The martial artist who practices balance will inevitably alienate most types of people they encounter. The prudent will find them too permissive while the imprudent will find them too organized. As such, a proper martial artist finds themselves assailed by vicious contradictory appraisals. One will know they have achieved the pinnacle of balance by the diversity of their enemies, as evil assumes many forms in opposing a unified good.
You know you are walking the martial path in perfect balance when you are called too peaceful and too aggressive, too organized and too disorderly, too respectful and too flippant, too indulgent and too ascetic, too strong and too flexible, too emotional and too logical, too sexual and too celibate, and too loyal and too independent. These paradoxical appraisals will begin to haunt an otherwise contented existence until one is tempted to succumb to the criticisms of one side or the other.
When your gentleness has been met with savagery, your humor with dry antagonism, your love with hate, your care with recklessness, your inclusiveness with bigotry, your patriotism with treachery, and your good work destroyed utterly, you have finally reached the apex of martial development in the western world. You will be feared and shunned, even as you inflict no harm and reject no one.
Paradoxically, though one could follow the iron rule by smashing unjust violence with righteous self defense, one can also defuse an injustice by applying an injustice in turn: granting the greatest gifts of mercy to the worst transgressors. Thus the martial way does not split into opposition, but resolves into a unified paradox. Peace as an end requires peaceful means. It also requires violent means. One's balance determines one's path. It is possible to both lose and win. Resolution is unnecessary.
Saturday, August 23, 2014
Thursday, August 7, 2014
Rational Self Control vs. Releasing the Animal Spirit
The martial arts can be tailored to suit one's life needs, and the conditions of one's life will influence preferred training methods. The strain between rigid self discipline and emotional expression will always pervade one's training and there exist two ways of accommodating the animal side of human beings.
On one hand, the animalism inherent in conflict can be restrained, redirected, or soothed to peace. Tai Chi and the internal martial arts put a leash on the inner animal when they teach how to control one's emotions. This process begins with the direct civilization of the body's movements. Every movement becomes an opportunity to practice increasingly intricate self control and discipline of one's body. When the movements of the body are thus controlled, it becomes possible to develop combative prowess through the civilization of battle. This process ends in the development of moral self restraint and the valuation of harmony, balance, or kuzushi. By this method, the hunger for war is defeated in oneself, thus encouraging peaceful resolutions to conflict and the bravery that comes with moral certainty. This method of training for battle is based on the notion that the fighter does not instinctively know the martial way and must discover the path through rigorous self cultivation.
To nurture this rational approach to self cultivation, asceticism and self denial become important abilities. Fasting, exercise, meditation, and focused practice become a way of life which leads one to peaceful solitude.
By contrast, animalism can be unrestrained as completely as possible with strangely similar results for character development. Such liberation training encourages instinctive physical responses to conflict and gradually enables the individual to take a life. When an individual progresses to the point that they can take a life intuitively in the stress of physical conflict, they have fully expressed inner animalism. In the throes of unwanted physical savagery, such an individual does not think, but acts out of immediate self love to preserve their safety and apply immediate physical retribution to an attacker. This benchmark of capability begins as a selfish desire to secure one's survival and ends as an acknowledgement of the rights of all people to be safe from attack. A savage warrior is first a brute, then an enforcer, then a politician, then a philosopher. As such, unleashing the inner animal also cultivates rational self control, albeit through a more circuitous path. This method of living the martial way presupposes that the animal side of oneself intuitively understands the martial way and must be freed to pursue it.
To nurture the animal side, one should fight, fuck, move naturally, and more fully exemplify emotional honesty. These are the only necessary and sufficient conditions for animalistic martial development. To better walk this path, trade calisthenics for endurance pad work and sparring. Trade brinksmanship and self control for sex with actual partners and do not restrain lust or hunger. Learn to crawl, jump, climb, and swim effortlessly and with great authority. Express your anger, fear, cheerfulness, and sadness honestly in complete harmony with the present situation (no sadness during times of plenty; no cheerfulness during times of austerity). Soon, you will fully express your animal proclivities and repeated conflict will develop your discretion.
On one hand, the animalism inherent in conflict can be restrained, redirected, or soothed to peace. Tai Chi and the internal martial arts put a leash on the inner animal when they teach how to control one's emotions. This process begins with the direct civilization of the body's movements. Every movement becomes an opportunity to practice increasingly intricate self control and discipline of one's body. When the movements of the body are thus controlled, it becomes possible to develop combative prowess through the civilization of battle. This process ends in the development of moral self restraint and the valuation of harmony, balance, or kuzushi. By this method, the hunger for war is defeated in oneself, thus encouraging peaceful resolutions to conflict and the bravery that comes with moral certainty. This method of training for battle is based on the notion that the fighter does not instinctively know the martial way and must discover the path through rigorous self cultivation.
To nurture this rational approach to self cultivation, asceticism and self denial become important abilities. Fasting, exercise, meditation, and focused practice become a way of life which leads one to peaceful solitude.
By contrast, animalism can be unrestrained as completely as possible with strangely similar results for character development. Such liberation training encourages instinctive physical responses to conflict and gradually enables the individual to take a life. When an individual progresses to the point that they can take a life intuitively in the stress of physical conflict, they have fully expressed inner animalism. In the throes of unwanted physical savagery, such an individual does not think, but acts out of immediate self love to preserve their safety and apply immediate physical retribution to an attacker. This benchmark of capability begins as a selfish desire to secure one's survival and ends as an acknowledgement of the rights of all people to be safe from attack. A savage warrior is first a brute, then an enforcer, then a politician, then a philosopher. As such, unleashing the inner animal also cultivates rational self control, albeit through a more circuitous path. This method of living the martial way presupposes that the animal side of oneself intuitively understands the martial way and must be freed to pursue it.
To nurture the animal side, one should fight, fuck, move naturally, and more fully exemplify emotional honesty. These are the only necessary and sufficient conditions for animalistic martial development. To better walk this path, trade calisthenics for endurance pad work and sparring. Trade brinksmanship and self control for sex with actual partners and do not restrain lust or hunger. Learn to crawl, jump, climb, and swim effortlessly and with great authority. Express your anger, fear, cheerfulness, and sadness honestly in complete harmony with the present situation (no sadness during times of plenty; no cheerfulness during times of austerity). Soon, you will fully express your animal proclivities and repeated conflict will develop your discretion.
Saturday, August 2, 2014
Egoism, Cultural Conscription, or Moral Exemplification? The Higher Purposes of the Martial Arts.
One obstacle to the pursuit of the martial arts as an expression of the martial way is a lack of clear purpose in training. Philosophically, self defense can defend either the selfish interests of the individual, the cultural interests of a collective, or the universal interests of moral principle depending on how broadly the self is defined.
Mediocre martial training merely helps one defend oneself against attack. Good martial training helps one defend one's culture against invasion. But superior self defense helps one defend the moral right, regardless of personal interest or cultural convention.
A training studio of mediocre quality produces trainees capable of competently repelling, reversing, or even initiating attack without any discussion of whether initiation of force is justified. Nietzsche's morality of power holds sway in such a dojo, resulting in strong willed, impulsive, dangerous trainees who feed into the cycle of violence and ultimately encourage its end by amplifying the consequences of conflict to their opponents. The outcome of this training remains positive, even as the effects of this training on character development remain negative. Reality based martial arts exemplify this acultural, amoral, and acontextual focus on defense of the physical self above all other considerations.
A training studio of good quality produces culturally aware trainees who exemplify the best social traits of a collective. The Japanese dojo constitutes a culturally conscripting training environment in which individual trainees are enlisted as the physical and philosophical protectors of a specific cultural lineage and way of life. Such training values hierarchy, tradition, and character development above physical power or martial efficacy. In this setting, defense of a cultural people and way of life dominate over individual concerns. Korean Hwa Rang Do constitutes one example of cultural conscription as a dominant goal of training.
A training studio of superior quality produces individually, culturally, and morally awakened trainees who have surpassed conventions, arbitrary affiliations, and provincial interests to explore the universal truths of conflict. These individuals defend not only themselves and their cultures, but the very principles of honor, loyalty, respect, and human dignity. They place moral principle above personal fate or cultural survival and do not fight so much as express universal truth. They do not defeat opponents, but conflict itself. Such warriors have surpassed the myopic battles for status, safety, and cultural affiliation. They have merged their interests with the interests of the universe: the resolution of conflict and the expression of the natural order over artificial schemes. The Shaolin temple, the Knights Templar, and other monastic warrior groups as they are idealized in art embody the moral exemplification of the martial arts.
Mediocre martial training merely helps one defend oneself against attack. Good martial training helps one defend one's culture against invasion. But superior self defense helps one defend the moral right, regardless of personal interest or cultural convention.
A training studio of mediocre quality produces trainees capable of competently repelling, reversing, or even initiating attack without any discussion of whether initiation of force is justified. Nietzsche's morality of power holds sway in such a dojo, resulting in strong willed, impulsive, dangerous trainees who feed into the cycle of violence and ultimately encourage its end by amplifying the consequences of conflict to their opponents. The outcome of this training remains positive, even as the effects of this training on character development remain negative. Reality based martial arts exemplify this acultural, amoral, and acontextual focus on defense of the physical self above all other considerations.
A training studio of good quality produces culturally aware trainees who exemplify the best social traits of a collective. The Japanese dojo constitutes a culturally conscripting training environment in which individual trainees are enlisted as the physical and philosophical protectors of a specific cultural lineage and way of life. Such training values hierarchy, tradition, and character development above physical power or martial efficacy. In this setting, defense of a cultural people and way of life dominate over individual concerns. Korean Hwa Rang Do constitutes one example of cultural conscription as a dominant goal of training.
A training studio of superior quality produces individually, culturally, and morally awakened trainees who have surpassed conventions, arbitrary affiliations, and provincial interests to explore the universal truths of conflict. These individuals defend not only themselves and their cultures, but the very principles of honor, loyalty, respect, and human dignity. They place moral principle above personal fate or cultural survival and do not fight so much as express universal truth. They do not defeat opponents, but conflict itself. Such warriors have surpassed the myopic battles for status, safety, and cultural affiliation. They have merged their interests with the interests of the universe: the resolution of conflict and the expression of the natural order over artificial schemes. The Shaolin temple, the Knights Templar, and other monastic warrior groups as they are idealized in art embody the moral exemplification of the martial arts.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)