Martial What?! I Know Martial Meditation!

I used to always think about how tragic it was that my generation never really had some revolutionary superstar martial artist that was featured on primetime television doing an interview on the philosophical aspects to martial arts.  Moreover, I would like to see something like that done on the topic of peace, tranquility, and Enlightenment as well.  I guess that’s why we document stuff and put it out on the web.  So people never really forget it.  Hell, to be perfectly honest I sometimes get jealous that we (the generation X’ers) didn’t get the opportunity to know what it felt like to even watch CBS news in entirely black and white.  Anyways, moving on.

I wrote a paper one time on an aspect or type of philosophy titled, “Existentialism”.  In it I tried to describe how an individual can overcome adversity simply by using the power of one’s mind.  The idea was simple, “to exist, persevere, and to never stop questioning.”  I feel like I’m supposed to cite that sentence to the left but I’m too lazy today.  Unfortunately, I feel like the father of existentialism Soren Kierkegaard never really answered the real questions of why obstacles are put in front of us.  He merely described them.  Martial arts on the other hand I feel answers those questions.  It does however not by training you how to fight, but rather training you how NOT to fight.  There is a mental application to the arts that I feel never really gets any credit.   What does this mean?!  Here is an example.  You’ll need a pen and pad for this experiment.

With your pen in your hand and your pad in front of you, take a long hard look at your surroundings.  Try and become the room around you.  Every infinitesimal grain of sand or dust, every bookshelf, the tree in the corner, try and memorize it all.  Now slowly close your eyes.  Breathe.  In….out….in…and out.  Try and ingrain into your mind all of the things you had seen.  Now with your pen and pad handy and your eyes still closed write a list of the things you had seen.  Write it all down.  Do this for about one solid minute because anything longer would be strange.

Now open your eyes.  Take a look at your settings.  Your list I’m sure is more comprehensive than mine but why are we not fascinated that despite its length, it’s just…not…enough.  What did you miss?  A whole lot I’m sure.  I know, you’re wondering Virtuoso, where are you going with this?  What does this have to do with martial arts?

The notepad and pen experiment shows us our fragility.  Putting it another way, our inability to fathom control.  You see the fact of the matter is no matter how hard we train or practice at something we never really get it right. That is of course until the very end, when we understand the value of nothingness vis a vie, death. That is the beauty behind living, there never really is a shortage of things to do but at times it can get extremely overbearing.  Your mind shows you that in any fight, the outcome will be how you think it should be.  This is important.

I mean….isn’t it amazing that we have options and potentials that are all around us.  In an ENDLESS sea of potentials we are truly and honestly limitless in our abilities.

I have to quote someone here to make my point.

“The brain processes 400 billion bits of information a second, but we’re only aware of 2000 of those.”  -Dr. Joseph Dispenza

I took that quote from two wonderful movies titled, What the Bleep Do We Know and Down the Rabbit Hole.  Both movies deal with the wonders of quantum mechanics.  Now imagine that, 400 billion bits.  400 billion pieces of information!  All that information floating around you, everyday, consistently without you even realizing it.   400 BILLION pieces of information.  The sheer fact that we are able to process 2000 isn’t just radical, it shows us that we border upon the abilities of gods.  With practice of course.  You see, like  a good intense workout the human destroys his or her’s muscle tissue in order to build larger and more powerful tissue.  The brain works the same way.

Everytime you close your eyes, everytime you need to get in your car and just drive to think, or not think, you are going through one of the most beneficial workouts of your entire life.  I believe the martial arts version of this comes in the form of meditation.  People tend to be really skeptical when you tell them stuff like this but after the world’s most intelligent human being Stephen Hawking alerted ABC News that he believed in aliens, I don’t think these ideas are too far-fetched.

What does the understanding of our limitations have to do with anything?  Besides the fact that it levels the playing field for us as a race it teaches us of our LIMITLESS potential.  The fact that we know means we can practice and get close to perfection.  It all comes down to choice.  It is important that I mention that the purpose to this article is not to have everyone jump out of their chairs and slap people around just because they KNOW they can or FEEL they can.  No, on the contrary the KNOWING should actually give you more of a reason not to.

What it SHOULD do however is make you feel more inclined to practice and work on not just your physical attributes and abilities but also your MENTAL ones as well.  Because one day you WILL want to close your eyes for a solid minute, open them and actually be able to write every single thing around you…in perfection.  Why?  Because it is only then when you have tasted sheer bliss.  It is only then when you can master control.  The Dalai Lama in his book Illuminating The Path To Englightenment illustrates on how exactly to do this.  Currently, I’m still trying to finish the book (100 pages in) but I should mention that it is an amazing read.  As a writer he touched on some fascinating research, particularly with regards to words.  Apparently, there was research done that said that those individuals who were prone to use the word “I” in any form of it had a greater risk of dying from heart disease.  It was as if only words of possession were our lifeline as Hominids on this planet.  Truly fascinating stuff.

Anyways, that’s all for now.