Div.6 Chapter 42

There Is No Difference between a Weapon and Something Else

“Why is it that the one who prevails is not the one who has strength but the one who lowers his pose?”

“Because change flows from pride to humility just as water moves from up to down”.

There are various styles of martial arts in the world. At times, they use simply the bare hands and feet, at other times, they employ swords, spears or other such weapons in the struggle to subdue an opponent. Most people make clear distinctions between the variant forms of martial arts, but you, whoever you may be, can come to comprehend that everything is based upon the same ultimate principles. Therefore, while a sword differs from a spear and a hand from a foot, the motion of using one is same as all the others. It is a Taekwondo-Een, who perceives his sameness beyond his visible distinctions, and it is the Taekwondo-Een’s mind, that understands that sameness. Anything can serve as a weapon to such a Taekwondo-Een, who makes use of anything according to one principle.

What is a weapon? Every tool can be called a weapon if you use it to subdue your opponent. Such a weapon should always be like an extension of your body regardless whether that weapon is a hand or a foot you were born with or a sword or a bat that you have acquired. Forming a part of your body, the weapon should convey your intentions to the world. Thus, whether or not something can serve as your weapon depends on whether or not you can express your will freely through it.

Since a weapon in Taekwondo should be as a part of your body, you who practice Taekwondo ought to strengthen those muscles that unite it with your body, not only with powerful force but also with swiftness so that you can accord your mind with the changes of nature as you train your body. When you handle a weapon that does not belong to your natural body you should train and strengthen the particular parts of your hand before the weapon and your body will be able to share a life under controlled by your will.

In Taekwondo training your bones will be hardened and your joints strengthened despite the calluses that will often form on your hands and feet. Indeed, such calluses must form in the process of training your body to best express your will. When you handle a weapon such as a sword or spear you cannot avoid the blisters and muscle aches that are a result of your training to use them. This pain is a part of the unavoidable process of uniting the weapons with your body. They may be likened to the pains resulting from an organ transplant. They are the pains of adaptation and strengthening. However, you should also keep in mind that excess is never desirable, for excess will ruin the balance of your entirety, though in the short term it may strengthen your hands or feet using the weapon.

It is proper that you as a Taekwondo-Een should “weaponize” your entirety through weapons training. Life can be both its own best weapon and a lethal weapon against itself. Until you can handle and use a weapon as an extension of your own body through Taekwondo, the sword or the spear cannot obtain its own life as if it moves for itself via your hands. Without such expertise no good weapon can be employed. Not even a thousand weapons are as good as one weapon united with your body.