Div.8 Chapter 59

Horizons without End

“What more do I now require?”

“You require more control of your mind”

The process Taekwondo training ought always to be that of overcoming your limitations. To surpass your limits is a transcendental discipline. In the process one will always encounter fear, pain and the temptation to make excuses; conquering these demands patience and fortitude. All of this constitutes character building. Strengthening your body, training your mind, and mastering Taekwondo are one.

Why is it that you should train yourself always in the pain of the transcendental discipline of Taekwondo? It is due to the limitlessness of life. There are no rules in life. If there were any, it would be the law of nature upon which man cannot infringe. The limitlessness of life is reflected in Taekwondo’s martiality (mu 무[武]). There are no rules as you face your opponent on the border of life and death. You can rely only at the level of transcendence on the oughtness that you should win the struggle. There is no knowing what cunning contrivances or cruel methods he may employ. There can be no plea after death. This is the limitlessness of Taekwondo.

This limitlessness of Taekwondo also supplies us with the reason we must obey rules in competition. If you cannot subdue your opponent in a fair play with full respect for the rules of competition, neither could you subdue him in a fight without rules. If you cowardly disregard rules in competition it implies you could not avoid death in a free fight. The rules of competition are those of civilized humanity. They exist for the sake of what man desires to do, which is to preserve himself. Nature cares nothing for man. You as a Taekwondo-Een must exhaust all the frailty of life and the anguish of defeat in the pain of transcendental discipline. It is a choice.

Your limitations are the realm and the boundary of all you can do. This realm will expand every time you exceed them. The total of what you can do reflects your own size. To exceed one’s limitations, though it may seem paradoxical, is nevertheless possible for a Taekwondo-Een through the power of his will, his fortitude, and the patience that arises from his reverence for life.

Through Taekwondo training you will experience and come in direct contact with the most positive aspects of man’s essence – and ironically, in the process come to recognize your own limitations. And because your limits are extended every time you train, you must meet those limitations every time in order to surpass and overcome them.

Through Taekwondo training you should transform your self, while preserving what you are at the same time. Thus, Taekwondo training for everyone is one of life’s never-ending processes. This implies that its ends and means are one. The entire meaning of life – true happiness, absolute strength, and so forth, are immanent in it, where the ends and the means become one.

Therefore, your training process, no matter how it is constituted, can be divided into two steps. The first is to attain your limits, which advance with time, and the second is to then overcome them. These two steps cannot actually be discerned in one.

Every person’s limitations can be characterized in various ways and the limitations in each aspect are woven with others to form the overall limitation state. You should conquer one of them to advance over it like a stepping stone to the next, and thus eventually overcoming all. This entire limitation state is but yourself, whom you encounter every time you practice Taekwondo. He is your eternal opponent.

In some cases you will encounter a limitation state that seems impossible to surmount with the power of your will alone. For example, what would you do if your reaction were not quick enough? The method for overcoming every limitation state is given in one, because you are yourself a single entirety. Therefore, your limitations are also as a single entirety, thus, overcoming all means overcoming one.

Therefore, to conquer the above mentioned limitation you need simply practice basic reaction exercises. You should attain tranquility of mind and control of your life in the course of this overcoming process. Only then can you be content with the technique of killing.