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What is the beauty in the martial arts?
What is the sense of the tea ceremony?
What is an elementary particle?
What is your consciousness?
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The conquest of the ego. This is the secret of Zen and the secret of success in the martial arts.
You do not seek to defeat your opponent, but merely to enable him to defeat himself.
The same applies whether your opponent is a physical attacker or your own thoughts.
You observe the combat, shape its course, guide its energies but remain detached.
At the end you go on your way, leaving the struggle behind like yesterday's sunset.
How can you remain detached when you are fighting for your life?
How can you observe the conceit of your own ego?
Like a bamboo bending in the wind; like the relaxed walk of the tiger ready to spring at any moment.
They don't need to think of these techniques - it is an inherent ever present ability.
So with Zen.
Learn the forms of Tai Chi, Kung Fu, or whatever forms you choose. The name is not important.
Nor are the forms, once they have become an inherent part of your existence.
Practice the movements until you are no longer aware that you are doing them. They simply are.
The wind blows, the bamboo bends, it doesn't have to think about the movement.
And when you are completely at one with your body, when its parts become a single identity, when you no longer feel the separateness of your right hand and left hand, you will not applaud your success - for what is the sound of one hand clapping?
Continue to my next topic - Zen and the Tea Ceremony.
© 2019 Graham G Hawker
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