Meditation in Martial Arts #2

     When I was practicing martial arts yesterday I had some cool insights and I felt like sharing them, and sharing my martial arts experience/thoughts in general. 


     I am a strongly intuitive practitioner. I let the subtle energies teach me how to move. I let them flow within my body and guide me towards more intelligent and harmonious positions. This is spontaneous and each move maybe a unique once in a once occurrence. You can master specific techniques and you can master your own unique movement and style. A style unique to you because your the only one with your exact physical proportions, physical make up, and psychological make up. I think about this often. How excelling in martial arts could mean excelling in individualizing the martial arts. Power and speed and ability vary in each person. To maximize effectiveness I think one may need to develop precise awareness of their own bodies and be able to adapt techniques, or create styles, that suit their specific multi-dimensional make up. I think this kind of individualizing is what draws me to traditional Asian martial arts. I think it is sort of build into it's general spirit. I think this kind of individualizing is a level of practice and intelligence that is a key component of t.a.m.
     I'm not just talking about combing moves from different martial arts into one's mixed martial arts repertoire, although this is the first step, I'm talking about a whole new level of movement. One that is the cultivation of mind, body, spirit, environment harmony. This is what we see in Kung Fu movies that we like so much. Much of this kung fu may just be structured techniques though. What we like about Kung Fu fighting is how these fighters appear to be fighting on a heavenly level. It appears superhuman. In a way it is. Their fighting borderlines on, or definitely is, coming from a level of Oneness and is definitely inspired by subtle heavenly energies. These energies are what I want to talk about, and what I find so exciting when I practice the martial arts.
     I am a meditative person, and when I can bring this meditation to intense visceral movement I feel very alive and very happy. You can sit and meditate and you can fight and meditate. Yes!! What an awesome combination. This combination is such a wonderful release of mental and physical energies in what really becomes a creative dance. I think the release of intense testosterone driven male aggressiveness is a huge part of this release. I can bring this aggressiveness to take the hand of stillness, self-expression, dance, and joy. All the while deepening and awakening my mind and body, and taking care of my general constitution.
     This wholeness of practice is indicative of these subtle heavenly energies. They guide us to the knowledge of what we need to be well and balanced. They are also incredibly beautiful and teach us how to express ourselves fully. This is partially why they are called martial arts. The arts are the creative expressions of human beings, martial arts are not excluded from this personal expression. This kind of expression, driven by these heavenly subtle energies, is typical of t.a.m. It is a refinement that is not matched in the spirit of contemporary mixed martial arts. This creative expression is not limited to the sphere of personal fulfillment. It enhances physical and martial prowess if properly integrated into one's combative abilities. It brings the man to heaven. It opens up the doors that these Kung Fu artists have gone through in all the films. Except where much of this tv kung fu is scripted and not a depiction of actual ability, you and I can go there, however impossible it may seem.
     This is why I am so excited to cultivate my martial abilities under the direction of these subtle currents. I am learning from the awakened cosmos itself, rather than confining myself to the limited conventions of set technical practice. Don't get me wrong, learning a specific art is not a waste of time. They are actually the foundations for the level of practice I'm describing. They often contain the deeply spiritual and woke dimensions of life and martial ability. You just can grown through them if you want to get to something I think may be better. It all depends on your life trajectory.
     When I practiced yesterday I was doing what look to me like kung fu movements. Circular, flowy, often square shouldered and striking from the center line. To me, the spirit was kung fu. I work on letting the subtle energies guide the harmony and integrity of my movements. In martial ability, the harmony and integration of you body is key to power and ability. Its learning to put your full body weight behind a blow. These subtle energies take this body integration to a whole new level. What may be rough mechanical integration seen in western boxing becomes a whole new animal. They make the integration much more precise and therefore much more powerful. They even tap into more energy centers of the body, more power. And they expand the set of the practitioner's defined techniques to the level of infinite technical ability.
     I have felt a strong blockage in my chi that has prevented me from delving as deep as I have wanted into these subtle energy fields/currents. My tai chi movements have felt dull, my body dry. The subtle chi is/was in me waiting to be cultivated, but blocked up in my energy centers and difficult to entertain. I felt and still feel pushed out by my own energy. I lack the stability and strength in mind, the wholeness and integrity. But I have been working on it with relative success and a definite deepening of understanding for the last several years, and I think I am starting to work out the kinks/get into a rhythm again. One that I hope to maintain.
     I have been intensely cultivating intuitive martial arts. Like I said before, letting the subtle energies teach me how to move. I haven't forced these blockages to flow because it hasn't felt right. In many different ways, the chi is telling me to wait, for whatever different reasons. It's not a specific thought or specific reasons, just a general intuition, like a compass pointing the way to go. I think I have waited because I have been building the necessary awareness and energies needed to wholesomely cultivate the trapped energies within me. I often think how I have lacked the integrity and spirit to release and tame them in a healthy way. This waiting has been long and difficult, but I think it is paying off and I am finally ready to begin to master the subtle energies of my body.
     I have had several reassuring experiences with the martial arts over the last several years. One of them was now two days ago. When I began practicing what to me is most like kung fu, I experienced a greater bond between my mind and my body as well as a degree of body unity that I have not experienced before. I felt that my left hand was tied to my left foot and my right hand was tied to my right foot. I didn't imagine that it was this way, this is just how the energy and my mind were unfolding. It was more than pretending. The intelligent currents of energy between my hands and feet were more united, more one, than I have ever experienced. This felt like my whole body was more of one unit than separate arms, legs, head, and torso. I could sense/see the intelligences of my various body parts working in a unity that went beyond mere mechanical system interdependence. They actually were moving towards one seamless intelligence. This seamless unity of an individual is what is so attractive in films with traditional Asian martial arts practitioners. It is the sense of groundedness in self and world that I have sought for so long. Not only seeking it, but seeking the adventure of learning how to cultivate it. I have been kept away from cultivated this nature for many years and it is so exciting to be making some progress and to be reassured that it is real and can be attained in my life.
     I felt like my hands were the puppet masters of my feet. I turned and stepped in circular and half-circular sweeping motions as my feet followed my hands. I flung out my hand and shot my leg across the ground and bent my other knee. I was pulled out and down by the spontaneous flowing intelligence of my hand. Each hand could govern movement. They led and sent ripples of inspiring intelligence to the rest of my body. I realized that any kind of movement of the hands could be turned into any other kind of movement in the rest of the body. A pulling in of the hand could shoot the leg out or up. What was necessary for this divine movement, was that the body was allowed to flow, that intelligence was allowed to be spontaneously creative. With this, anything could create anything else. The outer movement created the inner impetus for the next outer movement of the body. The degree of mechanical leveraging of force using the interconnected body parts and energy flows was heightened. Subtle and seemingly small movements could and can create larger ones because the harmony of the body system was properly leveraged, to a degree that appears unusual and not possible. I didn't do anything crazy, I just became aware of a deeper integrity and intelligence of the body and experienced it's direction in my martial arts practice. I know more clearly that I can do crazy stuff.
     I was practicing punching with squared shoulders and focusing on sending my power from my center line rather than from the side of the punching arm. This felt good. I felt like I could stay more still and potentially get a lot of power from having my spine straight and my insides lined up. It felt like I wasn't crossing any lines of energy that create resistance when they cross. Like my body had room to flow. I think this was because I wasn't in any awkward/uncomfortable position. I was standing upright with my feet close together point more or less pointing forward. I felt like I could see within myself clearer. It also felt good to be looking directly at a target without having my neck bent. A target directly perpendicular to my squared shoulders.
     When I talk about reaching a greater degree of mechanical leverage, it's not merely due to a greater degree of physiological harmony. It is also the awakening and harnessing of the mind. The body and the mind are not exclusive. When you get better physiological response in exercise, this is not just do to body development, it's also due to a deepening and expanding of mental awareness of the body and beyond. Mind and body develop happen simultaneously and they cannot be separated from eachother. The development of the mind is a change and development in the physiology in every way, just as any change in the physiology is a change in consciousness . They are one, not two. But, thinking about them and talking about them as two distinct things is helpful in understanding them and communicating their nature. The fulcrum of mental awareness is not limited to mental awareness of the complexities of the human body. In the kind of training I am doing, the kind of training in T.A.M. the mind is opened to heavenly dimensions of experience. Heavenly dimensions and heavenly fulcrums. Heaven is big, thus these fulcrums can be big too when manifested in the expression of muscular energy. This is the epitome of martial arts being super dope. Of people loving kung fu films. Heavenly fulcrums, unity consciousness on the battlefield. Super power, super dope.
     When I intuitively practice martial arts, I see this divine subtle energies flowing around and within me. It's not super clear, more vague, but I definitely do see and experience them. When I practice I am learning how to align everything that I am with them. They appear to be perfect lines and perfect efficiency of movement. I think what I am doing is gradually learning how to line up my body as perfectly as they are. My body is not simply a physiology. It is a heavenly body full of heavenly energies. My ignorance makes these energies to a degree chaotic, disharmonious. Intuitive practice is awakening to the perfect harmony of the universe and perfect possible organization of my own being (body, mind, soul, spirit, what have you).
     When I was striking square shouldered from my own aligned center line, I could see that line running through me. The clarity with which I saw it and struck from it was equal to the power I could muster. It was like learning to punch perfectly with divine geometry guiding me. I don't think perfect strikes are limited to this win-chun body orientation, I just think this is one way that works for me now. I am excited to continue to practice this and expand upon it.
     Thanks for reading, Peace!