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Taekwondo Bible Vol.1
Preface to the English ver.
Introduction

Part. I

1. Oneness and ...
2. There is Do ...
3. The World, ...
4. Picturing ...

5. There is ...
6. The Principles ...

Part. II

7. In Taekwondo ...
8. Facing the ...
9. Erasing ...
10. Thinking ...
11. Doing TKD
12. Not Losing ...
13. Three ...

Part. III

14. Taekwondo's ...
15. Distinction ...
16. Doing Both ...
17. Questioning ...
18. Looking Out ...
19. Endless ...
20. Finding ...
21. Begining ...
22. Keeping ...

Part. IV

23. Moving ...
24. Controling ...
25. Attacking ...
26. Leading ...
27. Surpassing ...
28. Attacking ...
29. Capturing ...

Part. V

30. Having ...
31. Knowing ...
32. Filling Mind ...
33. Taekwondo ...
34. Hitting ...
35. Attacking ...
36. Making ...
37. Avoiding ...
38. Offense and ...
39. Winning with ...

Part. VI

40. Offense and ...
41. Having Softness ...
42. There Be ...
43. Controling ...
44. Being Able ...
45. Harmony of ...
46. Beautifulness ...
47. Able to Stab ...

Part. VII

48. Seeing Motion ...
49. Sparring with ...
50. Free in Strict ...
51. Having Poomsae ...
52. Perfection ...
53. Having Yourself ...
54. There being ...
55. Getting Everything ...

Part. VIII

56. Completing ...
57. Taekwondo Be ...
58. A Piece of String ...
59. Seeing New ...
60. Everything in ...
61. Begining Training ...
62. Seeing the World ...
63. Truth of TKD ...
64. Oneness and ...

Taekwondo Bible Vol.2

Taekwondo Bible Vol.3

Taekwondo Poem


 

History & Discuddion


 

TKD Culture Network

 



Division 8. The Basics

Chapter 60

Everything In the World Pleasing Me  

   

Only man is benevolent, while Nature (jayeon) is indifferent.

This is called jayeon (Physis).50)

 

 

 

 

The roughness of a mountain is suffering itself, while just beside it can be found the ease and comfort of those who does not climb its heights but dwell in its protective bosom. You can encounter the peacefulness of those taking a rest next to the severe thirst of others who run to and fro under the blazing sun. In this same manner, you can always find the temptation of comfort next to the pain of the transcendental discipline of the Taekwondo-Een. Why does a Taekwondo-Een continue such a painful struggle for transcendental discipline? Easy comfort is but a manifestation of death. Life is ever the process of distancing oneself from death; it is continuous change and activity. The strain accompanying change is suffering. Life is struggle itself.

Taekwondo has its roots in the border between life and death. This border between life and death is the net that closes increasingly in around life from outside. But the net has neither inside nor outside. The Taekwondo-Een exits the net continuously to begin again from a new inside of the net. Taekwondo involves the process of escaping the boundary between life and death toward life; and further more, implies transcendence over the entire relationship. The Taekwondo-Een pursues life and in the process transcends it. This is transcendence to the inside of life.

Why is it that the net closing in on life has neither inside nor outside? Why does the Taekwondo-Een fight on the boundary between life and death? It is because the world that includes Taekwondo is also opposed to Taekwondo. Put another way, you inhabit a world while fighting with that world. In the opposition to yourself you are the other and the other is you. You as a Taekwondo-Een are in the world, yet having your own life, you also struggle against the world. That struggle can take on an infinite number of faces, there are countless ways in which Taekwondo and the world can be involved with one another. Life is an unavoidable fight, so you who practice Taekwondo should plunge into it to the very end of your limits through a transcendence to the inside of life. There you can experience the realm where Taekwondo is, accepting life with pleasure. Whenever you surpass your limits in Taekwondo you enlarge the sphere of your own existence.

The process of Taekwondo training is that of life compressed. What makes you live in spite of all sufferings? It is only your will to live. And it is also only your will that enables you to train beyond your limits. To overcome oneself is to take one step further in the pleasure of internal solitude, to establish a new objective a few steps farther than the last. One endures a task more difficult than climbing a precipitous cliff to find another self, and one does it for oneself alone. You who continue such difficult and solitary Taekwondo training can find contentment in it because it is your own will that chooses it.

In Taekwondo one discerns that pleasure and pain are two aspects of the same thing. Suffering and pleasure are one in the process of surmounting one’s limitations. This is the emotional meaning implicit in Taekwondo. The most important truths are common. Those who have never experienced pain cannot know true pleasure, while only those who have suffered severe defeat can savor the delights of victory. Though you find everywhere walls you must break down, you cannot help advancing. This tension is the essence of life. It is always painful to surpass your limits, but persist you must. This is the figure of life dwelling within Taekwondo. When you realize this in the right way you will find contentment; then you will find pleasure in the world’s face.

 


50) The Korean term “jayeon” (ÀÚ¿¬[??]) literally means 'being as it is' or 'suchness of itself'. Its English translation is “nature”, though unlike “jayeon” the English word “nature” carries connotations of birth, with its origin in the Latin “nascor”. The English term “physis” has a closer affiliation to the Korea “jayeon”.