The way of the true martial artist as well as the way of the mystic, is the way of stillness through loss. Their problem isn't what to create, how to get where they have to be, what to obtain, what to do, or what to stand for, but the problem is this: what is there to lose, and how to go about losing it?

How is the mystic martial artist to mute his loud self and return to the common ground of all souls, allowing that dimension of the immortal here and now to assume his form, and how to move while in that form is the problem. Paradoxically the only way to gain mastery is though the frustratingly slow course of humbly subduing the self in the fine art of loss. Resistance to this difficult, painful process of dispossession is arrogant and retards growth. It doesn't matter how hard you try to obtain proficiency, if you can't subdue your greed for gain, you won't accomplish your potential.

"Yield and become whole.
Bend and become straight.
Hollow out, and become filled.
Exhaust and become renewed..."--Lao Tzu

The reason that it takes so long to learn martial art is because the learning process demands that you alter your nervous system and the muscular-skeletal structure that it controls to learn even the most basic technique. You have to surrender your accumulated mental structure to learn any of the fundamental principles and philosophical concepts.

There's a correct way to learn, and at least half of learning is unlearning, loss of the inessential, and the remodeling of habitual but inefficient ways of thinking and moving. The process of loss is the first step in the necessary replacement of wasteful and destructive habits of postural structure, movements, breath and consciousness. Careful, intentional unlearning and loss increases your potential for further learning. Deliberate loss of destructive habits of body carriage allows proper, pain-free movement.

Cheng Man Ching said that the simple reason that everyone fell short of his enormous skill was that he had faith in the fundamental principal of soft technique (investment in loss) while others looked for a path to victory elsewhere. He had faith that the more he surrendered his pride or egotism (yielded to others in order to straighten things out) and the more he relaxed his mind and body (relaxation is the loss of tension), the more he would gain. Any goal is achieved by recognizing what obstructs it and then by figuring out how to overcome the obstructions. For instance, you don't "do" relaxation; become aware of what causes your excessive tension and lose it. Relaxation is the loss of tension and chi is the fulfillment of the vacated space. Likewise, the flow of chi is not actively gained. Lose the impediment to it and chi is what's left.

Morihei Uyeshiba the founder of Aikido said the the essence of Aikido is zero. How much do you have to lose to get to zero, the infinite imperishable still point?
Copyright 2004 by Jack Livingston