Div.7 Chapter 53

Having Yourself Empty at the End of Poomsae Training

“How should I control my breath?”

“Close your Ki while carefully observing your surroundings.”

Generally speaking, it would be a futile labor to attempt to grasp Taekwondo Poomsae only in words and thoughts. Instead, if you must try to understand Poomsae through the sweat of training and self-discipline, this is the sole path to the truth of TAEKWONDO. Though they may be related, concept and action are quite different. On the other hand, experience and understanding are directly related. Experience can be understanding itself.

When you perform Poomsae it is important to completely unify your spirit, having both power and tide in one, which is called “regulating Ki in its entirety”. Regulating Ki in its entirety does not at all mean always keeping your power and tide the same, but rather keeping them harmonious and consistent as an entirety. A beautiful song is harmonious and consistent though it may include fast and slow, high and low-pitched tones. You can obtain this by controlling your breath and concentrating your mind. Regulating Ki in its entirety, you can unite Sseuimsae and Sseuimnal, and further, complete each motion of Poomsae with completion. You can comprehend perfection through examining life.

When Ki is regulated in its entirety every motion of Poomsae arrives at its proper pose and speed considering in relation to an opponent, his physical condition, and the efficiency of one’s training. It is just as in dance, where every movement is related to the next, the whole comprising a unitary and rhythmical flow. Every movement in a skilled dance, even down to the finger, is always performed inclusively of a flow that follows the entire current of the dance. In this way, though it were a simple movement, it possesses great power because it moves with the entirety. Thus, a skilled dancer’s motion possesses power beyond its short reach; enough power to strike and fell an opponent with the skilled use of a hand or foot. Though the motion appears smooth it is the smoothness of a rolling rock, which can destroy a building with the power of its rolling from a distance. Try always to perform precise poses and to make every motion in its own distinctive speed with full meaning, like those in a good dance. Poomsae training then will be as difficult as any you will encounter, but through its successful completion one will very easily subdue an opponent. These reasons relate perfect dance to the martial arts (Mu-yae). Beauty and utility are the same at the level of immersion.

In performing Poomsae motions you should control every movement not by physical force but with your mind. Although you discern Sseuimsae and Sseuimnal in Poomsae by controlling them with your mind you can unify the two in one with the will of subduing an opponent. Then, whereas either Sae or Nal by themselves would be insufficient together they will now become mutually supportive. No matter how flexible a body might be it cannot be more flexible than a mind; no matter how quickly you might run you cannot move faster than a mind; and though you might have a hardened and powerful body it would be useless without a mind to govern it. Therefore, only when you control your mind at will can you accord the optimum smoothness, speed and power to each movement. When you unify your mind and body you will come to make the correct motions naturally and without restriction on the body’s power. This is the non-restriction of self.

The reason that Taekwondo-Een trains in Poomsae is not to gain something. At the end of Poomsae training there must be a complete emptiness, an abandonment of everything. It is impossible to attain non-restriction of self without the emptiness that comes from abandoning the self. When you have abandoned everything completely the unnecessary “you” will dissolve, leaving only nature, and then you will grasp that gaining is no different from abandoning. Thus, in training to master Poomsae and to achieve its true harmony, you should understand its formality first as technique and then train yourself in Poomsae through constant repetition and enlightenment. Then you will arrive at true Taekwondo.