The process Taekwondo training ought always to be
that of overcoming your limitations. To surpass your limits
is a transcendental discipline. In the process one will
always encounter fear, pain and the temptation to make excuses;
conquering these demands patience and fortitude. All of
this constitutes character building. Strengthening your
body, training the mind, and mastering Taekwondo are one.
Why is it that you should train yourself
always in the pain of the transcendental discipline of Taekwondo?
It is due to the limitlessness of life. There are no rules
in life. If there were any, it would be the law of nature
upon which man cannot infringe. The limitlessness of life
is reflected in Taekwondo’s martiality (mu ?[?]).
There are no rules as you face your opponent on the border
of life and death. You can rely only at the level of transcendence
on the oughtness that you should win the struggle. There
is no knowing what cunning contrivances or cruel methods
he may employ. There can be no plea after death. This is
the limitlessness of Taekwondo.
This limitlessness of Taekwondo also supplies
us with the reason we must obey rules in competition. If
you cannot subdue your opponent in fair play with full respect
for the rules of competition, neither could you subdue him
in a fight without rules. If you cowardly disregard rules
in competition it implies you could not avoid death in a
free fight. The rules of competition are those of civilized
humanity. They exist for the sake of what man desires to
do, which is to preserve himself. Nature cares nothing for
man. You as a Taekwondo-Een must exhaust all the frailty
of life and the anguish of defeat in the pain of transcendental
discipline. It is a choice.
Your limitations are the realm and the boundary
of all you can do. This realm will expand every time you
exceed them. The total of what you can do reflects your
own size. To exceed one’s limitations, though it may
seem paradoxical, is nevertheless possible for the Taekwondo-Een
through the power of his will, his fortitude, and the patience
that arises from his reverence for life.
Through Taekwondo training you will experience
and come in direct contact with the most positive aspects
of man’s essence – and ironically, in the process
come to recognize your own limitations. And because your
limits are extended every time you train, you must meet
those limitations every time in order to surpass and overcome
them.
Through Taekwondo training you should transform
your self, while preserving what you are at the same time.
Thus, Taekwondo training for everyone is one of life’s
never-ending processes. This implies that its ends and means
are one. The entire meaning of life – true happiness,
absolute strength, and so forth, are immanent in it, where
the ends and the means become one.
Therefore, your training process, no matter
how it is constituted, can be divided into two steps. The
first is to attain your limits, which advance with time,
and the second is to then overcome them. These two steps
cannot actually be discerned in one.
Every person’s limitations can be
characterized in various ways and the limitations in each
aspect are woven with others to form the overall limitation
state. You should conquer one of them to advance over it
like a stepping stone to the next, and thus eventually overcoming
all. This entire limitation state is but yourself, whom
you encounter every time you practice Taekwondo. He is your
eternal opponent.
In some cases you will encounter a limitation
state that seems impossible to surmount with the power of
your will alone. For example, what would you do if your
reaction were not quick enough? The method for overcoming
every limitation state is given in one, because you are
yourself a single entirety. Therefore, your limitations
are also as a single entirety, thus, overcoming all means
overcoming one.
Therefore, to conquer the above mentioned
limitation you need simply practice basic reaction exercises.
You should attain tranquility of mind and control of your
life in the course of this overcoming process. Only then
can you be content with the technique of killing.