January 12, 2007
Seeing Inside for the First Time
I've been practicing martial arts for about five years now and I think I'm finally understanding why I started doing it. The obvious reason is that I wanted to learn self-defense and while that's still true, I realize there's something much deeper to why I started practicing martial arts.
When it comes to martial arts, there are external and internal aspects. The external aspect is the idea that you are doing something outside yourself. Take karate or jujutsu, for instance. Those are arts that focus on defense from outside influences--you learn techniques that allow you to control things other than yourself, like people attacking you.
Then there is an internal aspect to those and other martial arts; that being that you learn how to better control what's going on with and inside yourself--controlling your mind and body. Suino Sensei was talking about this last night during iaido class and that's when I finally understood it. When I finally understood what they meant by the word "internal." He said it was akin to Zen meditation. When you meditate, you focus on controlling your breathing, your thoughts and your body. You actually think about breathing in and out in a very controlled manner and try not to think about anything else, like how that guy cut you off on your drive home the other day or even to scratch that itch on your leg. It sounds very easy to do, but BELIEVE me, it is near impossible! I grew up as a Buddhist and, during "Sunday School," had to meditate all the time. I hated it--partly because I was still a kid and wanted to do other things, but also because it was so difficult to master. It's almost impossible to not think about anything at all except your breathing for more than a few breaths.
That martial arts is as much for improving yourself externally as well as internally, I unconsciously understood, having practiced karate for five years. But now that I've been learning iaido, it's only now coming to conscious light. When I practice iaido, or any martial art for that matter, it's really more of a search for self-perfection than it is for defense. Though, both are just as challenging as they are rewarding.
And I have to say that Suino Sensei is really incredible for giving me this kind of insight. Not only am I learning new arts with him, not only is he teaching us practical and real-life situations where our martial arts are useful, but he is teaching me martial arts on a much deeper level than I've ever had before. I'm just now beginning to truly "internalize" these arts because of the insight he provides and it's causing me to become even more passionate about learning than I ever was before! And that's a great testament to the kind of teacher he is!
Posted by Amy at 01:29 PM | Comments (0)