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.