Div.6 Chapter 46

Beautiful Being in Action

“How can power come from temperance?”

“Because by way of temperance you can make your opponent opposed to the world. Temperance is the way of mediating between the power of Nature and him.”

Taekwondo that moves with the harmony of point, straight line and circle is in itself an art. What is art? Art is the activity of pursuing beauty and its results. Then what is beauty?

Ultimately beauty is derived from life and is conceived by life, and so beauty is nothing but a life’s perception of itself by way of another living thing. Beauty consists in the mutual sympathetic response between an intentional subject and its continuous pursuit of something; rather than simply in the object itself or the simple perception of it. Therefore, when one says something is beautiful the beauty in that something’s essence is not innate, not in the thing itself, but in one’s reaction to it. We may say that flowers are beautiful but their beauty finds life only in the attitude of the man who feels such beauty. An attitude is a potential action. The beauty in the essence of Taekwondo resides not in its figure itself but in you yourself practicing it. Such is it with dance as well.

As this is a general characteristic of beauty, the beauty of a striking piece of an art exists not in the very artwork itself but in your reaction to viewing it. Likewise, when you hear a moving piece of music, its power to move resides in your reaction to hearing it. Art is not something that exists in itself but something that is pursued, it is not an object but an activity.

Because beauty is essentially related to action, the matter of beauty is that of value. This beauty is an indicator of action, which is within all actions, guiding them in the right and true direction. Thus is it that all true beauty leads to moral virtue. There is no right way that is too arduous to follow. This is why they say: do not proceed where there is no way. Therefore, Taekwondo as a motion is close to the essence of beauty, and its beauty is not restricted by space, time or the visual and auditory senses. Its expanse is all of life.

The beauty of Taekwondo is composed of three elements: its harmony with nature, its clearness and its profundity based upon the oneness of simplicity and complexity. Lacking even one of these three, Taekwondo can be neither beautiful nor function as Taekwondo. By the same token, the complete performance of any one of them will be accompanied by all the others. Thus, a skilled movement of Taekwondo is beautiful and its beauty lies unperceived by of the senses yet felt by the mind. It is impossible to conceal true ability in Taekwondo from the eyes of the enlightened man.

In this manner, the performance of a good motion is always like an artful dance when viewed from the aesthetic perspective; a good sport when viewed from the viewpoint of excitement; and also as martial skill when viewed from the practical viewpoint of beating down an opponent.