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Original Sources: www.bruceleeactionmuseum.org en.wikipedia.org |
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Quantum theory, on the other hand, asks us to believe that certain singular molecules can appear both at A and B…at the same moment.
Aikido, Jiu Jitsu,
Jeet Kune Do…in the martial arts world, we use both of the above examples. In
the sparring zone, movement becomes so slow that a Zeno type fist settles into
an infinite crawl in relation to our base position of mind (which is, I guess,
part of the more modern notion that speed and time are relative).
Yet a punch, a
“pure” act – if logically, there is such an event – seeks for a union of A and B
with no space between. Here A = B…without the thought of the equal sign
appearing. This is the speed-no speed concept. Or the stillness/movement
experience. Or the “beyond stillness and movement” experience, where stillness
and movement are no longer partners in a dichotomy. No movement toward a
Hegelian synthesis here. They simply don’t matter.
At this point your
question might be –“Am I being punched in the nose by a fist or by a whole lot
of paradoxical gibberish?”
I’m
not just playing with you. When I was first taught about speed, I swear…the
instructor’s fist was lying against his thigh…and then it was in my face.
Of
course, I wanted that level of skill,
the very same. It had to be the same. I went home and snapped my fist around in
the air. I even tried to hit a fly on a window pane before the fly had a chance
to think about moving from point A to point B. I’m certain the fly escaped; not
so the window pane, which landed in pieces down on the walkway.
So
I went back and humbly suggested that I had a great desire for this form of speed. Again, fist and (my) face merged
effortlessly.
“Go
meditate,” he suggested.
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Source: www.youtube.com |
I
did, for two hours. Not like the Buddha under a Banyan tree but in front of an
open second floor window. The cool thing was that after about an hour, life
outside was running through my body via my breath…sounds, vibrations, colours.
But still no speed.
The
surprising find was that at the precise moment before the arrow’s release, - when
I would most dearly want to look straight at the coveted target – the archers
looked away!
It
was as if the target itself didn’t matter, or the hara, the body, the spirit, the mind, the bow, the arrow and the
target had become one and looking at the target was simply unnecessary.
Reading
about this practise reminded me of what the instructor did. Before punching, he
actually looked down, or away, or kept his eyes half shut…as if he didn’t seem
to care.
As
a high school kid, I wasn’t much of a sports enthusiast. The football coach
tried to talk me onto his team but I had the feeling it was more like a
Dutch-dam recruiting manoeuvre, you know…plugging the holes up front so the sea
couldn’t come in. But martial arts for me were different. In high school
athletics, you were expected to want
that touchdown so badly, you’d put your head through a field full of tacklers
at the last minute just to see your school take the championship.
But
here was a man, in the dim light of the kwoon, the smell of sandalwood sticking
to the old chairs, who advised me…not to
want.
Relax. OK, I can appreciate
that. If part of me is tight, I have to relax the muscles just to fire them up
or move the limbs in a new direction. Empty
the mind. Of what?
Curious,
I delved into the history of the Samurai.
Question:
if two Samurai are equal in skill, and they face each other in a duel, who
might (forgive the pun) have the edge?
This
question obviously concerned the Samurai. The meditative aspects of Zen
Buddhism had a significant impact on Japanese martial arts, particularly in the
study of the sword. We read Takuan Soho’s Unfettered
Mind, a Zen master’s advice to master swordsman Yagyu Monenori.
THE ACTION OF SPARK AND STONE
“There is such a thing
as the action of spark and stone…No sooner have you struck the stone than the
light appears. Since the light appears just as you strike the stone, there is
neither interval nor interstice. This also signifies the absence of the
interval that would stop the mind.
It would be a mistake to
understand this simply as celerity. Rather, it underscores the point that the
mind should not be detained by things; it says that even with speed it is
essential that the mind does not stop. When the mind stops, it will be grasped
by the opponent. On the other hand, if the mind contemplates being fast and
goes into quick action, it will be captured by its own contemplation.”
In
those days too I read that the founder of Kyokushinkai Karate, Mas Oyama, had
two Black Belt students who were equally matched. He asked them to face each
other in Kumite. But first he requested that they train hard for a period of
six months. The one trained as always – basics, bag work, weights, stretching,
lots of Kumite…while the other followed the same regimen except for one added
variation: lots of meditation.
At
the end of six months, the two met in Kumite. Like the Samurai with a mind
unfettered by fear, worry, doubt, etc., the one who had passed that extra time
in meditation prevailed.
There’s
I want. And then there’s punch, as a verb. If I place I want or anything ego-related behind
the punch or in between the punch and its target, speed becomes sticky. My
punch has to pass through the medium of my ego in order to reach the target,
which slows things down.
It’s
best to have a “pure” space between punch and target. Indeed, target isn’t
important. And “best” is inconsequential, as is the word “between”.
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Source: www.taekwondo-information.org |
In
the Book of Family Traditions on the Art
of War also by Shambhala translated by Thomas Cleary written by the same
Yagyu Monenori referred to above we have on Pg. 117:
Speed?
Don’t want it. Just do. Let the technique live, without ego.
In
the next post, I want to explore some of the analytics of speed, and delve a
little into the internal arts of China, and why too much “fa jin” with speed is
as debilitating as being consumed by one’s own ego.
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