#wuwei in martial arts

[shinkenkan]

“The art of living is neither careless drifting on the one hand nor fearful clinging to the past on the other. It consists in being sensitive to each moment, in regarding it as utterly new and unique, in having the mind open and wholly receptive.” – Alan Watts

[shaolinwengchun]

Yesterday at my Chi Gong training in the park I met those three beautiful ducks ( I really like ducks and found out that there are also duck kung fu styles ) When I was standing there with a deep slow breath they came to me (I met them before) and one of them was making small noises to me (she was the leader of the group) So I took a break of my exercises and sat down to them They walked around me and make small noises One of the cleaned herself so close to me that I could touch her easily but I didn´t I felt the dao before and at this moment I could feel it again And if I had tried to touch her, I would go out from wu wei, because I want to touch the duck But instead I could be a part of those ducks also without grabbing them and that was even much joyful To understand this difference of wu wei is a big part on the way of dao

[yi-dashi]

💛 :)

Peer into my muse’s memories 💛- A memory that makes them feel angry

“I can’t believe this!”

“Forbiddance is forbiddance, Young Master. You can’t expect me to stand aside for you.”

There were so few ways to exit Wuju without braving cliff faces. The terrain was well suited for seclusion of a martial art, just as it was for control over movement. Yi stood with a sheathed blade in hand, his posture broad and ready for action. The road northward was a craggy trail, accented only by a simple covered watch point, mountainous terrain, and the black plumes of smoke from distance provinces. Such suffering, and he only had the vaguest notions why. It’d be something so easy to investigate, so easy to aid in, and yet here he was.

Between him and his call to action stood one man, his lithe frame bulked up only by the expanse of his robes. He had a flat expression, much like his affect, and his unkempt hair lay about his face from his suggestion of a bun. He looked bored with the younger man, and for whatever reason that struck Yi as if it were malcontent. Yi had known Master Kuu-Ro since before he was a student, so it all shouldn’t have fussed him. Yet here he was, same as ever. And here Yi was, feeling as differently as he ever had.

“What does your mother think about all this?” Kuu-Ro asked as he rolled his head about his shoulders, cricking his neck, “Or your father? Does it matter to you?”

“I am a grown man,” Yi growled, taking a step, “And I will not be denied exit from this place.”

“Can’t do it.” Kuu-Ro shrugged, “Is your blade blunt?”

“No.” The Master laughed softly, of all things,

“At least you’re honest. Well then, are you going to kill people, Yi Wuwei?”

“Wh… What?” Yi’s brow furrowed, his stance faltering for just a moment. He snapped himself back when he expected mercy strike to punish his faults, yet only more words drenched in monotony came,

“Am I the first, and then what?”

“What are you talking about? I’m not going to fight you fatally, Master.”

“You’ll be doing a lot of that, though. Don’t you understand? Say something bad’s really happening down there.” Once more, full of surprises, the man turned his back to Yi and spoke to the mountains beyond. His own strikes could have followed, but he offered a Wuju Master the same courtesy as he’d just given him, “And it’s not demons, its not malevolent spirits of any kind. Maybe it’s just a forest fire, but you and I both know better. You have a feeling in your gut that you want to help people, but where does that lead you? To one murder, more?”

“I don’t want to sit here, righteous and unknown,” Yi took a few more careful steps, to which the only reaction he seemed to note from the Master was a soft sigh, “when there are people down there who are suffering.”

“Funny thing is... Well, it’s not so funny, is it? How much blood does it take to end suffering?” Kuu-Ro’s voice finally shifted to something of a mumble as he dipped his head, “Do you cut down an innocent man, upholding scriptures, just to leave this place? Just to fight more, bleed more, kill more? Is it worth it? Is it... right? It feels right, doesn’t it?”

“I’ll only fight you if you force my—”

A stuttered gasp escaped Yi without conscious thought as the man turned back to face him. Without Yi even noticing, perhaps he had it hidden in his robes all along, Kuu-Ro faced Yi with a brown expanse of nothingness behind his eyes, and an ornate dagger leveled to his own throat. Yet he spoke on with that same even cadence, the same chiselled features that lied about his age, and the same as Yi had always known him,

“I don’t even know if this is the best way to go about this, but I wouldn’t test me on my attempt.”

“Master! What are you..?”

“I don’t feel good about this. About what I see down there every day when I walk this road. I remember walking roads far away, looking for a Demon that may have never existed. I don’t like being complicit in suffering, so don’t think I wouldn’t just let you walk by me if I could. But can I? As a Wuju Practitioner?” The pressure of the blade tightened against the man’s skin, such that Yi made hastened attempts to back off and drop his weapon. What else could he do? What should anyone do?

“Master Kuu-Ro, please.”

“I couldn’t do it. I want to do it, but I just can’t. And I don’t even know why I feel like this. Why should I feel so bad, sad, when I know what we’re doing is spirit honored? I know that we can’t jump into every squabble that befalls these lands, because blood is blood no matter whether it comes from our people, their people, young, old… me, or you. Do you even understand what you’re suggesting you do, down there? You talk as if every life saved isn’t another you might end. Do I need to show you?”

Raising his hands in alarmed surrender, Yi only offered a soft,

“Are you alright, Master Kuu-Ro?”

“Do I need to show you?”

“No! No... You do not, Master Kuu-Ro.”

“Good.” Finally, the pressure released about his chin, and his hands slipped back inside his robes. The Master seemed to consider Yi for a moment, his eyes scanning him top to bottom. Yi made no attempts to move, not even breathe, so much had his conviction bled from his mind. Seemingly satisfied, the man began to amble back to his post, “I’m not okay, thank you. Finish your trials. Get your Master’s Mark. Travel by your right. I don’t care what you do, just do it the right way and don’t remind me of what I have to look at every day.”

Lost, dazed even, by the flurry of it all, Yi stood in solemn silence as he watched the immovable blackness of the skies northward.

Why did this have to feel so complicated?

[listenhardtrainharder]

"Martial arts is a form of prayer," -@rza (The Tao Of Wu) #wutang #wu #wuwei #tao #wayoftao #martialarts #innerpeace https://www.instagram.com/p/CA_nzpCjSbo/?igshid=1le6086x8lnc4

[ironjohnred]

Be like water

Don’t make a plan of fighting; that is a very good way to lose your teeth. If you try to remember you will lose. Empty your mind. Be formless, shapeless, like water.

Be adaptable, and don't be dogmatic about sticking to some set of ways of doing things. Adapt and use whatever is best, is the only principle. Water is supremely adaptable: it changes form depending on whatever it is in; it doesn't hold a solid form. It also can flow, or it can splash and crash; it can feel hard, or it can feel soft. These reflect different aspects of martial arts: e.g., jiujitsu is considered "the gentle art" because it doesn't have striking and uses grappling techniques and leverage, while the "hard arts" are striking arts, like Muay Thai, boxing, etc. Water represents all of these styles, and it uses whichever one best accomplishes its job.

What does water do when faced with a wall? It finds a way through it. Water will crash, erode, or seep into crevices until it can find its way again. For example, the famous Grand Canyon in Arizona was carved from a great river that once flowed through it. Water is one of the most powerful elements on earth, capable of moving boulders, shaping coastlines, and carving massive caves.

Sometimes, your problems become a huge mountain that blocks your path. It seems too tall, too big, and too powerful to overcome. So what do you do? Instead of trying to climb it, why not go through it? Often, the challenges you face have multiple solutions – but you can’t see it because you keep looking above. Answers can lurk in the most unexpected yet obvious of places. If you’re too busy viewing just one angle, you won’t be able to get through it.

Once when Lee was under the instruction of his teacher, Yip Man, he became frustrated because he couldn’t master what Yip wanted him to learn. Thus, Yip gave him a week to meditate and reflect upon his situation. Lee surprisingly found the answer to his dilemma not from something supernatural, but rather, when he went sailing alone. It was when he looked at the water that he realized what he has to do in order to be great.

Be like water making its way through cracks. Do not be assertive, but adjust to the object, and you shall find a way round or through it. If nothing within you stays rigid, outward things will disclose themselves.” – Bruce Lee

Being like water is a fairly common goal within the world of martial arts, regardless of style. Students of everything from gong fu to karate to muay thai have sought to improve themselves by emulating its fluidity, force and formlessness. Not only martial artists can learn lessons from it though. So what does it mean to be like water, and how can doing so help improve our lives?

Formlessness

Another quote by Bruce Lee that’s often tossed around is this one:

“Empty your mind, be formless. Shapeless, like water. If you put water into a cup, it becomes the cup. You put water into a bottle and it becomes the bottle. You put it in a teapot it becomes the teapot. Now, water can flow or it can crash. Be water my friend.” – Bruce Lee

Technically that was him reciting lines he wrote for his role on the TV show Longstreet, but I think it still reflects both his thoughts on the matter and an essential property of water that can seriously help people in their day to day lives.

Water, as he says, is shapeless. It doesn’t fight when it’s put into a new container, instead it adapts and changes to perfectly fit its new home. If an object is dropped into the water it doesn’t fight back it just moves out of the way and swallows it up. This formlessness and adaptability is a quality that everyone should strive to achieve.

So how are some ways we can practice this attitude? Think of all the times you’ve been forced into a new situation. Maybe it’s something benign like going to an unfamiliar coffee shop or maybe it’s something more serious like losing your job. What have your reactions been like?

For most people change, no matter how small, is at the very least uncomfortable if not completely terrifying. The natural reaction when people are forced into a new situation is to flee or to fight to get back to the way things were. Instead, try to be more like water. Let go of all that energy you’re wasting trying to cling to the old way things were and let yourself reshape to fit your new surroundings.

The key to achieving water-like adaptation to new situations is understanding the concept of formlessness. The reason water doesn’t fight when it’s placed into a new environment is because water doesn’t have it’s own form. There is no one ‘shape’ of water, it assumes the shape of whatever its container is.

The best way to achieve a similar lack of form is to work on letting go of your self-created identity. I’m not saying you should completely abandon your personality, but rather that you should come to accept yourself as a malleable being. Once you understand that, like water, your defining aspect is that you are constantly changing you can easily adapt to any new situations that may arise.

Fluidity

Ok, I understand that fluidity and formlessness are essentially the same thing since formlessness is a general physical property of all fluids, but bear with me here because fluidity as a concept for our purposes has a slightly more nuanced meaning that separates it out.

When water is flowing, like in a stream or a river, it’s difficult to stop. You can try and push it back but it will slip around you and continue on its way. Like all currents it finds the path of least resistance automatically and follows it without effort or hesitation. If there is even the slightest crack or weakness it will find its way through and keep going.

You can apply this principle to your own life through the practice of wei wuwei (爲無爲) or action without action also sometimes referred to as effortless action. The idea of wei wuwei is central to Taoism and is characterized by releasing conscious control of your actions over to the flow of the infinite Tao.

In more Western terms – go with the flow.

As I said this may sound a lot like the above point of adapting to your surroundings but it’s slightly different. Adapting to your surroundings means changing yourself to become as comfortable as possible in the situation that has presented itself to you. Being fluid, or practicing wei wuwei, deals more with how you deal with obstacles.

Traceurs will understand this concept well. The idea is that when faced with an obstacle you react instantly and naturally taking the path of least resistance around it and moving on. Rather than slam into obstacles you let the natural order of things take its course as you glide around them.

Here obstacles doesn’t necessarily mean physical things. These can be any blocks to your progress tangible or not. When manifested into your general attitude it can also be an effective way to overcome mental blocks. When you hit a block in your thinking or creativity don’t dwell on the problem, just accept that its there and move on.

Dealing with problems this way is not only more effective, it keeps stress to a minimum as well.

When my acute self-consciousness grew to what the psychologists refer to as the “double-bind” type, my instructor would again approach me and say, “Loong, preserve yourself by following the natural bends of things and don’t interfere. Remember never to assert yourself against nature; never be in frontal opposition to any problems, but control it by swinging with it. Don’t practice this week: Go home and think about it.”

After spending many hours meditating and practicing, I gave up and went sailing alone in a junk. On the sea I thought of all my past training and got mad at myself and punched the water! Right then — at that moment — a thought suddenly struck me; was not this water the very essence of gung fu? Hadn’t this water just now illustrated to me the principle of gung fu? I struck it but it did not suffer hurt. Again I struck it with all of my might — yet it was not wounded! I then tried to grasp a handful of it but this proved impossible. This water, the softest substance in the world, which could be contained in the smallest jar, only seemed weak. In reality, it could penetrate the hardest substance in the world. That was it! I wanted to be like the nature of water.

Suddenly a bird flew by and cast its reflection on the water. Right then I was absorbing myself with the lesson of the water, another mystic sense of hidden meaning revealed itself to me; should not the thoughts and emotions I had when in front of an opponent pass like the reflection of the birds flying over the water? This was exactly what Professor Yip meant by being detached — not being without emotion or feeling, but being one in whom feeling was not sticky or blocked. Therefore in order to control myself I must first accept myself by going with and not against my nature.

The natural phenomenon which the gung fu man sees as being the closest resemblance to wu wei [the principle of spontaneous action governed by the mind and not the senses] is water:

Nothing is weaker than water,

But when it attacks something hard

Or resistant, then nothing withstands it,

And nothing will alter its way.

The above passages from the Tao Te Ching illustrate to us the nature of water: Water is so fine that it is impossible to grasp a handful of it; strike it, yet it does not suffer hurt; stab it, and it is not wounded; sever it, yet it is not divided. It has no shape of its own but molds itself to the receptacle that contains it. When heated to the state of steam it is invisible but has enough power to split the earth itself. When frozen it crystallizes into a mighty rock. First it is turbulent like Niagara Falls, and then calm like a still pond, fearful like a torrent, and refreshing like a spring on a hot summer’s day. So is the principle of wu wei:

The rivers and seas are lords of a hundred valleys. This is because their strength is in lowliness; they are kings of them all. So it is that the perfect master wishing to lead them, he follows. Thus, though he is above them, he follows. Thus, though he is above them, men do not feel him to be an injury. And since he will not strive, none strive with him.