Ren Blade
08-06-2003, 07:23 AM
This is an article that an international classmate wrote for our newsletter that I wanted to share.
A Question Of Time
As martial artists, in what ways does the YMAA training affects us? I believe that the training can change us in three ways. Depending on the time and the effort put in, the depth of these actions are less or more profound, but are real. The first one happens at the physical level.
The First Prize
After enduring the continuous assaults to our strengths that the classes demand, our whole body is compelled to respond, becoming stronger, tougher and more efficient. After repeating many times complex sequences of movements, we gain more control over our bodies. The action of each muscle become refined. With the practice of stretching exercises, we achieve more flexibility and agility. And with the constant need to sustain the intense rhythm of the training, we gain a sense of the state of the body and how to care for it. Without the need of becoming sick, we realize the importance of good health and the importance of keeping our body in optimal condition. Because if we don't eat well, or don't rest enough, or if we don't feel well, it immediately reflects on our performance and we notice it right away when we compare it with better days. The physical machine must be perfectly tuned to perform. It is natural to occur some small traumatic injuries when we train hard, but that is an opportunity to learn how to heal the body. On the other side, this greater sense of the state of the body also helps to detect some diseases not originated by the training. Through careful selection and practice of exercises, we can help the body alleviate the pain and even cure these diseases. A stronger and healthier body is the first of the greatest prizes of the training.
The Mirror Of Time
Continuing our training, we start to realize its influence on our mind, in our vision of the world. When we start for the first time the training, it is natural the predominance of enthusiasm, the emotion of excitement. But past this brief honeymoon period, we are confronted with the serious question of the real goal of our training. There is a time barrier: three years. This barrier usually separates those who train for excitement and those who train toward a direction. Those that want to surpass this barrier must confront themselves with their laziness, their will power, and with the choice of following the more superficial desires or the true necessitites. That is, with the true strength of our values. do we live by them or are they just fictitious ideals with which we fool ourselves? To me it is very devastating when someone quits for not being able to surpass this barrier. I have felt as well too many cases too closely. Of course not everybody will be able to surpass, but they all have the possibility, the help and the necessary orientation. There is no excuse for not continuously trying, except because of laziness, mediocrity and ignorance. One reward for being able to proceed the training after this confrontation is a better knowledge of the map of human emotions and the human mind. It is being able to recognize more easily the masks by which we cover the lies, the laziness, the fears, and the desires. Because we had to see them in ourselves with the mirror of time of the training. But is also being able to recognize purity, generosity, selflessness, and the presence of the spirit in us and in others. It is the creations of bonds with these ones that day after day, week after week, month after month, year after year, helps us bring forth what we have best.
Communion
The journey continues towards the inner side. After confronting ourselves, after we have unmasked ourselves, we see our real shape. It is very hard to get there and it is not pleasant. The price to pay to get to this point is frequent discomfort, the experience of some pain, some loneliness, the acceptance of the path renegated by others and the persistent accumulation of questions, the right questions. After some time the compensation comes in the form of understanding and harmony. Understanding that with time everything passes. Understanding what is really important in our lives. Externally, all that we built, careers, material fortunes, fame, power, will be erased with time. Internally, the most intense emotions, pain or pleasures dissolves with time. So why should we try so hard and commit so deeply if it is all a temporary issue? Because all of these sensations, emotions, knowledge drive us to the understanding of who we are, and reveals us the meaning of our life, of our existence. All that we lived and experienced has just been the search of the key that we carried with us all along. Once this treasure is opened, as I have seen in some great persons, the life from that moment and any moments afterwards becomes devine, serene and vibrant. Harmony then comes from the integration of our being into the Fabric of Life, from the recognition of the authenticity of the spirit, from the balance of material and immaterial, from the expansion of our horizon of perception, and from the concentration of our energies to actively improve lives (ours and others). That is, the formation in ourselves of the communion of the body, mind and spirit is the greatest and biggest prize of the training.
A Question Of Time
As martial artists, in what ways does the YMAA training affects us? I believe that the training can change us in three ways. Depending on the time and the effort put in, the depth of these actions are less or more profound, but are real. The first one happens at the physical level.
The First Prize
After enduring the continuous assaults to our strengths that the classes demand, our whole body is compelled to respond, becoming stronger, tougher and more efficient. After repeating many times complex sequences of movements, we gain more control over our bodies. The action of each muscle become refined. With the practice of stretching exercises, we achieve more flexibility and agility. And with the constant need to sustain the intense rhythm of the training, we gain a sense of the state of the body and how to care for it. Without the need of becoming sick, we realize the importance of good health and the importance of keeping our body in optimal condition. Because if we don't eat well, or don't rest enough, or if we don't feel well, it immediately reflects on our performance and we notice it right away when we compare it with better days. The physical machine must be perfectly tuned to perform. It is natural to occur some small traumatic injuries when we train hard, but that is an opportunity to learn how to heal the body. On the other side, this greater sense of the state of the body also helps to detect some diseases not originated by the training. Through careful selection and practice of exercises, we can help the body alleviate the pain and even cure these diseases. A stronger and healthier body is the first of the greatest prizes of the training.
The Mirror Of Time
Continuing our training, we start to realize its influence on our mind, in our vision of the world. When we start for the first time the training, it is natural the predominance of enthusiasm, the emotion of excitement. But past this brief honeymoon period, we are confronted with the serious question of the real goal of our training. There is a time barrier: three years. This barrier usually separates those who train for excitement and those who train toward a direction. Those that want to surpass this barrier must confront themselves with their laziness, their will power, and with the choice of following the more superficial desires or the true necessitites. That is, with the true strength of our values. do we live by them or are they just fictitious ideals with which we fool ourselves? To me it is very devastating when someone quits for not being able to surpass this barrier. I have felt as well too many cases too closely. Of course not everybody will be able to surpass, but they all have the possibility, the help and the necessary orientation. There is no excuse for not continuously trying, except because of laziness, mediocrity and ignorance. One reward for being able to proceed the training after this confrontation is a better knowledge of the map of human emotions and the human mind. It is being able to recognize more easily the masks by which we cover the lies, the laziness, the fears, and the desires. Because we had to see them in ourselves with the mirror of time of the training. But is also being able to recognize purity, generosity, selflessness, and the presence of the spirit in us and in others. It is the creations of bonds with these ones that day after day, week after week, month after month, year after year, helps us bring forth what we have best.
Communion
The journey continues towards the inner side. After confronting ourselves, after we have unmasked ourselves, we see our real shape. It is very hard to get there and it is not pleasant. The price to pay to get to this point is frequent discomfort, the experience of some pain, some loneliness, the acceptance of the path renegated by others and the persistent accumulation of questions, the right questions. After some time the compensation comes in the form of understanding and harmony. Understanding that with time everything passes. Understanding what is really important in our lives. Externally, all that we built, careers, material fortunes, fame, power, will be erased with time. Internally, the most intense emotions, pain or pleasures dissolves with time. So why should we try so hard and commit so deeply if it is all a temporary issue? Because all of these sensations, emotions, knowledge drive us to the understanding of who we are, and reveals us the meaning of our life, of our existence. All that we lived and experienced has just been the search of the key that we carried with us all along. Once this treasure is opened, as I have seen in some great persons, the life from that moment and any moments afterwards becomes devine, serene and vibrant. Harmony then comes from the integration of our being into the Fabric of Life, from the recognition of the authenticity of the spirit, from the balance of material and immaterial, from the expansion of our horizon of perception, and from the concentration of our energies to actively improve lives (ours and others). That is, the formation in ourselves of the communion of the body, mind and spirit is the greatest and biggest prize of the training.