Head in the Clouds Brings Clarity

I wrote the following while I was flying back from Tennessee a couple weeks ago, and I just now found the time to type it up in a blog.

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Airplanes are a great place to reflect, think through problems or issues, make plans, and even meditate. Put on a set of headphones and relax. You can't go anywhere for a while, so why not figure some things out or sit and do nothing for a while.

I feel like so much of life, at least for myself and many people I know, is always on the move. "There's always more to strive for..." True, but what about taking a moment to breathe and live purely in the moment? How many of us actually "empty our cup," as followers of Zen call it? Let go of our preconceived ideas, forget the knowledge we have obtained, and truly open our minds to fully experiencing something new and different with absolutely ALL of our attention?

There are martial arts masters who claim that true learning can only begin when our minds are clear of all that we have learned before. The three stages of learning are:

1. Stage of Innocence
2. Stage of Art
3. Stage of Alertness

Innocence is the beginning--you have emptied your cup and you are ready to learn.

Art is the process of consciously learning and working to master skills and abilities--that's where we are now. At this stage, repetition and attention to detail are highly important, as is accepting criticism.

Alertness is mastery--you "have mastered skills to a certain degree that you no longer have to consciously think about them. You just do."

There are many ways to describe a state of being, and you can experience it with many activities. We have chosen martial arts as a way to reach some level of mastery--weather on a physical level, or for some, an emotional and spiritual level. Each of us is working to find it in a different way and to different extremes. If we work hard enough and keep in mind what it takes to reach our goals, our highest potential, our peak level of performance, then we have actualized a level of mastery in our own way.

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(the rest of this is from reflecting tonight's training)

We cannot forget the first stage of learning along the way...have you emptied your cup yet? When learning a new style, do you let go of what you learned before?

When learning the difference between a mauy thai kick and a tae kwon do kick, or the differences between the stances? KJN and SBN and BSBN are constantly pointing out that we are not kicking correctly or in the correct stance for kick boxing. Next time we train kick boxing, remove the tae kwon do technique and really focus on learning what the mauy thai technique is really supposed to be. Empty your cup and pretend you have never learned martial arts before in your life, and really listen to what they are saying and look at what they are demonstrating. I'm challenging myself to do this, and I'm challenging you to do it as well.

You cannot reach the second and third stages without climbing the first, and you can only do it one step at a time.