Part
V. ATTACK AND DEFENCE
Chapter
32
Filling
the Mind and Keeping It Empty
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“What is important
and what is trivial?”
“Principle is important
while technique is trivial. Basic is important while application
is trivial. What is permanent is important while what
changes is trivial.”
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Your self is your mind and your body. When emptying
and filling your body, you should relax it completely, erasing
all superfluous force while filling it with living vitality.
Thus emptying and filling your mind you should delete idle thoughts
and passions and fill it only with the self-conviction you can
subdue the opponent. You must never fear. Whether you have reached
life or a death, it is nothing more or less than what it is,
and fear is required for nothing. If you were not killed even
though you failed in Kyorugi you would be disgraced and ashamed,
but fear will be of no help here either. Your mind cannot be
fully emptied or fully filled owing to this excrescent fear,
which breaks the calm of your mind. This is really fear of oneself
reflected in the opponent. To erase it completely is to make
TAEKWONDO perfect.
Only when you have succeeded in completely erasing
your fear is it possible to practice Taekwondo within the complete
union of you and the world. Therefore, the Taekwondo-Een never
fears nor worries, but reflects deliberately, plans, harmonizes
and overcomes. Let me remark upon a persistent fallacy regarding
the non-fearing mind. This is the confusion between the conviction
that you can subdue your opponent and the obsession that you
must subdue him. A conviction differs from an obsession. An
obsession oppresses the mind because it is merely a camouflaged
fear, whereas a conviction makes the mind comfortable and free
of restrictions. It is an emptied fullness.
Where does one obtain the conviction that you
can subdue the opponent? You can find it in the confirmation
and assurance that you are stronger than he. What then is the
basis of this confirmation and self-assurance? It arises only
from a clear knowledge that one’s entirety is stronger
than his even though he might be more aggressive, his skill
might excel, or his power might be superior. Such strength is
the unbreakable sword forged through self-strengthening in hardship
and adversity. Whether one speaks of mind or body, self-strengthening
is the only way to obtain such conviction. A strong entirety
is obtained when your entire life is built up through transcendental
discipline.
True self-confidence is also to be obtained
when you open yourself to infinite possibilities through continuous
self-mastering. True courage comes only with such confidence
and conviction as comes from training and practice. A correct
mental attitude cannot be attained without an exact observation
of what you are, which demonstrates an actual aspect of a Taekwondo-Een’s
true courage. It is the coming together of reality and an understanding
of what one ought to do, and its name is “Sincerity”.
If your mind, emptied through courage, is not also filled with
sincerity you can attain nothing even though you may lose nothing
either. A tiger exerts its utmost even in pursuit of a small
rabbit. Courage that does not arise from confidence based on
sincere training, would be nothing but reckless valor, which
will lead only to misfortune.
As a strong Taekwondo-Een you will think correctly,
act morally and train sincerely to overcome the limits in your
life. Accordingly, when you are opposed to your opponent he
grows weaker because he lacks harmony in himself, and this is
also the reason why he comes to be opposed to you, a Taekwondo-Een.
The opponent in Taekwondo is never the opponent himself but
only his vice. An opponent who is momentarily excellent, but
who is ultimately weak because he is vicious, can be subdued
by surpassing one’s own limits. This is also the way of
arranging one’s life according to Do. A world beyond the
victory of the right is mere illusion. Is it not ironic that
the foundation of such strength and confidence arises from an
understanding that the world is empty?
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