Div.5 Chapter 34

Hitting the Opponent with Everything of Yourself

“I want to subdue him, but I have fear.”

“That is why you should arouse your indignation.”

An attack in Taekwondo begins with moving one’s mind. Therefore, as a Taekwondo-Een who follows the way of Haneul (Heaven), you should attack with everything maintained in its proper position, and you should strike an opponent with everything of yourself. You must move and arrange all parts of your body even down to your slightest motion.

Though the tip of a whip moves softly and slightly it can deliver searing pain to a man’s flesh. This is so because not only the tip but the entire extended body of the whip moves in union to generate the slight movement of its tip. Despite identical beating, the sound of a large drum is greater and carries further than that of a small drum due to the wide empty space within, which amplifies its vibration to a powerful resonance. Without very deliberate consideration no words can touch another’s heart, and so the words of a Saint or Prophet differ from those of a common man. Following such principles, your attack should strike an opponent with your entire body not merely with the hands or feet. And it should be performed with your intention and tide, and not merely with the movement of muscle and bone.

Accordingly, a correct attack in Taekwondo means hitting an opponent as a part of the earth if you are standing on the earth, and hitting him as a part of the sky if you are in touch with empty space. When you hit an opponent as a part of the earth your power is like the impact of the earth, and when you hit him as a part of the sky your power is like all changes of the universe concentrated to a point. Therefore, it is possible for you to subdue your opponent though your size is small and his one is imposing.

When you attack an opponent you should first thrust him with your killing spirit; next catch him with your piercing sight; and finally subdue him with your motion. The world is the mind. However changeful he may be he cannot alter as much as the mind; and however speedy he may be he cannot escape the reach of your sight. Therefore, there is no one you cannot subdue once you reconcile intention, sight and movement in one. This is why you can subdue any opponent with Taekwondo, however speedy he may be.

In touch with the earth when you make a Taekwondo attack you are merely mediating the power of the earth in your blow. At this moment, you should keep a firm attachment to the ground, erasing yourself so that you move with the weight of the whole earth to strike your blow. The earth is alive. Therefore, in your motion even the smallest parts help each other in a harmony of delicate vitality.

In touch with empty space, when you make a Taekwondo attack, you exist as a concentration of all the changes of the universe and as the man who controls it. At this moment, you complete your balance like the essence of cosmic change, picturing yourself so that you embody your will in every change to strike with all of them. The universe lives with freedom. Therefore, every part of your whole body is to be open and free of all restrictions.

Here you are no different from what you are not. Your motion is smooth and without angles like a circle where this part and another part constitute one. The motion is so quick and sudden that it is unseen and momentary since it is like a point which is empty where its being is the same as non-being.

For all of them you as a Taekwondo-Een should be able to strain all the nerves of your body with the mind of Mu Nyom Mu Sang – “freedom from all of ideas and thoughts” (무념무상[無念無想]), always remaining fully relaxed. Only then will the opponent fall into opposition to the world, which you can mediate with harmony since you are harmonized with his opposition with no opposition.

Your body, which makes all of this possible, should be so strong that its muscles are tougher than those of an ox. Your pose, once made, should be as firm as a stone. Your sudden motion should be swifter than a popping spring. It is certainly not the brittleness of rotting wood but only the solidity of stone that can mediate the effective opposition between the earth and your opponent. It is assuredly not the weak thin thread but only the sturdy leather strap that can suspend a heavy iron weight.

Since in Taekwondo one should strike an opponent with everything of oneself, even one’s slightest motion should include every movement of one’s body. When you move your entire body with your strike the strength of the motion is owing to this abundant movement. However, the motion is also slight and quick because the entire motion is distributed to and shared by each part of the body. In addition, since every part moves together as one the motion is both natural and invisible. The opponent will be defenseless against it.