a win.
– That’s when I put on the brakes and started going over priorities. I asked myself what I could possibly gain by sustaining my attitude. My goal was to try to get the repair completed under the warrenty, no? This was the point of the call, no? I realized that, in the larger scheme of things, waiting was nothing more than “a shot I could easily take.” So rather than striking out when the technician returned to the line, I calmed myself and let him speak.
– Always identify your priorities, whether you are conducting a business transaction, dealing with personal relationships, or considering matters of physical, emotional, and spiritual health. Consider the net gains of your actions. Don’t become anxious. Don’t move just to move. Stay cool. Look for the real targets. Pick your moves. Execute your shot.
– “When our actions create discord in another person, we, ourselves, in this lifetime or another, will feel that discord. Likewise, if our actions create harmony and empowerment in another, we also come to feel that harmony and empowerment.” – Gary Zukov
Exercise for this concept on pg 96.
– Having enough internal energy, when we need it, to do the things we want is paramount to experiencing life to the fullest.
– Good martial artists learn to manage their use of energy, drawing from it when they need to and simultaneously replenishing their supply.
– He told me to remember the cardinal rules: Manage your energy. Move only when necessary and as efficiently as possible, and use only as much force as needed to accomplish your task.
– This made sense—too much concentration can cause a loss of attention…Try thinking hard about something and drinking a soda or listening to music. You’re bound to miss some of each experience—taste or sound.
– Above all, I kept my consciousness downward, summoning and condensing more chi as I went along. When you are considering chi, your body works like a transformer and can use the movement itself to create more energy. Thus I began to condense and recirculate chi to where it was needed in my body, directing breath to my Lower Dan Tien to cultivate more chi, drawing it in from my limbs after each movement, and redistributing it when and where I required.
– “When you store energy properly,” my teacher said, “you should feel centered and invigorated. Training should leave you feeling powerful enough to redirect a Mack truck coming at you full speed, not like you just got hit by one.”
– Pacing will help you restore and conserve energy as you expend it. Practice whenever and wherever you can.
– When a man is living, / he is soft and supple. / When he is dead, / he becomes hard and rigid. (Tao Te Ching)
– For example, a force the size of tornado can snap telephone poles and pulverize houses, yet a blade of grass or a leaf can make surviving such rage look effortless and graceful…What is soft and flexible can withstand great force. What is brittle, breaks.
– Sometimes it’s difficult to remember what real softness is. But every now and then, something happens that shows us just how rigid we’ve become. That’s a good time to pay attention; to see how far we’ve drifted from our natural state of softness, the one we were born into. That is the time to take measurement and to reprogram our actions.
– I noticed that from contact to takedown, she became loose as silk, offering no resistance whatsoever. Her body seemed so weightless she might as well have been invisible. All I could feel was the smooth energy of its motion, as if she had attached herself to movement, as if she had become the movement.
– If you want to overcome force, get soft.
– Again, I found myself learning a lesson about control. Even though I had initiated the action, she apparently was the one in charge. I was beginning to see that softness had a deeper level.
– “You have to practice not being afraid to take the throw,” she said. “If you have any apprehensions, you’ll never get loose enough. The fall,” she continued, “is a part of the movement. It’s where you and the movement become one.”
– In time and with plenty of practice, I began to gain more confidence in falling. I stopped resisting being thrown and allowed myself to become weightless in the movement. This strategy would almost always reposition me in a place of advantage. But I learned that we have to stay soft and wait for the repositioning, and it has to occur naturally. And as long as we stay nonresistant and harmonize with the motion, we avoid the full shock of impact. Eventually, we reduce the odds of getting hurt, and with that, reduce our anxieties.
– But my instructor cautioned, “Don’t think of softness as limp or weak; you’ll get into trouble that way. The softness we’re talking about is intensely alert on the surface, yet underneath is strong as steel.”
– Light as they were they, they still felt strong. The softer and lighter they felt externally, the harder and stronger they felt internally. You can literally feel your bones strengthening. When you are full of tension, the feeling is just the opposite.
– Chi fuels floating power into action, breath directs chi, and the sunken mind is what directs your breath.
– The concept of empty jacket has both liberated and empowered me in life many times. Practice it, and you will not intimidate. You cannot be sucked into disputes. You will be free to be completely who you are, even when the forces around you are tryin to storm you elsewhere. Just remember: If you want to overcome force, get soft. (These are the feelings of floating weightless and free in water…)
– It’s amazing how loose you can get just by thinking yourself there.
– But he did turn and notice me, and unleashed a fit of foul language. He had become inflexible and bristly. So what could I do? I chose to glide with his words and though I were weightless as Kano’s empty jacket. I gave him nothing to argue with. What he thought of me was insignificant.I rolled with all he threw at me and didn’t let any of the impact penetrate.
– When he was done wielding his anger like a knife with nothing to cut into, he simply left. He had defeated himself.
– Conflict is never fun to deal with, but can roll with the movement. Trust in the process. Respond to force with softness. The perpetrator will eventually tire and extinguish or will leave you at a place of advantage, from which you can accomplish your goals.
– Heaven and earth do nothing, / yet there is nothing / which they do not accomplish. (Chuang-Tse)
– If nothing within you stays rigid, outward things will disclose themselves. Moving, be like water. Still, be like a mirror. Respond like an echo. (Bruce Lee)
– The experienced martial artist doesn’t think in terms of means-to-an-end. Instead, he or she begins to live wholly in the present, participating in each moment as it comes, moving with what is. Way and end become the same movement, and that is: to harmonize. All learned forms and techniques become one living movement able to adapt to any situation.
– To go with the flow learned form evolves into free form, and you become spontaneous. The martial artist had reached the level expert.
– To go with the flow, rather than to interfere with action, you become a part of it, allowing things to take their natural course. You are like the mirror surface of undisturbed water—your mind still and awake, reflecting everything, lovely or dreadful, without allowing any of it to spoil the calm. This mid-set is known as mizu no kokoro or “mind like water.”
– To go with the flow you become tranquil and peaceful. You strive to always and everywhere be like water—for water can be all things: gentle and powerful, still and in motion, floating and floated upon, heavy, light, invisible, solid, and vapor.
– To go with the flow, people appear carefree as they float from one range to another, their actions relaxed, serene. Water people are soft on the outside and strong on the inside.
– To go with the flow, you must slay the ego. Joseph Campbell, in The Power of Myth, defined ego as “what you think you want, what you will to believe, what you think you can afford, what you decide to love, what you regard yourself bound to.” He went on, “It may all be too small, in which case it will nail you down…Ultimately, the last deed [ slaying the ego ] has to be done by you.” The greatest combat martial artists (and all aspiring water people) must faec is with themselves.
– The way to slay the ego is to sink your consciousness and do everything from there—everything. The centered mind is balanced, stable, and egoless. It is connected to everything and everyone because it flows from the Infinite, the foundation of all energy; the source of all consciousness.
– The water mind is liberated and at peace. It is aware and quick and intelligent. It is boundless, and thus you cannot be nailed down as long as you and maintain it. Water people are soft, egoless, natural, and ever-changing.
– I suppose you could say that life and art were both good that day and, perhaps, quite merged.
– I didn’t feel I had to be doing anything in particular, either—just staying in the flow seemed right. The longer we repeated the movement, the more I could sense our energy heightening. Then suddenly harmony broke. The next thing I felt was the thrust of a forward shot my teacher had launched, and like water coolly cascading over rock, I—without any thought whatsoever—rolled my forearm over the top of it and countered with a smooth, high strike that landed perfectly on target. Form had evolved into free form. I’d tagged him.
– He had always said that one day this would happen and how, when it did, it would honor both his teaching and my learning.
– In going with the flow, we should acknowledge success in life, whether they are our own or someone else’s; by accepting them, we participate with them, becoming part of them in harmony; and then we move on, softly, egolessly, and naturally—like water, fluid and ever-flowing.
– Off the mats, I have made the axiom “be like water” my guiding light in all that I do…remembering to be like water has made my life easier and happier.
– A great attribute of water is that it can transform to fit into any environment and situation and still remain entirely itself. I trusted in the tenets of water to get me to where I needed to be. There were times in my community group when I had to become nearly invisible in order to avoid being pinned down by the animosity that was spreading beyond the person who was the focus of their separation—and now to each other. During the harsher moments, I remained as fluid as possible so that I could flow around talk that had hardened, and whenever I could, redirect it with softer, lighter conversation. Other times, it was best to be still and reflecting, neither allowing anything to stick nor absorbing anything personally. Eventually, the controversial member resigned of his own volition, and I learned that I didn’t have to cave in to other people’s manipulation. I could be a free thinker, maintaining an objective and clear mind, and still fully participate with those around me.
– One of my favorite examples of going with the flow is tracing the events that have led me to places of satisfaction. I urge you to do this with anything that has brought you joy and happiness. If your experience has been like mine, once you begin to connect the dots, you will see how so many of the difficult situations and people that have drifted in and our of your life, in the end, have been an integral part of what has brought you happiness.
– Trust in this process. It may be difficult at first, but the more we make ourselves aware of such movement in our lives, the more gracefully and fearlessly we will learn to live.
– In life, just like on the mats, there are bound to be plenty of setbacks as well as successes. Practice going with the flow, and you will attain the greatest levels of cooperation and purpose in each. Be present, be confident, be spontaneous, and be free. Above all, be like water.
– “That which is Bliss is truly the Self. Bliss and the Self are not distinct and separate but are one and identical. And that alone is real.” – Sri Ramana Maharshi
– Creative living is approaching life awakened and conscious of who we are, as well as maintaining a deep respect and compassion for others. It is living completely in the moment, happy and free. It is an alternative to the endless cycle of waking up every day in dread of what we must face, reluctantly going through the motions of our routine, then going home at the day’s end and finding a way to numb ourselves asleep.
– Creative living is about getting up each morning excited over the choices that will open to us and the many unexpected places.
– As we begin to live creatively, we return to our primal state of peace and tranquility and follow our bliss. We begin to express ourselves more naturally, initiating change in our lives and in those of the people around us. We are truthful. We become optimistic and direct and thankful. We live simply, in accordance with our true nature. Our job becomes the art of fitting in with all that we are. We seek to feel part of all things and to see the Infinite in them.
– I encourage you to mark your level of achievement in terms of belt colors as you progress toward your own black belt in life: White belt – You want more out of life and seek to achieve it. Yellow belt – You discover that there are techniques that are useful in attaining what you wish to achieve. Orange belt – You learn these techniques one at a time. Purple belt – You begin to apply these techniques with the expectation of achieving what you are after. Blue belt – You see that all the techniques merge together as you participate from one moment of living to the next. Green belt – You realize that these techniques are intended to create harmony with all of life, not to overpower or hurt it. Brown belt – You stop thinking in terms of technique and simply go after what you need to get done in life without disrupting the natural order of things. Black belt – You learn to do not only without doing, but without expectation as well.
– As we reach the advanced stages of our art, we learn that martial arts are more about living than they ever were about fighting—they’re a complete system of mythologies or life lessons that, when applied, can help us become whole and get the most from our lives.
– Once we realize this, our quest shifts and becomes a journey toward the bliss and rapture of life, to more fully experience how magnificent it is to be a living creature among other living beings—not just talk about it.
– We become less afraid of rejection and more in favor of expressing who we really are, allowing others the same empowerment.
– We realize the point of all our training has been to prepare us to defeat those forces that have restricted us. We understand that the greatest combat we will ever face—that for which we have trained for from the beginning—is against that force in us that has kept us from being everything we are and can be. And so we will use the full measure of what we have learned to “slay the dragon of our ego.”
– Once awake, we cannot go back to sleep.
– Our focus shifts to the art in martial arts. Thus begins the martial artist’s passage into creative living, into the celebration of the beauty of who we truly are within the context of al life. Art becomes life—completely receptive and expressive. Life becomes art.
– Whatever you do, participate. Follow your bliss. Feeling alive and creating your own choices is what’s important. Just keep participating.
– The fulcrum of these everyday triumphs is in our ability to harmonize our inner and outer life and in making a kindred spirit of the Infinite. When we flow from here, we participate, we are most natural, we nourish and receive nourishment. Strength and healing will come without our seeking. Just keeping following your bliss.
– I felt as if I were no longer simply playing the instrument of my art, but rather using it to compose something for which I’d been looking for some time: beauty. I was starting to understand: Out of harmony comes beauty, and out of beauty comes harmony.
– Then a major epiphany: I could experience this feeling of beauty and conscious connectiveness within any of life’s movements…I realized that all of life’s movements are our form, our kata (and perhaps the highest level of kata).
– Follow your bliss. Choose to live consciously and from the center. Let the excitement of being alive come pouring out of you. Flow in and through every moment, creating the masterpiece of your life.
– Follow your bliss. Sink so deeply into your center that you experience a consciousness devoid of thought—an intuition that is illuminated with awareness. This is who you are at your deepest. Let this consciousness guide you; allow yourself to grow and change with it. As long as you can move from there, you will know your bliss. Let it enlighten you.
– Once you’ve found your bliss, don’t lose contact. Create a sacred space where you can go every day, even for a short time—half an hour or so. Use your sensitivity to listen to your Self and trust what comes out of that. Bring this experience back into your everyday life. Flow from there. Follow that. See how you being to live forever changed, more spontaneously, more excitedly connected to everything and everyone in your environment.
– Beyond this, we must take care of ourselves in gratitude for our gift of life and consciousness. We make the world a better place by beginning with ourselves, agreeing to experience and absorb as much of life as we can and allowing that to effect change and growth in us. One of the greatest gifts we can return to the world is the fully developed voice of our unique awareness.
– Do good deeds. Float goodness toward yourself and back out to others. Think positive and fill the spaces you enter with good energy. Be well, no matter what. When you are most blissful, you’ll want to do good simply for its own beauty. People are drawn to positive energy—and so is cooperation. When you are most centered, you will share positive energy without expectation.
– Bliss can’t help but flow from a place of balance. If you seek balance, follow your bliss.
– Don’t be afraid of change. People change, and so does their energy. Creative living is learning to make art of life’s changes.
– Whether in life or on the mats, the key to dealing with change is to avoid collision of similar energies. Here is an example: It is better to harmonize yang (hardness, fullness, action, productivity) with yin (softness, emptiness, nonaction, reproductivity) and redirect. Allowed to take their natural course, each opposite force will eventually become the other. Soft will become hard; hard, soft. Action will rest; rest will turn into action.
– Just follow your bliss. Bliss is primal; it is natural. It is you.
– Participate and live creatively. Be your Self. Remember, good energy is contagious. Gravitate toward it. Do good. Make beauty. Keep flowing. Follow your bliss.
– When the soul strips off / its created nature, / there flashes out / its uncreated prototype. (Meister Eckhart)
– Yet it is the nourishing and freeing of spirit that will lead to our true power as individuals (as well as a people) and brings us happiness and connection to all things.
– Invite breakthrough experiences (of really feeling chi, etc) and be patient, holding in negative capabilities, remain in the receptive, trust and practice.
– Whenever we experience spirit, we have already transcended words, but not our ability to comprehend. Who among us can say all that a kitten’s purr communicates? Words cannot do justice to experience. Yet our body knows exactly what it means. And so it is with chi. Although our sunken consciousness, which needs no words, can comprehend it entirely.
– He explained the seven chakra points (psychological centers) located along the spine: 1) At the rectum: drives our instinct to survive. 2) In the pelvic area: drives our urge to procreate. 3) Behind the solar plexus:drives our will and urge to conquer, master, or achieve. 4) In the center of the chest: drives emotional healing, compassion, and love. 5) In the throat: drives communication. 6) In the center of the forehead: drives perception. 7) At the crown of the head: drives the spirit.
– He encouraged me to take a mental inventory of my needs and to use our regulated breathing techniques to stimulate (massage) the chakra centers that drive those areas. For instance, if I need more aggression, I could use my breath to favor the chakra behind the solar plexus.
– There are, as well, other things that can be done to facilitate this process of extending and receiving chi…
– Sinking is essential to this function. Controlling your lungs—making yourself hypersensitive to the air in them as you breathe—helps tighten your focus and will enable you to sink more smoothly.
– If you can create an anchor, you will be able to sink even quicker: anything from holding your hand to your Lower Dan Tien (or wherever you wish to direction your breath) to imagining a small sphere of light moving within your body, tapping the location with your fingertips. Or as Fred L Miller, author of How to Calm Down says, just “Take the elevator down.”
– From there, you can use your breath to stimulate any of your chakras, using them to send an abundance of energy to their respective areas of the body. Locations are chosen according to need.
– Further, we have the ability to move, project, receive, and share specific energies and consciousness from any or all of our chakras, as well as from the Lower Dan Tien. Consider each chakra as a specific language comprehensible to everything in the universe.
– Though we may live in a society that does not often recognize us for who and what we are—spirits attempting to live a human life—the good news is that neither our spirituality nor the power and happiness we can derive from it depends, of course, on anything or anyone else but ourselves.
– Recently I was jogging down one of the mountain roads near my home. I closed my eyes and breathed deeply. I sank my consciousness. I paid particular attention to the chakra behind my heart, for it was this specific energy (or language, or consciousness) that I wanted to share with everything in my environment. I drew chi from all my limbs, favoring that chakra, en route to my center. My chest swelled with high, clean energy, which I sank and extended.
– And so what is this thing we call enlightenment? Of course, it is beyond words. But it is not beyond feeling or knowing. It is our elite experience of being—that which we are all born into, and into which we all have the power to return.
– Center yourself. Sit, walk, do anything. Enlightenment is right there with you, wherever you are. Experience it. Listen into the stillness and silence of all things visible and invisible. Call it chi or ki or prana. Call it God. Whatever you call it, get in touch with it. Communicate with it. You will delight in what you find.