Introduction 6

6. What Are the Basic Theoretical Schemes of Taekwondo Philosophy?

Now let me give you a brief explanation of the basic theoretical schemes of Taekwondo philosophy as suggested in this work.

If you have ever read the Cheon Bu Kyeong, you may immediately recognize that the titles of the first and last chapters of this book are the same as the opening and conclusion of the Cheon Bu Kyeong. Most basically this is because, as I have suggested earlier, the foundational aspects of Taekwondo philosophy are to be found in Korean traditional philosophy. It is a philosophy of harmony that recognizes the truth that oneness and nothingness begin and end in one another, and thus that any being/non-being distinction is inherently artificial. This is how it conceives the harmony of the whole. This philosophy of harmony comes with a full comprehension of the distinction between being and not-being, showing however that it is not ultimate but relative, and thus establishing a firm harmony under a whole existence of mutual recognition.  It is an extremely fundamental concept.

In the course of daily life one can plainly observe the existence of opposition and conflict within this harmony. The fact that there can be such opposition and conflict, however, depends on the fact that there an overall harmony exists as their foundational support. As one comprehends the overall harmony one can accept the oppositions and conflicts that exist within it. Thus can you also accept that Taekwondo is not a skill of just reviving but also of killing man. Some would argue that Taekwondo must not be a method of killing but the way of reviving. This argument, however, originates in a blindness to Taekwondo’s origins, the result of an over-beautification of Taekwondo. In order to avoid the dark aspects of life, Taekwondo is portrayed as a sort of medicine to revive man. Taekwondo is not a medicine. You will learn striking and kicking techniques, that is, techniques of killing, each time you practice Taekwondo. You should not hide from but accept the dark truth. After all, the wellspring of this truth is not Taekwondo but life itself. Through Taekwondo you should come to an understanding and acceptance of life itself. When you accept life whole and entire, its bright along with its dark aspects, only then will you attain that attitude towards life that I choose to call a “transcendence to the inner side of life”.

Another important theoretical scheme of Taekwondo philosophy is its concept of life. In order to arrive at a better understanding of PPT it is imperative you understand life, because PPT explains the internal principles of man’s motions, something wholly different from mere mechanical movement. The most significant difference lies in the fact that man is a living creature. Unlike the physical principles that rule man’s physical structure and motion in an external way, the principle of Taekwondo is that which connects man’s internal (subjective) side with his external (objective body) side. Man’s internal side derives from the fact that man is not merely a thing but a living creature.

Then what is life?

Life is a self-intending process. This term may sound somewhat abstruse, but if we approach it step by step it may be easier to comprehend. Let's take an example. A man moves his body, consumes food and other actions all in an aim to preserve his life. Then “to preserve one’s life” most basically means to continue to be capable of physically performing those activities of moving the body, eating food and so forth. We can say this continuance of physical activity done to preserve life is “the process for the process itself”. To abbreviate the expression, we can call it the process of intending itself; i.e. “the self-intending process”. Life is the self-intending process.

This self-intending process is also a formal frame. It is the formality one discerns at every level, from the life of a human being down to that of a living cell. I mean, the function of biological metabolism of a cell functions in this formal framework, and man’s body, which is the largest composition of cells, functions in this frame as well. Man’s macroscopic life also conforms to this framework. It is called “self-similarity” that same formality appears repeatedly in the small and large scales of any phenomenon. The self-similarity refers to the property of a structure such that its variant parts resemble the whole. The PPT can be also explained based on this property of life.

It can be said that the philosophy of harmony, the transcendence to inside of life, and the concept of life that is self-intending process are the main theoretical schemes for all thought in this volume. And each of the three also corresponds respectively to the Hanuel (Heaven), Tang (Earth) and Saram (Man) of Samjae. I submit each of these themes requires another immense philosophical discussion, which I want to put off until next time since this volume intends to first present PPT systematically.