Part
V. ATTACK AND DEFENCE
Chapter
31
Knowing
the Sameness of Mind and Body
| |
“What is it my hard training does
not improve my skill?”
“Because you train your body but
not your mind.”
|
|
In Taekwondo there are three types of incomplete subjugation
that you can attain over your opponent. The first is when you subdue
your opponent with power but not with skill; the second is when you
subjugate with power and skill but not with spirit; the third is when
you subjugate with spirit yet lack morality. If you fail to have your
opponent follow you in the morale sense he will surely turn his back
on you in the end; if you fail to have him yield to you with a higher
spirit he will surely prepare for another challenge; and if you fail
to subdue him with skill you will be subdued by him soon thereafter.
The primary reason behind all such incomplete subjugations
is a failure to have one’s mind in order, which means a failure
to arrange one’s life in good order. If you cannot regulate your
own life in accordance with Do you cannot overcome your opponent with
morality; if you cannot arrange both your mind and your body in harmony
you cannot surpass him in spirit; and if you fail to think with your
entirety, owing to a division of mind and body, you cannot subdue him
with skill.
All of these converge in one, which is the problem of
mind use. This is why the Taekwondo-Een is actually more concerned with
training the mind than physical movements, though he may seem to devote
himself only to the latter. Thus it is said that the essence of Taekwondo
is mind control. When one regulates and concentrates one’s mind
one’s breath is naturally regulated as well and along with it
one’s physical motions.
The mind and the body are ultimately one, thus the body
depends upon the mind and the mind cannot exist without its body. The
mindless body is nothing but a lump of flesh while the bodiless mind
is mere illusion. Therefore, no one has difficulty subduing the opponent
who is careless of the attacks against him, nor is there anyone who
fears the anger of an opponent whose body is weak or tired.
A man who has reached the ultimate of Taekwondo does
not possess the least doubt of this fact, for he has experienced transcendentally
through hard training the fact that his thought is his motion and his
motion is nothing but his thought. When he has obtained the oneness
of the entirety his word can move another’s mind without rhetorical
device, his behavior can lead others without any self-exaggeration,
and his pose leaves nothing to be desired to oppress the opponent’s
spirit without appeal to skill. Only an unwise man, with attachment
to luxurious rhetoric, worries that he might fail to impress others
and, with attachment to technique, worries he might fail to subdue his
opponent. This is due to the fact that trivial avarice in the mind sticks
unconsciously to the wrong distinction of mind and body. What is required
to overcome this is to cease immoderate attachment and to empty the
mind with acceptance.
In this way the principle of controlling mind and body
can be summed up thus: possess your emptiness and fullness as one and
erase and picture yourself at the same time.
|
