LEARNING TO OBSERVE
I believe that one of the most important
reasons to study the martial arts is self-expression. In order to
foster expression of self it is paramount that we reach the highest
degree of self-understanding through observation and experimentation.
Utilization of various martial arts forms and techniques can be a
formidable medium for self- understanding and expression.
If you do not understand yourself, your
consciousness, your behavior, fears, hurts, anxieties, attitudes and
convictions then your will foster confusion within and without. You
will always be a second hand person, going through life just repeating
another's formulas, never developing your own tao or feeling anything
firsthand.
Observation is a key element in self-awareness.
Can you see yourself without distortion, without that baggage
you carry around know as your image? Your image that keeps you
from becoming who you are and that causes you to be vulnerable, but
that you continue to guard like the last shred of a child's bonding
blanket.
In order to begin to learn to observe
it is best to start with an object such as a tree and see it with
the mind of a dog (no, do not pee on it). See with the animal mind
without words or subjective tinges. Next move on to an object closer
to your heart. Can you see your pendant for its intrinsic beauty not
for its personal history? Next move up the line to people you casually
know and see them without label, without the blinders of past experience.
See the latest form you learned and techniques from the past. Suspend
judgement and just move, be fresh and new. Now move on to people closer
to you and see if you can observe them without all the psychological
history you have associated with them. See them as they are and not
in your paint by numbers mode. Can you look at anybody freely,
openly, without word, association or image? Finally move to the
self. See yourself without distortion, remove image, and be free.
Being free is often frightening because it often means standing alone
but once this fear has been overcome the rewards outweigh any drawbacks.
We often are searching to be given a
neat formula; this makes us feel comfortable but may place someone's
worn shadow where our own heart should be shining. So once again I
encourage you to learn the ABC's, the brushstrokes, of the art and
then personalize. Let the instructor point the way and observe and
travel to what is beyond that pointing finger.
