Div.7 Chapter 48

Seeing Motion at a Standstill

“Why is it they do not move but only glare at each other?”

“Do you not see the many movements of their minds?”

Your Taekwondo ability reveals itself even in each of your trivial motions, and is manifested as well in your pose when you do not move. The mind of a Taekwondo-Een can see and feel it. TAEKWONDO is in its motions. Then how is it possible that the figure of Taekwondo is also found in one’s stable pose?

Just as a line is more than a series of points, so is a movement more than a series of stable poses through particular spatial points. A motion cannot be composed only of a strung series of stable poses. How can a rock, when rolled forward moment by moment in a series of stable positions, ever be the same as a rolling rock? The difference between motion and non-motion is not a matter of degree but a matter of essence. A bead is not at rest when it is rolling, no matter how slow it may roll. Thus, in the change between motion and non-motion you should make, though invisible, a continuous series of concealed movements. The world is already full of movement and continuous change amidst which a man makes his living. Therefore, a pose of Taekwondo, though it reveals no outward motion, is ever in constant unseen motion.

Making a pose you reveal only a little or no actual motion, because you have to arrange and adapt yourself to the change of surroundings without confusion. This standstill, however, contains a critical tension between you and your opponent that is on the very verge of exploding, and it is in fact no different from a motion. This is why you tire even just watching out for your opponent. In the whole of your activity you should meet yourself in a standstill that contains movement and meet your opponent with a movement that contains standstill. This is Taekwondo. And you who watch yourself and face your opponent with such Taekwondo are a Taekwondo-Een. Therefore, recreating a form with nothing more to it, this cannot be the essence of the Taekwondo pose. Now, subduing an opponent and protecting oneself is the essence of the Taekwondo pose. Therefore, even when you remain in a pose without movement you keep open the possibility of change in every part of that pose, and when you make continuous motion you always establish a consistent self.

In this manner, a pose is an expression of your mind into a certain figure through the body. A good pose consists in an accordance of mind and body, while a bad one lacks such accord. Your pose reveals the possibility of your movements. Between the subject of recognition and its object the possibility determines the reality. Therefore, your pose determines your motions and reveals your ability.

There are three factors you must keep in mind in observing the opponent’s pose. The first is his center, the second is his sight, and the third is his intention. Observing the location of his center you can guess which foot or hand he will use in his attack and how far that attack will reach; observing his sight you can determine his target; and reading his intention you can recognize how he wants to deceive you. If you fail to read his intention, even if you pay close attention to his sight, you can be easily deceived. If you observe only his center yet fail to catch his sight you will expose yourself to unexpected attack. Thus, you should penetrate his center and sight at a glance and must not lose them, and you should be able to read what he intends by an instinct. This is possible only when you open your mind. You must see yourself with a mind directed to your opponent and protect yourself with a mind of helping him.

In Taekwondo, making the pose for Kyorugi against your opponent is to strain oneself to the full. Yet despite this extreme strain, a sufficient capacity of your pose must be preserved without strain so that your body is soft and in a relaxed state with your mind concentrated and composed. The tight strain exists between you and an opponent and in relation to the world. Therefore, it must be in the world and in you, yet it must not be in your bones and muscles. The strain that is neither in the bones nor muscles but in the self is that of your entirety. The bones and muscles should be prepared for a reconciliation of this total harmony. What a tremendous strain that must be!

Thus, a good Taekwondo pose is like having concealed bombs all about you, so that you are prepared to explode – in your fist, kick, and trunk – at any time and as soon as an opponent attacks. But nothing is visible. Gunpowder is merely a sort of dust that reveals nothing of its potential flame or explosion in its original form. Such must be the concealed strain of Taekwondo.

On the other hand, a good bomb does not easily explode even with an unexpected shock. However, its explosive power, which is triggered by the appropriate shock from its own percussion lock, is remarkable when it comes. The pose of a Taekwondo-Een should be like this, not only in practicing Taekwondo but in all of life. And the percussion lock of a Taekwondo-Een is nothing less than his moral judgment. This sort of correct Taekwondo pose, which is both strained and not strained, differs from your daily self in that it contains more possibility in every part and the standing point of a Taekwondo-Een is one pole in his relation to the world. At the same time, it is the same as his daily self and so, it never reveals itself outwardly.