Martial Thoughts

Martial arts and healing arts seem to be polar opposites--one is hurting and the other is healing. Why even mention the two in the same breath? For starters, just because it's unthinkable. There's a pervasive perception of healers as soft, codependent, afraid of conflict of any kind; a perception that needs to be challenged.

“Pushing Hands” with Arthur Goodridge, Tai Chi Teacher

Actually there's a long-standing tradition among the serious martial arts that players at a certain level have to learn healing modalities as well as self-defense. It's all about balance. At the crudest level is the "You break it, you fix it," concept, and there are plenty of opportunities to treat injuries in the dojo. But it goes much further than this. in fact both groups have a lot to learn from each other.

It's important to roughly distinguish between the "external" and "internal" martial arts. In the external arts (boxing, karate, etc.) the emphasis is on strength, conditioning and speed. In the internal arts (aikido, tai chi, ba gua, etc.) the emphasis is on balance, sensitivity, strategic retreats and general deception--one prevails by reading, respecting, and redirecting the opponent's strength and speed. It is this latter standpoint that informs Neural Touch.

What are the similarities between martial and healing arts?

• Familiarity with the human body is important--its strengths and weaknesses, joint ranges of motion, etc.
• Posture, good body ergonomics, and a relaxed application of pressure are important to practitionrs of both.
• The contact or pressure points are virtually the same--all that differs is the intention.
• Calmness in the face of "battle." Actually, in one sense, it's never really your battle, but if you're not careful you can get drawn in emotionally.
• Serious matters are at hand. Disease and health. Life and death. Are you able to see and release your attachments:
  To an opinion
  To an approach
  To being right
  To succeeding in a certain time-frame
  
  • Everything keeps changing. Forces and tensions don't sit and wait for you. You have to adapt and patiently, doggedly follow and wait for your opportunities.
  • There is an unmistakable intimacy that must be acknowledged and dealt with.
  • Focus is extremely important. Kumar Frantzis, a monstrously proficient martial player, says that he assumes that every opponent is faster, stronger and better trained than he is. Then the only way he can prevail is by being more alert and aware. This also indicates the power of humility.
  • Softness does not mean weakness. Softness is a tactic.When hardness is appropriate it should be employed as well. It's just not as useful since hardness alerts the defenses.
  • Softness means that you are fighting a battle
  on a smaller scale than your opponent realizes. Since no defensiveness is triggered, you can effortlessly undermine the opponent's strength.
  • No direct frontal attacks. Misdirection and confusion work much better. You don't try to change your opponent. Rather, change yourself in relation to him.
  
  Willem De Thours, Master of over 80 Martial Arts
  

  Did the word "opponent" upset or confuse you? Good! Upsets and paradoxes will always be there to be acknowledged and transcended. The client is not an opponent. The opponent is the disease, or tension the client is housing. Or, more accurately, the opponent is the dysfunction or aberation or misunderstanding that has crystalized into tension and disease. In the martial arts, there is a similar imbalance or dysfunction that would make someone want to attack you in the first place. In either case, with the determination and patience of a trial lawyer you need to systematically destroy the logic of the misconception, and then sit back and let the jury decide.

  And from the outside, it all looks so gentle!

  
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U.S. Bowen
Gene Dobkin, Director
999 S. Santa Fe Ave, #23
San Jacinto, CA 92583
seminars@usbowen.com
Phone - (951)-654-9907
Fax - (951) 602-6010