The martial artist must learn not to focus on one part of the opponent’s body. Narrow focus creates blind spots that lead to the artist to receiving blows. As the martial artist learns in combat to adopt a wider perspective, so should he learn in all the rest of his life to see more completely. He should transcend the visual limit that ostensibly separates mind from body, or self from universe. He is no longer located in a particular sequence of time, but instead lives in the eternal present: “In sports, time exists. In the martial arts there is only the present.” [Taisen Deshimaru, “The Zen Way to the Martial Arts” (1982), p.23]
Like psychotherapy, martial arts training may allow the student to experience a previously unknown state of self-awareness, and the awareness can lead to terrifying experiences of shame or guilt. The existential crisis might be analogized to what St. John of the Cross called the “dark night of the soul.” At the crisis point, some students will turn away, while others will confront their true selves.
The martial arts are superficially a form of training to fight external foes. But the true martial artist must combat the enemy within — and if he is to prevail, he must fight without greed, ignorance or hatred. If he wins, then his internal demons can be harnessed into service of the good. Defeating self-deception is not a once-and-for-all battle. After one form of self-deception is defeated, a more sophisticated and insidious form may replace it. The psychological and spiritual struggle does not take place while a passive subject is lying on a psychotherapist’s couch, paying for advice.
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