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Habit
If you repeat something often enough it becomes unconscious.
Unconscious behaviour is known as 'habit'.
We all develop habits throughout our lives.
Some help us to avoid making mistakes and forgetting things. Other habits
are not so useful. They can actually hamper your health.
Shedding bad habits
Change requires us to stop doing what we are used to doing, and do something
unfamiliar instead. This sounds easy enough. In reality, people are
reluctant to let-go of habits.
There is much comfort to be found in the familiar. In order to respond
spontaneously to what is occurring, we must shed certain habits. The first
step is to simply become aware of their existence.
Change
is the only constant in life.
(Heraclitus)
Making changes
Although it is not easy to make changes, we all can do it.
There are some simple steps to follow:
Become aware of what you are doing (habit)
Inhibit (stop) the urge/habit
Consider your options
Consciously act
In the field of martial arts practice, this 4 step
process is too slow for combat but it can be
trained in partner practice.
Over time, old habits are shed and new/more effective habits replace them.
The ideal situation is where the student can respond spontaneously and
appropriately to whatever is happening (as it is happening) without
the need to consciously think at all.
Book of Changes
The Book of Changes (I
Ching) teaches a person how to change and adapt to the immediate
circumstances facing them.
This is essential in combat and in life.
An attitude of fluidity and change enables a person to move without pause, to
feel rather than think, and to find the path of least resistance.
The easy route
Finding the easiest route relies
upon intuition and sensitivity rather than thought.
Internal martial arts always seek to avoid
conflict and
resistance, so it is important to understand this skill.
When your way is blocked, change - and be prepared to change and change
again.
Become like water, moving instinctively around obstacles.
Change
The only constant in life is change.
Nothing remains the same, not even the universe itself.
We must let go of certainty and fixity, and embrace change.
In combat, we do not formulate plans or anticipate the opponent.
We wait.
What will happen will happen.
If we are open and receptive, we can move with the events as they occur.
Can you grip water with your hand?
You cannot change others
Anthony De Mello illustrates the nature of change beautifully. He demonstrates how people seek to change the world to suit their own
desires, rather than change themselves.
In
the internal martial arts we must change ourselves.
Move your body
Fundamental to the
internal martial arts is the idea that you must
move your body around the opponent rather than seek to move them.
This ties-in with using only 4 ounces of pressure and not resisting
force.
Rather than resist, you move. Rather than struggle, you change.
Adjusting
If Taoism is the art of adjusting to life, then
internal martial arts are about
adjusting to the opponent.
This process of adjustment is what yielding is about.
Balancing, sensitivity, change.
When the hands are clapped, the sound
issues without hesitation. When flint is struck with steel, the spark comes out
at once.
(Alan Watts)
The predominance of the small
Smaller movements are harder to see and difficult to avoid in time. The
smaller the action, the less apparent it is, and therefore the more
surprising. Make your changes hard to see.
Subtlety
When you are accomplished with adjustment, a very small movement can be used
to immediately affect the attacker's centre. This imperceptible touch
instantly renders the attacker subtly off-balance.
As the attacker seeks to re-gain the advantage, the student must continue to
adjust themselves in order to maintain the uproot. Presence, sensitivity and
a lack of self-consciousness are all required.
The subtle changes of angle taught throughout the form now come into play.
Page created 31 July 1994
Last updated
04 May 2023