8-3. Failure of Technique

People cannot use Taekwondo techniques although they've learned them. For they didn't learn them exactly. For they didn't learn exact techniques. What is the reason you don't learn exact techniques? First you don't understand the substance of Kang-Yu, and second you have no idea of Samjae even though you understand Kang-Yu substantially. What's the reason you don't understand the substance of Kang-Yu? Because you only imitate the technical motions yet losing the truth of Kang-Yu. What's the reason you have no idea of Samjae though you know Kang-Yu? It is also because you lose its invisible foundation in the visible changes of Kang-Yu.

Thus, Buddha said "all Bodhisattvas, lesser and great, should develop a pure, lucid mind, not depending upon sound, flavor, touch, odor, or any quality. A Bodhisattva should develop a mind which alights upon no thing whatsoever; and so should he establish it." Only after you realize this you can understand that one technique can be various techniques, thus you can understand Ilgiyae. That is, only over the five skandhas(form, feeling, perception, formation, and consciousness) you can understand TAEKWONDO.

Without full achievement of invisible foundation of Taekwondo you can get nothing in even in magnificent motions.

Understanding Kang-Yu with the knowledge of Samjae and TAEKWONDO as its foundation you come to understand the importance of basics. And you also come to understand the importance of training, mental attitude, and furthermore, of the rightness in your life. The right life is the basis of the entire Taekwondo. If you ignore this fact only attached to magnificent motions you will go in vain and danger like those who have exaggerated reputation. Mencius warned of this mistake with his analogy to the water of no source. Hence saying “if a thing has no source, it is like the rain water that collects after a downpour in the seventh and eighth months. It may fill all the gutters, but we can stand and wait for it to dry up. Thus a gentleman is ashamed of an exaggerated reputation.”²⁾ Likewise, Taekwondo man should be ashamed of exaggerated magnificence of technique more than the firmness of basics.

To sum up, the foundation of Taekwondo technique is Kang-Yu; the foundation of Kang-Yu is Samjae; and its foundation is Ilgiyae as TAEKWONDO.³⁾ And, the foundation of skill is basic motion; it foundation is training; and its foundation again is mental attitude. And the foundation of mental attitude is ethical(right) life. This is why we say the foundation of Taekwondo is verily ethical(right) life.

1) Diamond Sutra, 10c. 諸菩薩摩訶薩 應如是生淸淨心. 不應住色生心. 不應住聲·香·味·觸·法生心. 應無所住 而生其心.
2) Mencius, Book IV, Part B, 18: 苟爲無本, 七八月之閒雨集, 溝澮皆盈, 其 也, 可立而待也. 故聲聞過情, 君子恥之.
3) Conversely, dividing Ilgiyae into three, i.e. Samjae, we come to see its boundless root of everything, which is meant by "析三極, 無盡本" of CBK.