Training Manual
Content
Studio Etiquette
Studio Conduct
Below are both the traditional martial arts customs and the standards of conduct that are expected of every Kuk Sool Kwan student.
- Always take your shoes off before stepping onto the mat.
- Do not use profanity or foul language in the dojang. Treat it as a sacred area.
- Treat those of a belt rank higher than you are with respect.
- Do not use drugs except for prescribed medications. If you are ever found drunk or drugged within the studio, you may be expelled.
- No eating, chewing gum, or smoking within the dojang.
- Be careful to remove jewelry and watches before practicing. These may cause injury to yourself or your classmates.
- Whenever asked to sit during class, always sit formally on your knees or informally with your legs folded neatly under you. Do not slouch or lean against the walls.
- At the beginning of class, line up on the mat in order of the highest ranked belt to the lowest ranked belt. The highest seats are always on the right side of the room and at the front of the room. If you are not in the front row, always line up directly behind the person in the row in front of you.
- It is impolite to interrupt a master or instructor while they are personally explaining something to a student to add additional input or "help" without first asking permission of the instructor.
- Always wear your uniform (do bok) to class. During summer months, it is permissible to wear special Kuk Sool t-shirts as a uniform, but no other types of clothing are acceptable.
- During promotional tests, be extra formal to the visiting masters and grandmasters. Whenever called onto the floor to perform your testing requirements, always shout, "Yes Sir!" and take your place briskly.
- If you are not in a class that is performing the bowing ceremony, stop what you are doing and bow along with the class. If you are not in your uniform, it is alright to perform a standing bow rather than a kowtow.
Bowing
It is customary to always bow and salute with the left palm covering the right fist, saying, "Kuk Sool". Bowing is a type of salute and does not have any religious significance.
When to Bow:
- Whenever entering or exiting the Dojang building.
- Whenever you first see an instructor or master.
- During the bowing ceremony at the beginning and end of each class. (This is a more formal, kneeling bow, called a "kowtow".)
- Whenever receiving a promotion to your belt rank from a master. (Also a kowtow)
- Whenever you are practicing a Kuk Sool Hyung (Form).
- Bow to your opponent before and after sparring.
- Bow to your partner before performing a Hapkido technique with full intensity.
Instructor Titles
Always address masters and instructors by their appropriate Korean title if you know it, or else with "Master" or "Sir".
The Korean titles for masters and instructors run as follows:
- Brown Belt - "Ja Di" (Junior Assistant)
- Red Belt with 2 tassels- "Dahn Bo Nim" (Black Belt Candidate)
- 1st Degree Black Belt- "Jo Kyo Nim" (Assistant Instructor)
- 2nd Degree Black Belt- "Kyo Sa Nim"(Instructor)
- 3rd Degree Black Belt- "Pu Sa Bum Nim" (Minor Master)
- 4th Degree Black Belt- "Sa Bum Nim" (Master)
- 5th-6th Degree Black Belt and Higher- "Kwan Jang Nim" (House Master)
- 7th-8th Degree Black Belt- "Sa Pu Nim" (Old Master)
- 9th Degree Black Belt "Chong Kwan Jang Nim" (Chief Master)
- 10th Degree Black Belt - "Do Ju Nim" (Association President)
Taekwondo and Kuk Sool Kwan
The two main martial arts taught at Tree of Life Dojang are Taekwondo and Kuk Sool Kwan. As clarified elsewhere in this handbook, Taekwondo shares martial heritage with Shotokan and other forms of Japanese Karate, whereas Kuk Sool is descended from the Korean Royal Court Martial Arts and Japanese Aikijutsu.
The two martial arts are very distinct in their appearance even though they both share the characteristic flashy high Korean kicks. Taekwondo's hyungs are hard and linear, while Taekwondo's sparring is bouncy and agile, without much blocking or punching. Kuk Sool, on the other hand, is always very fluid and circular, redirecting attacks and closing in to strike or grapple.
At Tree of Life Dojang, Kuk Sool students wear BLACK uniforms while Taekwondo students wear WHITE uniforms. Training in the Dojang between the two arts is usually separate, although sometimes students pursuing these arts may train together in the same class. Because Taekwondo is more of a sport than a martial art these days, it is generally reserved for children between the ages of 5 and 9 years old, although adults may also learn the Taekwondo Poomse Hyung and test for Taekwondo rank if they are so inclined. Kuk Sool is taught to everyone age 10 and up.
As a special privilege to those who have attained black belt status in Taekwondo but who are now pursuing advancement in Kuk Sool, it is permitted for them to wear a black tassel on their right hip hanging from their Kuk Sool belt and uniform. This signifies their prior achievements in Taekwondo. Whenever they are wearing their original white Taekwondo uniform in the dojang, however, they may wear their actual Taekwondo belt.
Dojang Commands
During classes and special events at the dojang, traditional Korean terminology is used for commands and directives. Below are the phrases you should be familiar with in the dojang.
| Attention | "Cha Ryut" |
| Ready Stance (Fighting Position) | "Joom Bi" |
| Bow | "Kyung Nae" |
| At Ease | "Ba Ro" |
| Banner Salute (1st Bow) | "Kuk Sool Kie Ke Kyung Nae" |
| Master Salute (2nd Bow) | "Sah Bum Nim Ke, Kyung Nae"
(Kwan Jang Nim, etc) |
| Instructor Salute (3rd Bow) | "Kyo Sa Nim Ke, Kyung Nae"
(Jo Kyo Nim, etc) |
| Exercise Begins (Last Bow) | "Oon Dong Shi Jak" |
| Exercise Ends (Last Bow) | "Oon Dong Gut" |
| Counting-One | "Hana" |
| Two | "Dul" |
| Three | "Seh" |
| Four | "Neh" |
| Five | "Da Sut" |
| Six | "Ya Sut" |
| Seven | "El Gup" |
| Eight | "Ya Dul" |
| Nine | "Ah Hop" |
| Ten | "Yul" |
Practice Guidelines
Practicing martial arts can provide an individual with many rewards, the likes of which cannot be gained from any other single activity. Yoga can provide flexibility and spiritual accomplishment, dancing can train grace, boxing can provide self defense, and mastering any art from music to painting can create confidence - but martial arts is all of these things at once.
The amount of effort you put into your martial arts practice directly determines the benefit you will get out of it. Certain skills require a solid regularity of effort before progress is gained in them. For some of these skills, if one trains only intermittently, then the natural entropy of the body and its tendency to revert to a status quo will overcome your training and it will not be enough to see overall gains. This is particularly so with kicking, for example. If one does not train kicking steadily for a certain period of time, then the form and delivery of proper kicks will never appear, in spite of the fact that the legs may still grow strong. However, once the body adapts and intuitively understands the proper grace of a kick, then even after long future periods without training, the same grace will still appear with only minor indications of "rust". This means that we all must devote a certain period of sustained effort before a skill becomes "ours". Usually, the years between white and first or second degree black belt are the years to do this!
Other skills seem to develop not as much as a result of repetition and regularity, but as a steady process of maturation from seeds planted in the mind. For these skills, ideas seem to be introduced into the mind, and then through a backstage "rumination" period, they gradually gestate until they seem to appear rather spontaneously in the hands of the student. Skills like the flowing movements and subtle manipulations of the hapkido techniques seem to fall into this category. Although one does of course benefit from actually rehearsing the hapkido techniques, there seems to be no substitute for certain levels of proficiency other than time and exposure. For these kinds of skills, one needs not only a constant exposure in the sense of seeing these techniques perfomed, but it will also be a great aid to meditate or visualize the flowing movements associated with them as gestures and patterns, so that one can develop the "feel" of their execution.
To be sure that you are improving in all of the various aspects of Kuk Sool simultaneously, the best thing is to be present in classtime at least three times a week. The best approach of all to take is not to treat the Kuk Sool material as a "course" for which one must cram, memorize, and labor - eventually one must burn out, because the mind will become exhausted. Rather, the most practical attitude to assume is the one that hopefully brought you into martial arts in the first place - to adopt a new way of life, and a new way of being. Make martial arts training an unassuming, familiar part of your week, and you will find a way of growing yourself gradually, like a tree, in a way that can last your whole lifetime.
Weapons
Kuk Sool Kwan study encompasses 18 traditional weapons. Weapon training is done simultaneously with unarmed training, beginning at yellow belt, with proficiency in the basics of one weapon being provided at every belt thereafter, and several in each degree of black belt. Kuk Sool Kwan's weapon movements are extensions of its unarmed movements, so that familiarity with empty-handed fighting should induce familiarity with armed fighting.
It's encouraged that everyone obtain their own personal set of weapons, one at a time, as they progress through each belt rank. It's a traditional thing to have one's own weapons, because familiarity and personal attributes contribute to your training. With time and use, one's weapons should become an extension of one's personality and will. This is particularly so with regard to blades - almost every culture has long held traditional beliefs regarding the unique character of special swords, and the potential for them to become imbued with the strong spirit of their possessors. Formal etiquette dictates that one should not touch another's weapons, not only because of safety, but because of disruption of the personal bond each is supposed to develop with them.
Also understand it's a studio rule that one not handle weapons in the studio which are reserved for a higher belt rank than has been reached . For example, an orange belt should not be handling swords or staffs while on the practice floor.
Dan Jun Ho
It is said that every strike, throw and wrist technique in martial arts must come from the waist, which means the core of the torso and the muscles of the trunk. When you mentally focus on your waist, you tend to turn your body as one unit, and this action lends more mass to back whatever move you are performing, and therefore more force. This area corresponds with the classic "center of gravity" that is often talked about in other forms of athletics, and so it is important for the obvious reason of delivering physical power.
However, there is another aspect to this area that makes its importance considerable in martial arts. Oriental philosophy and medicine tells of an energy called "ki" which flows through the body in invisible channels. This energy is different from the physical or kinetic energy of mass and speed which we are familiar with in the West. The concept of ki is very hard to translate. In oriental languages, the word can be applied to mean air, breath, energy, heat, or willpower. Most of the time for us, the energy called "ki" should be thought of as more of a life force. The healthiest people who are of even emotional temperament and robust vitality are considered to have an abundance of ki flowing through their bodies. In Kuk Sool Kwan, we try to develop, strengthen and multiply our ki beyond even the level of the ordinary healthy person. As it happens, the center of ki in the body is also located at the waistline.
In Korean martial arts, we call this area the "Dan Jun". Precisely, it is located about four finger widths below your navel and about one inch inside the body. The Dan Jun is the strongest collection area for all the ki of your body, and is the most major crossroads for the different ki pathways that run through it. While we are infants maturing in the womb, the umbilical cord attaches here and supplies our body with nutrients and life before we can eat or breathe for ourselves.
One of the most helpful habits that you should try to develop as soon as you begin your Kuk Sool Kwan training is that of breathing with your abdomen and not your chest. This is the natural way of breathing that all of us should practice, and indeed, which we all do practice while we are still young. If you watch the respiration of babies and animals, you will see that they perform natural breathing with the abdomen. When you breathe this way, ki from the air you inhale is gathered down in the Dan Jun and then distributed throughout your body. Breathing this way also makes maximum use of your lung capacity and leads to increased oxygen circulation, longevity and a brighter complexion.
Being able to perform our martial arts strikes and locks with ki combined with our normal physical strength is one of the higher goals of martial arts training, and accounts for the more mystical and paranormal demonstrations of martial arts skill. We practice several exercises that make use of Dan Jun breathing in a conscious manner that you will learn in more and more detailed grades as you progress through your Kuk Sool Kwan training.
Ki Hap
The Ki and Hap in the word Ki-hap are the same Ki and Hap in the word Hapkido, and just as Hapkido is pronounced "Ai-ki-do" in Japanese, so too is Ki-hap pronounced "Kiai". A kiai, of course, is the aggressive shout that martial artists perform when they make a powerful strike, such as when breaking boards or when kicking targets. Ki is the life energy mentioned earlier in this handbook, one of the three treasures which martial artists seek to cultivate in their training. The word hap, or ai, signifies joining or uniting. The intention and purpose behind the shout is quite literally to "unite" ki with one's attack, therefore, just as one unites ki with flowing grapples of hapkido, albeit much less explosively.
Training kicking and punching for a long time can help build muscle and train the proper technique and body dynamics to deliver a lot of power. However, However, while there is much to be gained in the development of physical power alone, the results from combining this with emotion, willpower and intention are exponentially greater. This, essentially, is what is happening with a ki-hap- one is making a vocal and emotional assertion of attack - a pure expression of will.
When the Kuk Sool class practices kicking or punching pads, everyone will be asked to kihap. Doing this can be uncomfortable at first for some who are not used to this kind of loud vocal expression. No one will force you to kihap if you are not comfortable, but the sooner you are able to free your expression, the sooner you will find yourself exhibiting such confidence and the ability that comes with it as second nature
The Three Treasures
There is a saying in the Orient that "life is hard to come by". We are all individual personalities and identities, and we each only get one life to be who we are and to make the most of ourselves. This means that one should have the attitude of treating every day as something extremely valuable and not to be wasted.
The essence of our life, which accounts for so much of its quality, is our ki. Ki is responsible for our health, our perceptions, our energy, our emotional well being, our inner strength, the way we respond to stress, and ultimately, our awareness of who we are and what our place is in life. While much of our ki is something we are born with and which we can attribute to our parents and the given circumstances of our lives, it is for the most part something that can and should be cultivated.
A question which one might then ask is, "why do so many people who are intent on finding the best cultivation of life and self practice the physical fighting arts?" The answer is in the development of ki, for there are three levels of ki, each of which can only build when the level below it has been accumulated. These three forms of internal energy are called the three treasures in Oriental Medicine and spirituality: Vitality, Essence, and Spirit. The three treasures are known by their Chinese names of Jing, Qi, and Shen.
The first of the three levels is our jing. Jing is quite simply the raw, physical, biological energy that we get from food and exercise. When we read the labels of food for calories, we can consider that measurement of the potential heat energy contained within the molecular bonds of that food as part of jing, but this does not mean that a very fat person with lots of energy stored in the molecular bonds of fat cells has a lot of jing. Jing is, rather,the ability of the body to make use of that energy in efficient ways. Well developed athletes who are unaware of metaphysical concepts nonetheless have an abundance of jing. Jing is stamina, muscular strength, and sexual potency. Because jing is such a physical energy, it can be lost by ejaculation and by menstruation. Even western boxing trainers have long encouraged their athletes to refrain from sexual activity for periods before a scheduled fight. Much more threatening to healthy jing, however, is the disrespect of your body by such habits as smoking, drinking, and drug abuse. Even medications, when used too much, can do a disservice to the body. Altering the body in unnatural ways can also damage jing. The development of jing, then, is accomplished by increasing the capacity for physical exercise, by eating well, by abstaining from drug use, and by regulating sexual activity until jing is built and can sustain itself.
A person must have an abundance of healthy jing in order to begin to cultivate the next of the three treasures, qi. Without healthy jing to supply the transmutation process into qi, gaining qi will be a very slow process. Qi is the Chinese word for what we in Korean martial arts call ki, and they are even written with the same character. Though we use the word ki for the second of the three treasures, in a general sense all of the three treasures can be called "ki". The ki proper, however, as the second of the three treasures, is a much more subtle energy than the jing. Ki is emotional in nature, and though it flows in the body through identifiable points, it is altogether not quite physical. Because of qi's emotional nature, it is developed by meditation and practices that relieve stress and produce an even temperament. Most important of all, to strive to be a good, compassionate, loving, patient and moral person will do the most to aid one in producing ki, and the more ki you have, the more those qualities will come naturally to you.
The last of the three treasures is transmuted from a healthy supply of qi. Shen translates as spirit, and this is the energy of insight into life itself and the uncanny powers of intuition, mental focus, and spiritual awareness. Shen also is used to denote the total health of a person, and Oriental doctors will describe the overall radiance from the flush of a person's cheeks to the effect of their presence as shen. Shen is developed by deep insight meditation practices, and most of all by finding a balance in life. The moderation of all extremes and opposites, for example, striking a balance between the rational and the passionate sides of oneself, between extroversion and introversion, between discipline and relaxation, severity and mercy, assertiveness and leniency, and even jing and qi will do the most to develop shen, for to know shen, and therefore the way of all things, one must keep to the center of all things.
Stretching
Achieving improvement in flexibility should be one of the primary goals of every student who wishes to excel in Kuk Sool Kwan. Maximized flexibility allows for higher, faster and stronger kicks, for greater control of kicks, and for increased agility and resistance to injury.
Flexibility also allows the body to clear obstructions of qi so that it will flow smoothly. Massage therapists who rub out tension in muscles often find their clients divulging emotional details of their lives, and this is because qi becomes locked up in complexes which manifest as tension. Free flowing ki in a limber body will do a lot to prevent those emotional knots from ever forming.
To make sure that you make steady gains in the improvement of your flexibility, it is important to stretch every day. Morning immediately after rising is the best time to stretch. Loosening the body in the morning helps it to stay supple and limber all day. You can even use the underside or frame of a couch or bed-frame to help pull you down into a side stretch at this time.
Also, resting your leg on something waist high or higher while you are standing at different times of the day can help to keep your progress steady, as the more often you can assume a semblance of the high kicking positions you would like to achieve, the more your body will begin to become accustomed to these positions.
It's also a good idea to try to develop the leg strength to hold your legs up in fully extended kicking positions. The theory behind this is that if you can execute a perfect kick under dynamic tension and extremely slowly, then executing that same kick lightning-fast and with perfect precision should be very easy. With enough practice, you can develop the same accuracy and coordination with your legs that you have with your hands - you could have the precision to open and turn doorknobs with your feet or even kick hats off of peoples' heads without hitting them.
Make sure to stay very hydrated so that your muscles can relax. When you haven't consumed enough water, you will find the joints and muscles to be far stiffer than otherwise! Also, try to get onto a regular sleeping schedule because this has a lot to do with muscle fatigue and posture. We are always more stiff when we haven't rested well or have done so at the wrong times.
Diet
Proper nutrition and diet is naturally very important when pursuing any kind of athletic activity. In a martial art like Kuk Sool, which focuses on internal energy development and total health, this is even more important.
The dietary advice from Kuk Sool Masters can be summed up very simply- a healthy body knows what it needs and will crave the appropriate things to eat. However, the caveat here is that you must first make your body healthy enough to know what it should crave! You can go a long way toward accomplishing this by practicing meditation, daily exercise, and by first breaking your body of bad habits of craving sugar and insulin swings.
In general, you should consider the makeup of your diet and how its makeup falls between carbohydrates, proteins and lipids. As a guideline, as long as you are actively exercising, your daily meals should break down to 50% carbohydrates, 30% protein, and 20% fats. Of course, a great portion of that should be leafy green vegetables, the greener the better.
Another consideration that martial artists specifically should have regarding diet is to keep a balance between "cool" foods and "hot" foods. Cool foods include things such as lettuce, watery fruits and melons, and dairy products. Hot foods are meats, spices, and tangy vegetables. Spicy food can be a boost to one's energy, but first one must have a constitution that can support it. This emphasis on balance should carry over into parts of life other than diet.
Hyung Performance
Much of what constitutes the art of Kuk Sool is preserved in short choreographed fighting sets which are performed individually by the practicing student. These routines are called "hyung" or forms, and are introduced at each promotion. There are emtpy hand hyung and weapon hyung. Practicing hyung will slowly condition your body to respond and move in certain ways conducive to the execution of good Kuk Sool techniques. The very substance of the art of Kuk Sool is preserved in the movements of the forms. Hyung are part of what makes Kuk Sool not just a fighting system, but a part of cultural heritage and "art". It is the practice of hyung that teaches the body to move in a way that is not kickboxing, not karate, nor taekwondo, but Kuk Sool.
Practicing the hyung is also a great way to have a martial arts training session when you are by yourself. The hyung are designed for us in ways that we actually fight, so training them is much like "shadow boxing", or fighting invisible opponents for practice. To string all the forms you know into a sequence and then run through them as fast as you can is a fine workout routine, and you can gain not only endurance and cardiovascular health, but also rehearsal of the many techniques within them. The Hyung also contain patterns of movement that link and stimulate ki channels, and executing these properly can train the ki to move in conjunction with the body.
Most of the time, however, performing the hyung will be done for exactly that - demonstration. If the hyung contain all of the elements that comprise and define Kuk Sool, then your skill at performing them can do much to indicate your degree of attainment in the art.. You will be asked to do this at promotion tests to gain soft tassels, but also sometimes just for fun at demonstrations. When performing hyung, it's important first to be able to execute all of the movements well, but beyond that there are some aesthetic considerations that will make your performance more appealing to those watching you.
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Keep the eyes open and focused.
Don't look at the ground, but around as though you were seeing invisible enemies - let your eyes convey the thrills, reactions, and emotions you experience while seeing them in your imagination.
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Perform some of the hyung slow, and some of it fast.
Alternating your tempo while performing the hyung can make it more suspenseful to onlookers . The slow elegance of the dan jun breathing, followed by a sudden explosive flurry of hand strikes, then dropping back into graceful round blocks - all of this can give your form a sense of tension and climax.
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Keep your stances stable.
When doing your hyung, you should be on balance at all times - this is one of the training benefits of practicing them. Avoid positions where your feet end up "on a rail" where you can be swayed to the right or left, and also leaning the shoulders or head over too far, as when executing the ground strikes. Even during some of the one legged crane postures, your body should be perfectly poised on the position without wobbles.
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Breathe at appropriate times, and pace yourself.
Some of the longer hyung are dead sprints for as long as two minutes and can leave you very winded. If you don't conserve, breathe, and pace, then the beginning of the form will have a lot of energy and the end will begin to taper off as you stretch for that finish line. When you rehearse a performance of the hyung, break it down into beats where you can find places to catch breath and recover before the next flurry of fast movement.
Promotion Tests
There are nine belt ranks in Kuk Sool Kwan at Tree of Life Dojang and they are each divided into two parts. In keeping with the philosophy of Kuk Sool Kwan, which combines hard and soft martial arts, each belt rank is divided into hard and soft tests.
The soft test for each belt rank is called the "Knowledge and Art Test" and when completed, confers a colored tassel to be worn on the left hip hanging from your current belt. The tassel is the color of the next belt you will acquire. At the Knowledge and Art Test, you will be tested on not only your soft martial art techniques, but also those components of your Kuk Sool Kwan instruction which deal with beauty, grace, historical knowledge, and aesthetic refinement. This includes memorization and skillful execution of your Hapkido techniques, the memorization and performance of your current hyung, your performance of tumbling or falling techniques, your acquisition of pertinent philosophy or technical knowledge, and finally your development of internal or energy meditation techniques.
The hard test for each belt rank can only be taken after you have acquired your Knowledge and Art Tassel. The hard test is called the "Skill and Prowess Test". At the hard test, you will be tested on your athletic and fighting prowess. Successful completion of this test will allow you to progress to the next color belt rank. At this test, expect to demonstrate your new striking and kicking techniques, your development of power in board breaking, your skill with weapons, and finally your prowess in sparring.
Expect a test to be held at the dojang every 6-7 weeks. The two types of tests alternate, so 6-7 weeks after a Knowledge and Art Test there will be a Promotion Test of Skill and Prowess. This means that each type of test will be held roughly every 3 months, and that the most dedicated and persistent student will change belt color after this much time. Accordingly, to progress through the nine color belts of Kuk Sool Kwan will take a minimum of two and a quarter years.
Scholar Warrior
In Kuk Sool, we continually refer to the endeavor of creating balance. Just as we seek for equilibrium between soft approaches and hard approaches in our martial art training, so must we infer a similar enterprise in the way we live. Your martial art training should not be a mere distraction or pastime from your "real" life, a "way to blow off steam". The practice you do within the sacred space of the training hall can be a microcosm of the work to develop skills affecting the overall balance and mastery of your entire life, and more, a manifestation and embodiment of the work to make yourself a complete person. The ancient martial philosophy in Kuk Sool is an outgrowth and response to a prompt from the world itself, not the other way around. We value the hard, yet it is the soft which overcomes. We see the external, yet it is the quality of the internal which sustains. The principle of balance adhered to in the training in Kuk Sool is a reflection of the same principle seen in universal processes, and ultimately within the psyche of every individual.
Consciousness is only the tip of a large floating island, the greater portion of which is submerged in the depths of what we call the unconscious. So often we find ourselves reacting to situations in ways which we had never conceived we would, and we find desires and motivations surfacing in the course of life which do not correlate with the people we think we are. The greatest work of all is to know one's self. It is to expand the field of our consciousness into those personal depths to recognize and inspect those processes, motivations and desires so that we might gain a perspective with which we may more truly choose what we are, what we will be and what we want this life to be. To avoid this work, to remain captivated by a self-concept which only consists of the delineated tip of that island, as so many do, is to give oneself over to the whims and fluctuations of invisible and unknown passions. They writhe, twist and turn in this sea, conflicting with each other, canceling each other, rising and alternating tumultuously in succession. What is needed is a coordinating central position, which the descent of consciousness into those depths alone can provide.
What this means is, every individual must strive to explore every aspect of who he or she is in order to truly know that self fully. Along with exploring oneself also comes the process of cultivating and developing oneself, for the parts one discovers in these "depths" may then become integrated into the personality.
At the same time, one should live life with a constant intention to acquire knowledge and to experience a variety of different things. Dabble in all the arts, study all the sciences, and try your hand at every skill, because exposing yourself to all of the different facets of human existence also has the effect of bringing the corresponding parts of your own humanity to the surface, and facilitates a familiarity with congruent aspects of your being.
This also means we should treat that education as something valuable for its own sake, and not merely a "means to an end". We have all heard the statement "knowledge is power", but most consider that statement important not because they see knowledge as valuable, but because they see power as valuable! That is to say, they are not interpreting the statement as signifying the "personal power" to attain one's destiny, but rather the illusion of power such as wealth or position, which they see as a shield from that which makes them insecure. Nowadays, more people than ever attend colleges and universities of higher education, but how many truly love learning? Most simply ape statements about its importance for a career and financial security - which, rather than being about pursuing one's full potential , is instead about being propelled by a type of fear. Society has managed to persuade itself to believe in the value of education, but has lost track of why it's valuable.
Earlier in this manual, the question was asked, "why do so many people intent on the best cultivation of life pursue the physical fighting arts?" The question was answered in one sense by the necessity for a strong base of physical fitness from which to develop more sublime expressions of emotional and mental energy. "Mens sana in corpore sano", said the Roman poet Juvenal. This is a fitting answer to how mental health depends on physical health, which explains the physical component of spiritual systems like yoga, for example, but it leaves unanswered the part of the question which specified fighting arts. How indeed does the study of combat and all its attendant skills aid one in spiritual growth and the fulfillment of individual potential?
The arts of war are a spiritual pursuit because of the resolve and the nerve it requires to plumb the depths of the self. This is where the saying that the true opponent in martial arts is one's self applies. Doing this requires not only the courage and conviction to be honest with oneself no matter what one discovers, but also the tenacity and discipline to persist with the process and to overcome the inertia that would keep one's life direction under the dominion of fears and desires. There is a struggle in any confrontation, even in just sparring, which is a metaphor for the struggle of life itself. Just as in any match, the mind becomes attached to outcomes of winning or losing, success and failure, and to the implications of these results on external personal identity and capability. In the highest levels of martial arts, we seek to train the mind so that it does not fixate on outcome, but steps out of its own way, and allows all aspects of a person to respond -and to fight- naturally. Uncannily, more often than not, it is the achievement of this state of mind which is the very recipe for the victory so earnestly craved before, and yet it is the very lack of attachment and mental preoccupation concerning it which brings it about. In facing the challenges of living, whether struggling with finance, dealing with grief, or questing after dreams, the same principles obtain.
Meditation and self cultivation are ways to achieve this, but accomplishment and familiarity with fighting and how to win at it can provide a momentum of self confidence fueled by precedent. From this, we must consider deeply whether we seek certain things because they are truly our heart's desire, because we have been conditioned to think such things are what we "should" want, or because we believe erroneously that such things will serve as substitutes for what we truly seek but think we cannot acquire, through lack of either ability or deservation. Likewise, we must remember always to question our reactions and motivations, to see whether we are serving ourselves sincerely or whether we are shirking from a confrontation because of fear. When daunting challenges rear up, we must decide whether to face them through reason and intuition alone; we must not recoil from them based on our emotional misgivings. And when through a sane appraisal of a challenge, we know that therein do our best possible interests lie, we must go forward into that storm, "in boca lupo", into the mouth of the wolf, for good or ill! This is the way of the scholar who is a warrior.
The potential for growth in this life is enormous. While to some extent, we all start with various strengths and weaknesses, the degree of natural deviation in individual "gifts" is nothing compared to the development that can be seen from determination and hard work. We all arrive with the same basic human composition, faculties, senses and roots, and there is so much to do, explore and experience. Treat your life not as happenstance, but as a precious endowment which is the raw material for an artistic masterpiece of YOUR creation. Work not because you lust after the abilities and advantages of one who has attained, but because to do so is a celebration of the wonder and beauty of yourself and this world.