Chinese kung fu fans

There is only one thing that holds a martial artist back from reaching the True Martial Art. That one thing has one name…distraction. To the degree that one is not distracted, to that degree he will realize his goals, and to that extent he reaches the True Art.

When one learns the martial arts one learns these training routines called forms. On the surface, the form is a dictionary of applications, of having a curriculum which will teach him higher and higher ranges of art. It is under the surface, however, through the refusal of distractions that one must apply himself in searching for the True Martial Art.

When one can refuse to have his attention wander in the middle of the performance of kata one is cultivating the fact of his discipline. When one focuses only on the unique and indivudal moves within the kata, and does not allow himself to be sidetracked, then he is enhancing the fact of his concentration. The end result of all these endeavors is to be able to keep awareness in the universe of the martial pattern, and not in the universe of trees and bushes and rocks and twigs and such.

The pieces of the form, the techniques, are the middle ground of refusing distraction. This area, applying technique to a willing opponent, bridges the perfection of the thought into the perfection of idea even in chaos. When one holds to the physics, holds to his concentration, holds to the truth of his fellow man even in combat, then one is approaching a distraction existence.

It is in the fact of freestyle, however, that one must find his ultimate refusal of the distractions of the outer world. One must focus on the opponent, refuse the belches and chirps of a random world, and build the truth of his own awareness. When one lives as if in a tunnel with his opponent, and can hold to the construction of that tunnel no matter what, then one is in the True Martial Art.

These three arenas, forms, technique and freestyle, are the arena of the true art. To the extent that one refuses distraction, that one becomes pure and able to hold to concentration and awareness, to this extent one enters the True Martial Art. The real key, to all this, however, lies in the realization of one important factor.

The universe runs backwards. It is not the things of the universe that hold distraction, it is the knowledge that one must not go towards a distraction existence with effort, but, rather, but relax himself so that no distractions can find purchase in his soul. It is the emptiness of the universe, perceived by the individual of contention, that is the Truth of the Path of the True Art.