Only man is benevolent, while Nature (jayeon) is indifferent.
This is called jayeong
(Physis).[1]
The
roughness of a mountain is suffering itself, while just beside it can be found
the ease and comfort of those who do not climb its heights but dwell in its
protective bosom. You can encounter the peacefulness of those taking a rest
next to the severe thirst of others who run to and fro under the blazing sun.
In this same manner, you can always find the temptation of comfort next to the pain
of the transcendental discipline of a Taekwondo-Een. Why does a Taekwondo-Een
continue such a painful struggle for transcendental discipline? Easy comfort is
but a manifestation of death. Life is ever the process of distancing oneself
from death; it is a continuous change and activity. The strain accompanying
change is suffering. Life is struggle itself.
Taekwondo
has its roots in the border between life and death. This border between life
and death is the net that closes increasingly in around life from outside. But
the net has neither inside nor outside. A Taekwondo-Een exits the net
continuously to begin again from a new inside of the net. Taekwondo involves
the process of escaping the boundary between life and death towards life; and
further more, implies transcendence over the entire relationship. A Taekwondo-Een
pursues life and in the process transcends it. This is transcendence to the inside
of life.
Why
is it that the net closing in on life has neither inside nor outside? Why does
a Taekwondo-Een fight on the boundary between life and death? It is because the
world that includes Taekwondo is also opposed to Taekwondo. Put another way,
you inhabit the world while fighting with that world. In the opposition to
yourself you are the other and the other is you. You as a Taekwondo-Een are in
the world, yet having your own life, you also struggle against the world. That
struggle can take on an infinite number of faces, there are countless ways in
which Taekwondo and the world can be involved with one another. Life is an unavoidable
fight, so you who practice Taekwondo should plunge into it to the very end of
your limits through a transcendence to the inside of life. There you can
experience the realm where Taekwondo is, accepting life with pleasure. Whenever
you surpass your limits in Taekwondo you enlarge the sphere of your own
existence.
The
process of Taekwondo training is that of life compressed. What makes you live
in spite of all sufferings? It is only your will to live. And it is also only
your will that enables you to train beyond your limits. To overcome oneself is
to take one step further in the pleasure of internal solitude, to establish a
new objective a few steps farther than the last. One endures a task more difficult
than climbing a precipitous cliff to find another self, and one does it for oneself
alone. You who continue such difficult and solitary Taekwondo training can find
contentment in it because it is your own will that chooses it.
In
Taekwondo one discerns that pleasure and pain are two aspects of the same
thing. Suffering and pleasure are one in the process of surmounting one’s
limitations. This is the emotional meaning implicit in Taekwondo. The most
important truths are common. Those who have never experienced pain cannot know
true pleasure, while only those who have suffered severe defeat can savor the
delights of victory. Though you find everywhere walls you must break down, you
cannot help advancing. This tension is the essence of life. It is always
painful to surpass your limits, but persist you must. This is the figure of
life dwelling within Taekwondo. When you realize this in the right way you will
find contentment; then you will find pleasure in the world’s face.
[1] The Korean term “jayeon” (자연[自然]) literally
means 'being as it is' or 'suchness of itself'. Its English translation is
“nature”, though unlike “jayeon” the English word “nature” carries connotations
of birth, with its origin in the Latin “nascor”. The English term “physis” has
a closer affiliation to the Korean “jayeon”.
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