“To the mind that is still, the whole universe surrenders.” — Lao-Tzu
“Meditation brings wisdom; lack of mediation leaves ignorance. Know well what leads you forward and what hold you back, and choose the path that leads to wisdom.” — Buddah
If we wish to make the mind receptive enough to the training we want to put it through then we first have to lay the groundwork in order for us to do that. Meditation is the corner stone of our mental and spiritual development and it is the foundation on which all the rest of our mind training exercises are built. It is therefore probably the most important aspect to any kind of mind training that we can do for it will enable us to reach the places in our minds that we need to reach in order change things and improve our performance as martial artists.
Mediation is obviously not new in the martial arts and indeed it has functioned as a vital part of martial arts philosophy and development right from the start. To a large degree its practice within the martial arts has made the martial arts themselves a spiritual and mental endeavor that lifts them above mere physical pursuit.
The art in martial arts largely came from the focused and calm minds of habitual mediators, visionaries who were able, through meditation practice, to see beyond mere physical technique and lend the martial arts a depth that very few other physical activities have.
Meditation offers us a way to view our souls and get a sense of what the universe is really like.
For anyone who may never have tried mediation for any length of time, what I just said there will sound completely ridiculous. How the hell do you see all that by sitting with your eyes closed for a while? I lay every night with my eyes closed and all I see are whacked-out dreams!
Well, the fact of the matter is that you do see these things for whatever reason. It’s almost a feeling of gradually coming awake and suddenly you can feel and sense and see these things about yourself and the world, things that are very helpful to you as a person. You begin to feel different, more alert, more focused and more conscious.
You become much more capable of doing things. You don’t feel so overwhelmed all the time.
You begin to establish a spiritual connection with yourself and the universe that goes above and beyond anything that our made up religions can offer. It’s actually meaningful.
All of that is perfectly achievable through regular meditation practice and all of it is commonly what most people experience when they seriously commit themselves to it.
Its benefits are more than just understanding and inner experiences; its benefits also affect the real world in which you live and operate, they make you better at the things you do normally in every day life, including martial arts.
Zen and the Martial Arts
Zen and martial arts share the development of Samadhi: one-pointed concentration (a state of consciousness beyond waking or sleep in which conscious mental activity ceases so to allow total absorption with the object of concentration).
To have deep Samadhi we have to allow all mental disturbances to cease – disturbances including anger, hatred, greed and so on.
Through the practice of regular meditation we are able to keep these mental disturbances under control enough that they don’t affect our outlook or performance in life.
As regards martial arts training the practice of Zen or meditation will better enable you to keep the negative emotions like fear and anger out of your practice. Technique should not be fueled by any particular emotion, especially anger, for it will corrupt the flow of it and lead to stiffness and lack of fluidness in your movements.
Your action in practice ought to be natural and spontaneous. Spontaneity is a word that is closely associated with Zen and with advanced practice of martial arts. The word was a favorite of Bruce Lee, but I think it’s often misunderstood. People sometimes take it to mean impulse. In reality, spontaneity is only possible after you get rid of hindrances (such as negative emotions) and become free of the disturbances they cause. Spontaneous action is not a matter of untrained impulse.
Advanced practitioners of the martial arts have assimilated all the technical advice into their bodies and minds, and in a sense are now able to act spontaneously. That’s apparent when you see someone who’s really good and who appears to move without thinking. They exhibit a great naturalness and that should be the goal of anyone trying to master technique.
Zen meditation then will greatly help you along the path to naturalness, to spontaneity and fluidness of movement. It will allow you to de-clutter your mind and help you go with the flow of whatever technique you happen to be performing.
As well as these primary benefits, the meditative state also affords you the opportunity to implant new ideas and positive beliefs and emotions into the mind in order to change the way you think of yourself for the better. This deep connection with the mind is essential to the impact of the exercises that will be brought in later on in this series.
Calming the mind in the way that meditation does, de-cluttering it of disturbances, makes the mind a fertile place for new positive mental growth, which will of course translate into improved martial arts performance.
Just to recap before we move on the meditation exercises, meditation enables one to calm the mind, clear it of mental disturbances and negative emotion and replace them with deep concentration and focus as well as the ability to be spontaneous in training. The advanced mental states achieved also allows one to relax deeply enough so that we may communicate with the subconscious part of the mind and reprogram it to our liking, updating the software found there so that it works with us and not against us.
How to Meditate
Meditation itself is not very difficult to do and with enough practice you will soon get used to any mental or physical discomfort that may occur. Just as in martial arts practice, meditation is a technique that must be practiced and refined in order to get it right and get the full benefits that we have talked about from it.
Begin by finding somewhere quiet where you won’t be disturbed for a while, like a room with no one in it. It doesn’t really matter where you go, as long as it’s an environment that is free of visual and auditory distractions, a place where you can sit and be alone with yourself and your mind.
Now there are no real set rules that govern the practice of meditation which means you can alter it to suit yourself. In terms of what position to adopt while actually meditating for instance, you can sit whatever way you wish. I personally like to do it from a kneeling position with the hands placed on top of the thighs, in much the same way as you would kneel in the dojo (as in the picture below). I just find this position the most comfortable.
Other people like to adopt the classic Zen position of sitting cross-legged with the hands cupped in the lap. Again, it is down to personal preference. If you wish to sit in a chair and meditate then do so. As long as you adopt a position that allows you to keep your back fairly straight and your breath flowing easily.
Lying on your back is not something I would recommend you do for your body tends to associate this position with rest and sleep and so you will quickly find yourself becoming too relaxed and you will probably fall asleep, which is not what we want to achieve.
What we want to achieve through meditation is a quiet mindfulness, which means that you will be more or less awake but relaxed enough that you will be able to dispassionately observe the goings on of your mind.
When you have adopted a position that you can sit in for a while, close your eyes and begin to breathe deeply through your nose, taking the breath all the way down into your belly until you feel it expand like a balloon. When the balloon is full release the breath through the mouth, allowing all the air to leave the belly until empty and then repeat. Do this type of deep breathing about ten times, feeling yourself relax with every breath, allowing any tension or negative emotion to drain from your body and mind.
At this point you can begin to breathe normally again or you can continue to take deep breathes. It’s really up to you. I tend to continue with the deep breathing for two reasons. One is that deep breathing in this fashion is very beneficial to your health, exercising the lungs and oxygenating the body. The second reason is that it gives me something to concentrate on so that I’m not dwelling on whatever thoughts happen to cross my mind.
The object of meditation at this point is simply to sit quietly and allow whatever thoughts happen to pop into your head (and there will be a deluge, especially at the beginning of your practice) to simply pass by. Many people think that you have to somehow empty your mind of thought, but this is impossible to do. Instead you simply don’t engage with your thoughts. You just acknowledge them for what they are and let them pass across the window of your mind.
You will most likely have difficulty at first in not engaging with your thoughts and you may even find yourself being drawn deeply into them for a time. If you find this to be the case all you have to do is simply shift your attention once again back to your breathing. Each time you feel your concentration shift, just bring yourself gently back to your breathing and don’t give yourself a hard time for loosing concentration. Remember, the point of meditation is to release yourself from negative emotion, not further add to it by being critical of yourself. Give yourself a break.
Start your sessions of by staying in meditation for about ten to fifteen minutes at a time twice a day, maybe once in the morning and once at night. I find this length of time sufficient to get the full benefits from the practice. As you get more advanced you can increase the amount of time you stay in the meditative state. Some people spend an hour at a time in it, it’s up to you.
One thing I will say is that you shouldn’t allow yourself to get too caught up in meditating. At the end of the day it is just a tool to help us along in life and you should spend most of your time engaging with reality as opposed to hours on end engaging with the wonders inside your head.
Meditation is an art in itself and what I have given you here is just the basics to get you started. If you want to take things further then I suggest you check out the work of Jack Kornfield, a guy who has spent the greater part of his life meditating and studying Zen. His books on the subject are the best I’ve found, as are the audio recordings of his seminars. He is funny, knowledgeable and very insightful when it comes to meditation. Check him out here.
Moving Meditation and the Martial Arts
Meditation can be practiced anywhere. It does not always involve sitting in a static position. It is possible to meditate while walking or running or doing any other activity such as martial arts.
At the end of the day meditation is about cultivating mindfulness and you don’t have to be sitting still to achieve this.
Indeed one of the best forms of meditation I have found is kata practice. The practice of kata requires one to be in that mindful state of awareness were we are totally in the moment, focused only on the movements of the kata and nothing else. The movements actually help one to dampen down the mental disturbances we talked about earlier so that we can reach that state of Samadhi, of ultimate concentration.
Zanchen kata is actually designed with this purpose in mind. The movements, done very slowly and deliberately, are perfectly synchronized with deep breathing, allowing one to fall into that state of complete focus and concentration until all else is blocked out of the mind. Mind and body are working in perfect harmony.
If the intention is there then you can bring this state of mindfulness to all of your training were nothing comes between you and the technique you are performing. The mind and body are effectively performing in unison, focused on the singular goal of a correct and unified performance of whatever technique you happen to be doing.
This translates into true Zen in the martial arts.
Mokso
Let me just end this article by mentioning the practice of Mokso, something many of you will be aware of already, especially the traditionalists amongst you. Mokso is something I’ve been doing ever since I started in the martial arts years ago.
Mokso is basically the act of remaining still, both inside and out. Very much like meditation it involves kneeling down and concentrating only your breathing, once again allowing your thoughts to pass you by unhindered.
Done at the beginning of class, Mokso allows you to get yourself calm and focused for the training ahead, giving you the mindfulness we talked about earlier.
Done at the end of class, Mokso allows you re-centre yourself and calm the mind and body after vigorous physical training so that you leave the dojo, not hyped up, but in a harmonious state.
If you don’t already practice Mokso in the dojo then I suggest you give it a try and see what a difference it can make to your mental state and your over all training.
And that’s it for now. Next time we will be talking about visualisation and how to use it to improve your training and the way you approach situations outside the dojo. Until then, keep meditating!
Further Resources:
Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind (Shambhala Library)
Zen Body-Being: An Enlightened Approach to Physical Skill, Grace, and Power
Warrior Wisdom: The Warrior’s Path
