In the earlier blogs, we have spoken at length about What are Martial Arts, its types, history, origins, myth & reality of Martial arts etc. I would suggest every reader of this blog to go over those articles as well to get more holistic understanding of Martial Arts. In this blog, I will share with you in all humility the great essence of Martial Arts and its connection with your everyday life.
Martial Arts in its core essence is a way of life. You might ask how can art of fighting will be useful for me as we as human beings crave for more peace and not more conflict. Yes, you are right, we do aspire for peace and would like to avoid any kind of conflict. But here, there is some wisdom we need to be introduced with. Conflict is reality of life. In life, there will always be conflict. Conflict can be between me and others, between me and myself or between me and circumstances. Conflict can be in a family, organisation or within an individual. In other words, in any living thing conflict will be present and one might ask why it has to be like that. This connects with duality of our existence and the symbol of Ying and Yang is one example explaining this concept.
Ying and Yang symbol with its numerous interpretations and understanding in simple terms speaks about duality of creation. Which means there are dual aspects to everything but they are fundamentally one. It can be good or bad, high or low, masculine or feminine etc. Within human being it refers to spirit & matter or soul & body. It means that human being has a heavenly quality of soul (unity, love, intelligence etc) and also terrestrial qualities of matter (greed, lust, selfishness etc) and these two co-exist at the same time which causes human being to be in conflict.
Essentially, all conflicts are stem within and it expresses itself outside in a form of a fight. It can be fight between a couple, between nations, between friends or between me and circumstances. As human being, since we have both higher and lower qualities within us, it causes an identity crisis which we sometimes feel when we are in conflict. This identity crisis is from another perspective is a golden opportunity to understand who am I as human being and to gain unity within ourselves. And for unity to manifest inner conflicts are necessary between me and myself. So, ironically, we need conflict for unity. We can understand this with a simple example, a marriage where couple have fights, conflicts and been through ups and downs but still hold hands together possess strength and stronger unity verses a marriage which has never been through conflicts or challenging times. In the latter case, it would not be surprising to see first fight after many years breaking the marriage apart.
The discipline of Martial Arts is meant for gaining inner clarity on the nature and resolution of conflict. Since all conflicts are meant to be fought with a particular approach, the strategy of fighting a physical opponent and a psychological limitation is very similar. Hence, learning Martial arts is holistic way of learning to deal with all kinds of conflicts (physical, psychological, political etc). A good martial artist is essentially a good and wise human being and will naturally excel in all areas of life be it fulfilling one’s dreams, family, career, health and society. The main reason for this excellence will be a better ability to learn to work with conflict and manage, mitigate and eventually overcome day to day conflicts of life.
If this is not a strong reason to learn martial arts then what is! A way of life which is grounded in reality and emphasizes entirely on individual development is worth exploring. Of course, this means one needs to find a good teacher who imbibes core martial values and applies in his own life. Only then, it is possible to transmit this art authentically. To conclude in the words of legendary martial artist Bruce Lee, “To be a Martial Artist means to be an Artist of life.”