“Mind over matter represents the triumph of will over physical hindrance. Our thoughts are our weapon against the world.” - David Adam, 'The Man Who Couldn't Stop'.
The true battle is within. One goal of martial arts training is to achieve kikentaiichi (氣剣体一致) or the juncture where “spirit, sword and body become one.” At this juncture, we find busshinichinyo (物心一如) or this liberation where mind and matter are one and there is no mind and there is no body. Getting to this place physically is the easy part where all we need to do is put in the reps. Ralph Waldo Emerson said, “The ancestor of every action is a thought.” Thus, to be able to put in the reps requires that we have the mental fortitude to do so. Therefore, the harder and more important training happens in the mind. Being able to push ourselves physically past the point of failure requires mental fortitude. Understanding this, we realize that all martial arts training is shuyo (修養) or “mental training” or in other words that the true battlefield lies within. It seems like the older I get, the more training becomes mental, and I realize that physical toughness pales in comparison to mental toughness. One thing that surprises me about aging is how quickly and easily my body falls out of shape. I remember reading a study in college that stated that the average professional athlete starts to lose conditioning after 10 days of inactivity. I also recently read an article that stated that we lose 50% of our muscle strength after three weeks of inactivity and a 20 % decrease in VO2 max after four weeks of inactivity. Shocking! To me, putting in the work is easy, but actually motivating myself to stay active is hard. William Butler Yeats said, “It takes more courage to examine the dark corners of your own soul than it does for a soldier to fight on a battlefield.” Thus, staying in shape requires things like passion, motivation, drive, persistence, etc which are all mental constructs. Yagyu Tajima No Kami who founded the Yagyu Shinkage-ryu school of swordsmanship once wrote, “The goal of training in swordsmanship is to overcome six kinds of disease: the desire for victory, the desire to rely on technical cunning, the desire to show off, the desire to psychologically overwhelm the opponent, the desire to remain passive in order to wait for an opening and the desire to become free of these diseases.” Understanding Yagyu’s admonishment, martial arts training is all seishinsen (精神戦) or “a mental war.” Strangely, the more we age or the more proficient we become, the stronger our inner foe seems to become. Later on in our training, we realize that pushing ourselves in physical training was just a mental dress rehearsal for the real battle later on which lies within. That is why O’Sensei advocated masakatsu agatsu (正勝吾勝) or that “the true victory is self-victory. Once we reach the apex of our training or as we get older, our minds will play a greater role in our training. Understand this, we realize that we can only truly be free when we have won the inner war of the mind and that is why the true battle is within. Happy 4th of July.
Today’s goal: Begin the journey now to master your mind.
Watch this video of ultra-marathoner David Goggins to better understand the battle within.