Catching your
Opponent with Full Bait and Empty Trap
“What is Samjae?”
“The foundation of all distinction.”
As
you know what form your motions should take, and you recognize what points you
should attack and what points you should not, then, riding the flow of Heo and
Sil[1],
the attack on your opponent can succeed.
What
are Heo and Sil? That whose appearance in no way reflects intended reality is
termed “Heo”. That which is filled with an intention to act regardless of its
appearance is termed “Sil”.[2]
As you know, the “I” is empty, so there can be no constant substantial subject
of pursuit so that the counter change of Heo and Sil in every case continues
without cease relying on its emergent conditions and on what you and your
opponent’s wills intend. This change is limitless and without perfect
completion, so that it can be compared to the yin and yang of Yeok.
Distinguishing something and intending to act are qualities only of Saram (man)
who possesses his own will. Therefore, Heo and Sil are to be discerned with
division to a rise or fall of each. Nature, on the other hand, is so
unintentional as to distinguish nothing for itself, so that Heo and Sil are
mixed in infinite change and there is neither that which is not Heo nor that
which is not Sil. Therefore, the existence of each is also boundless. It is
because a Taekwondo-Een seeks to imitate this virtue of Nature that he erases
himself so as to delete all distinctions in what he desires.
Why
is it difficult to attack and subdue one’s opponent without riding change and
the flow of Heo and Sil? This is so because the opponent whom you face in
Taekwondo is no mere object like a stone or block of wood but a living and
moving being, having in mind both what he intends and what he wishes to avoid.
To live is to adapt. The infinite capacity of adaptation is the very substance
of life. Since one’s opponent adapts himself to change in pursuing what he
desires, you can subdue him with ease only after you have restricted his
adaptation along the flow of Heo and Sil. This is the difference between
catching a fish and taking hold of a mere stone in the water.
How
does one ride the flow of HeoSil? Only after you understand it can you know how
to ride it. Emptiness of what you intend to do is Heo while its fullness is Sil.
On the other hand, what is to be filled is Heo while what is to be emptied is
Sil. Therefore, Sil is followed by Heo as Heo is by Sil. Likewise, Heo contains
Sil as Sil contains Heo. Neither of them can be ultimately distinguished; you
can have Heo as Sil and Sil as Heo, and it is so changeful that each of both
follows including the other, which makes the flow of HeoSil.
As
you grasp both the nature of Heo and Sil you can ride the flow of HeoSil in
three ways. First, have your tide and balance empty saving your distance with a
faint motion of no fullness, on the one hand, while on the other hand,
preparing yourself for the following motion in your rhythm, i.e. having
form-filled motions concealed by faint motions. Second, you should tempt the
opponent into your full blind spot by both erasing and picturing yourself to
have him opposed to the world, which is to putting full bait into an empty
trap. Third, you should have your empty self opposed to him while controlling
yourself with your full self at the same time, and thus to have Heo as Sil and
Sil as Heo so that you catch the difference between his Heo and Sil with the
aid of the sameness of your Heo and Sil.
These
three ways of subduing your opponent by riding the flow of HeoSil are both the
same and different. As you come to understand TAEKWONDO you will come to
realize such sameness. If you master the control HeoSil in this manner you will
be familiar with distance in Taekwondo. For Sil is owing to what you want to
do, which, when emptied, makes Heo, so that you can be at once both close to
your opponent with Sil and distanced from him with Heo. Therefore, the distance
between two Taekwondo-Een is in continuous flux even when they maintain their
respective positions like posts.
Ideal
motion in Taekwondo, which rides the flow of HeoSil, always avoids the
opponent’s Sil while striking at his Heo, and turns your Heo to Sil along the
continuous change. Seeking the Heo of what he thinks, you should find it
through a balance of simplicity and complexity. Seeking the Heo of his motion
you should create out of the harmony of the slow and fast. All of these, when
coupled with one another, make the ‘preceding attack’ with the ‘counter
attack’, and generate ‘faint motion’ with ‘filled motion’.
What
is termed “preceding attack” precedes the opponent’s filled preparation so as
to strike at his Heo in a fast tide. The preceding attack should precede three
things: his motion, his waiting, and his expectation. What is termed “counter
attack” harmonizes you with his attack of big change in HeoSil so as to strike
his empty point with that of which you are full. The counter attack also should
catch three things: the crevice of his motion, that which he failed to consider
in his preparation, and that which is not firm in his tide.
There
is a motion, of which the figure is full, yet of which the substance is empty;
and thus which is not an attack even though it appears as such and which is not
a defense even though it appears as such. We call this “a faint motion”. On the
other hand, there is also a motion, which is a sharp attack on his core and
which can also be a worthy defense despite its appearance. We call this a “a
filled motion”. Every motion, even if it be a faint motion, can be transformed
into a filled motion without confusion whenever needed. Similarly, every filled
motion can also be emptied whenever needed, when there is no distinguishing a
faint motion from a filled motion. This is performing both Heo and Sil in a
movement.
As
when you strike a Heo in his motion you can precede the motion, and when you
precede his expectation you can strike the Heo of his thinking so there is no
difference between preceding his preparation and striking his empty part with
your fullness. There is also no difference between a preceding attack and a
counter attack.
The
principle that rules every change of HeoSil can be summed up in a single
clause: to strike your own Heo in order to subdue the opponent. The best way to
deceive your opponent is to deceive yourself, and if you want to change the
world you should begin by transforming yourself. In this way, you can subdue
him without mistake because you are rather empty truly scattered as you know
your own Heo allowing it, which is again a perfect Sil. Even if each of Heo and
Sil appears different to those who make blind distinctions, ultimately each is
not distinct from the other, and its fundamental essence is the Heo in no
willing of Nature.[3]
But in the willing of man the fundamental essence is Sil. Therefore, you can
obtain useful Heo only after you have obtained Sil through continuous training.
This is no different than the principle which states you can transcend
distinction only after you have understood distinction.
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