Div.7 Chapter 55

Attaining Anything through Simplicity

“On what sort of training should I focus?”

“Among all that I have taught you, that which you like least to practice.”

Correct Taekwondo training means mastering techniques for your body and completing your spirit by achieving those techniques to perfection, and ultimately to arrive at the Do beyond distinctions in the process. All of them can be obtained sufficiently through basic motions. This is possible because the basic motions, though simple, contain boundless principles. In this basic motion, nothing will be obtained if you ignore any factor, however trivial it may seem. TAEKWONDO is very simple. It is in one, and in nothing more than one. A correct principle reveals itself only in exact motions.

Nothing must be ignored however trivial it may seem because the meaning of a basic motion is multi-dimensional. If you interpret some things as trivial in training based upon your inadequate knowledge you will gain little. For example, the correct pose of Juchum Seogi consists not simply in taking a low pose, nor is its purpose confined to strengthening particular leg muscles. Turning your waist in Dollyeo Chagi is neither simply to develop a more powerful kick nor to make the kick deeper and more beautiful. The basic motions are in the truth related to every skill and ideal of Taekwondo. Therefore, when you practice the basic motions you should do so precisely, following each and every specification as if counting. Most important is to repeat them constantly until you are transformed into the basic motions themselves rather than a conscious performer of them. How is it possible to make yourself into a motion? It would be tedious to practice a basic motion a hundred times. But it would be rather interesting to repeat it a thousand times; continue up to ten thousand and you will obtain naturality; practice still further and you will obtain Taekwondo entire. Then you can transform into the motion itself.

There are three points you have to keep in your mind in practicing the basic motions: distinctness, accordance and stability.

What should be distinct? You must distinguish go from stop; emptiness from fullness; before from after; and up from down. Distinctness comes from distinction. Since Taekwondo understands the ultimate non-distinctive nature of reality and transcends it, it accepts the illusion of distinctions over discernment of the true and false, so it has the correctness of basic motions relying on its distinctness. This distinctness generates the foundation for everything to be kept in its proper place, which is the principle of basic motions related to the way of Haneul.

What should be accorded? You have to maintain your intention accorded with your sight; sight with hand and foot; and hand and foot with waist. For this accordance you should keep tide, center movement, and hand and foot accorded in a motion. When you kick, you must accord your foot and waist; when you use your hands, your hand and shoulder. In this complete accordance of all you can harmonize with the world and have an opponent opposed in relation, which refers to the way of Tang.

What should be stable? You should keep your center, breath and mind stable, so that your balance is settled with integrity of vitality. This is the not-losing yourself within continuous change, which refers to the way of Saram.

In order to attain all that you must maintain in basic motions you should perform them with three teachings in mind: large movement, low center, and breathing accordance.

You should make large movements, not because such motions are always actually useful but because through them you can obtain another important thing. This is that it will enable you to concentrate your entirety even during a slight motion, or to always move with your entirety. When you become accustomed to moving with your entirety you can make distinction, accordance and stability with greater ease. If you always make large movements with every motion you cannot but move as many parts of your body as possible, and also establish that way of motion in yourself. And then, when these ways become settled completely as your own ways, you can make even the slightest motion with your entire body.

You should keep your center low, because, just as a plant must spread its roots deep in the earth before it can hope to grow upward, so is it natural that your training advance and your entirety become strengthened from a firm center. The center of your body can be firm through strengthening the waist and legs that support it. Only then can even a slight motion be powerful enough to subdue an opponent. Every physical movement flows by way of the waist to the hands and feet, legs and arms. This is why your waist and legs should be as firmly planted as if you and the earth were one, if you are to subdue an opponent with the force of the earth’s collision.

You should also make every correct movement of Taekwondo with your breath alone. Taekwondo motions are but condensed expressions of all man’s biological processes; and breath is the core of life. You should move with a simple oneness, the harmonized oneness of Taekwondo. Your breath and your motion are but different aspects of the same thing. Therefore, if you breathe correctly you will discern no hardness in any basic pose. Correct breath means not just breathing with your mouth, nose, or lungs but with your entire body. When you breathe correctly all your vital processes will be managed properly with no superfluous effort. Perfect pose and motion always demand perfect breathing. With correct breathing pose and motion become animate.