In the philosophy of
all Martial Arts ‘body, mind and spirit’ have to be and work united in order to
be successful in any combat situation. In my previous posts you can easily
figure out I claim that the same is valid in exceptional leadership.
Here I’d like to go
deeper into the subject by using the knowledge that has been steadily
compiling. In the post Wing Chun basics 4Leadership I explained this topic through Wing Chun
perception of ‘central line, economy of movement and simultaneous attack and
defense’. The first can be used as a reference for body as on the ‘central
line’ reside most of the vital points of a human. The mind is the most energy
lavishing organ in our body. Therefore, a martial art teaches to store “the
muscle knowledge” of all your hits, kicks etc. in your ‘muscle memory’ (will be
discussed further below) allowing us to be faster and more explosive than we
are within the conscious (mind) way of moving our extremities. In the fight there’s
simply no enough time to deliver hits and protect oneself. Therefore ‘a simultaneous
attack and defense’ is called for. It is “a spiritual way” to be confident that
your whole body and not just your hands will protect you. But, at the same time
a person has to have high spirit to combat with the opponent.
Looking at those two different
options and issues through the same lens give us the opportunity to appreciate
the similarities in them. So I tend to see most of the Asian Martial Arts as
trains heading for the same destination – the unification of body, mind and
spirit - but on different tracks.
Tai Chi’s (Taiji) main
aspect is the yielding: when attacked Tai Chi “turns into water” and yield. The
main emphasis of Tai Chi is working internally utilizing the Qi (see: Qi–energy–leadership). The Great Masters of Karate, Judo, Kendo,
Aikido, Jiu-Jitsu, Sistema etc. all taught and tried to inculcate different
principles to unify the three.
In martial arts it is also
a well-known fact that the ‘competition games’ when to win means everything,
detracts from the inherent aim of most of these ancient arts. Why? Because, in
the competition the focus is on body speed and/or power and not on the union of
the three. Miyamoto Musashi posed the same question: ‘When you have beaten all the present Champions of the Martial Art, what
then? How long before someone younger, faster, stronger beats you because you
are getting older and slower?’
Why, then, the union
of the three: body, mind and spirit is so important?
To really learn any
movement we need lots of repetitions. Think how difficult (and painful)
learning to ride a bicycle was! We learned through repetitions that are based
on our spirit (goal) to achieve the mastery of riding. We had to use our mind
to memorize those first attempts when finally we succeed to staying on the
bicycle. Then, slowly, those ‘memories’ are transferred to our unconscious mind
when we need not ‘think’ anymore what we have to do. And this is called ‘a muscular
memory’! We develop it first by visualizing in our brains and start practicing.
Then, the repetitions come in. We repeat so many times until our brain moves
the repeated sequence into the limbic brain where from it is later fired out
‘without’ our conscious mind. All the animals have it and for a lot of our
motions we do, too (like walking, riding bike).
Only then the mastery
can come.
Bruce Lee explained the
same in the movie ‘Enter the Dragon’: ‘I
do not hit him, it is my body that does it!’ Therefore, a great martial
artist is unifying the three: body, mind and spirit to achieve superiority in
any situation and at any age.
Could this be transferred
to leadership?
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ReplyDeleteThe mind and body
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