between when we engage in the practice of Meditation? Moreover, what part does it play in Martial Art?
In the practice of Meditation, we are trying, via our attention, to facilitate a connection between the mind and body, which is the foundation that holistic self-defence is built upon. It has been said, in various ways and in many different traditions and teachings, that humans have two bodies: the physical body and, for want of a better phrase, ‘the body of attention’. Our physical bodies are rooted in the present moment and, as the laws of time and space govern them, cannot be anywhere else. However, the body of attention is not rooted in the present moment but has the ability to project itself into the past, the future (through use of the memory or imagination) and/or to a different place (than the physical body). This is commonly known as daydreaming and occurs frequently, for example, how many times have you found yourself turning the page in the book that you are reading to find that, while your eyes read the words, your mind was elsewhere and did not register them? Your physical body had not moved but had remained sitting, continuing the task it had been given (reading), but your body of attention had disappeared to another place in time. The work of the meditative process is to bring the body of attention back into the physical body and to strengthen their connection so that they are less likely to separate so easily. It is only when the physical body and the body of attention are together that we can truly enter into the present moment and receive the many and varied impressions, both from inside and outside, available to us. I cannot emphasize enough the profoundness of this connection and its importance in applying Martial Art to life.
Awareness and Presence
The type of Meditation that is presented here is what I would call Dynamic Meditation and has been specifically developed for the purpose of holistic self-defence. Unlike most usual forms of Meditation, which are done in a sitting or lying position, Dynamic Meditation is done supporting your own weight in a standing position. It is broken down into two complementary halves: Inner and Outer Meditation. Inner Meditation deals with the connection to various aspects of our physicality via our attention – each aspect brings a particular quality or skill to self-defence techniques. Outer Meditation develops the devices we use to receive impressions from the outside world: the senses. Before bringing the two halves together to form one whole awareness, they should first be studied and developed separately, but together they form the basis for the first two lines of defence: awareness and presence.
1 Awareness, along with presence, is the first line of defence. If we are not aware that something is attacking us then we cannot apply any intelligence to protect ourselves from it. Awareness is twofold – we have awareness of the physical world around us, but also an awareness of what is going on inside ourselves, such as muscular tension, emotional agitation or internal conversation. By meditating we are bringing the inner and outer aspects together into what the American Indians sometimes describe as a ‘seamless web of awareness’. This web functions as an early warning system so that we are not surprised by an attack; it is like radar, or a scout listening to the ground for the sound of approaching hooves. A certain degree of awareness will always be present in the body – many of our instinctive defence mechanisms are triggered by an almost unconscious awareness but this unconscious awareness only goes so far. In terms of what we are trying to study in this book, we wish to understand the mechanics of awareness and to develop this potential.
2 Presence is really the aforementioned balance between the body, mind and spirit, for when these three aspects of our being come into harmony and we are ‘present’, a tangible force emanates. Presence starts with the ability to allow some degree of attention to return to your physical body (“come to our senses”), not daydreaming or engaging in internal conversations but feeling your body at this moment in time. This is suggested in the very word ‘presence’: to be ‘present’, or ‘presense’ (what comes before the senses). Thus, without attention in the body, in other words if the attention is not connected to the senses, you cannot ‘open’ to the present moment, which is the only place that the relationship between your body, mind and spirit can be forged and maintained.
Through the process of Meditation we aim to strengthen this heightened state of awareness and presence. We aim to bring the body, mind and spirit into a state of integration to act as a safeguard, because when we feel fearful, anxious or stressed the relationship between the body, mind and spirit has a tendency to disintegrate. An example of this occurred when I was younger and living in Oxford, England. One day I was sitting on a bus when it stopped outside Queen’s College and a then quite famous mathematician boarded. In those days it was imperative to have ready the exact price of the bus ticket, but the professor fumbled in his pocket for the change and took a little longer then the driver would have liked, and was informed of this in no uncertain terms. Immediately, the professor became visibly agitated, mumbling half apologies, turning bright red and sweating. He peered intensely into the hand that held his change and finally handed over the money to the bus driver. However, he had counted the money incorrectly, which further irritated the driver who, cursing, grabbed our poor professor's hand and counted the money out. Here was a bus driver counting for an Oxford professor of mathematics! The impression of this exchange struck me greatly and seemed to really illustrate the debilitating effects that fear can have on us. The poor professor became so disintegrated that he could not even perform the most basic of mathematical calculations. When he was verbally attacked by the bus driver he went into a mild state of shock that disturbed the balance between his body, mind and spirit and rendered his formidable intellect useless.
We all have a certain balance between these three primary energies in the body but, for the most part, the balance is very fragile and we know little to nothing about how it operates. Everyone has one of these areas that is more active than the others, some people are considered intellectual, others more emotional, while still others are more physical. If you have not already started to do so, think about some of the people in your life, including yourself, and you will begin to see what I mean. It is possible through the process of Meditation to become aware of how these forces behave within you and to participate in the process of balancing them. This is one of the reasons why in traditional Kung Fu training, emphasis was placed not only on the fighting skills but also on skills such as calligraphy, music and healing, each demanding a slightly different emphasis on the body, mind and spirit. Whenever we are attacked in any way there is a tendency for the relationship between the body, mind and spirit to disconnect; sometimes we can manage to ‘pull ourselves together’, but at other times we cannot and we ‘go to pieces’, ‘fall apart’, ‘come unstuck’ or ‘lose our head’. If through the regular practice of Meditation we can develop a movement towards integration, strengthening our attention in the body, then we will have a very useful tool that we can call upon when we need it in our lives. The point is that we can strengthen this relationship between the body, mind and spirit just as we would a muscle and by so doing we add a very real and tangible weapon to our arsenal. Therefore, I am not presenting Meditation as a vague notion or practice, but as a practical study. For this to occur you must first gain some understanding of the internal aspect of Meditation.
The Basic Stance
Before beginning the practice of Meditation it is important to define the physical stance that you are going to adopt in order to meditate. The Chinese call this stance the ‘Mar Bou’ or ‘horse-riding stance’, and a variation of it exists in every martial art that I have ever studied. As my Martial Art studies continued, I realized that there was only one correct way for this stance to be taken in order to locate the body’s centre of gravity at the Tan T'ien, channel gravity correctly through the skeleton and finely tune the physiological balancing mechanisms in the body. When you stand correctly in Mar Bou the force of gravity holding you to the planet and your bodies center of gravity are brought together. The force of gravity holds us to the planet and holds the planets in orbit to each other and is a force of incomprehensible magnitude yet we can experience it directly as it flows through us. Every physical object has a center of gravity that is a place where the force of gravity predominates or concentrates when these two aspects (the force of gravity and it’s center of gravity) are not aligned then the
