Essays for 3 dan candidates(Maddie and Gerardo)

[HAEDONG]

Hi, all black belts candidates

First of all, thank you so much for your making Essays 

so that  we can read and share our own thoughts and opinions etc.

I made some brief descriptions with red color. 

Any questions or opinions, please contact directly with a writer or me.

Have a good day!  

From Kim 

ps) Yes, I received all papers from all of you,  please let me get your file by pdf or etc. so that we can share it if you do not mind. 

Q&A TO THE ENERGY IN THE MARTIAL ARTS .

ESSAY OF  DAN GRADING CANDIDATES ARE AS FOLLOWS. 

I would kindly like to raise the below questions that can be answered by reading and understanding the book "Think out of the box" and through the candidates’  personal experience in martial arts.

1) Can you explain what energy is and where and how it moves inside your body? If you are going to explain and teach mental training, you should study and know how to learn it.

2) With the understanding you have of energy and its movement inside the body, explain what is good for our body and mind. Why?

3) What is the relationship between mind and body when practicing martial arts? How can that be extended to personal life?

4) What practical examples can you give of learning the above (energy, relationship between mind and body, what is good for the body) through your training in martial arts?

5) If you know all of the above well, what will you do next? How will you develop yourself for your next level in martial arts and in life?

6) What are your thoughts or experiences on meditation upon a cliff, a rock or a similar natural environment?

7) What is the relationship between ancient martial art teachings and modern life? Should you look backward or forward in your training and your life?

8) Do you have a beautiful mind? If so, what does it mean? Can you describe it in a way that can be taught to your students? Can you explain how to achieve it through martial arts training?

9) When you teach martial arts, do you only teach fighting skills? If not, what else do you do, and is mental training included? Can you explain what it is in reality and how it works?

---  

We will be able to get rid of illusions, false images and untruthful things in our consciousness or around us through studying “Think out of the box”.

In the 20th century, it has been 50 years since senior martial arts instructors and Grand masters from Korea started to spread martial arts all over the world both emphasizing body and mind with the spirit of their arts. They have been showing and teaching power and technique that stretch the limits of human physical capabilities.

Commencing with this book publication, I am going to start to teach how to learn and teach mental and physical skills with ease and simplicity according to the principles of nature. In modern times we can use these skills for better training and better life because all around us is interconnected in the universe.  

10) There is one part in the teaching and studying of martial arts that has been mostly forgotten in modern times. Some rare dojangs still include it in their teaching, but the content varies according to the teacher’s abilities. Can you tell which part that is, when we are used to teaching about just body and mind?

11) What is the essence of martial arts?

12) In your personal opinion, what is the most important part in martial arts for you?

■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■

Maddie Hentunen

3rd Dan Test Essays


6) What are your thoughts or experiences on meditation upon a cliff, a rock or a similar natural environment?


           To reflect on meditation in a natural 

environment I must first discuss meditation in and of itself. 

Meditation is simultaneously simple and very difficult: traditional zen-like meditation is simply sitting or possibly walking, breathing and letting your thoughts first surface as they are, without restricting them in any way, and then letting them go just as lightly and easily. However, this is not a skill that’s inborn in a human being, but must be learned through patient study.


The zen ideal of a calm, empty mind is only possible through a lot of meditation, acceptance of all thoughts and learning the skill to let even hard things go through love: this is where the difficulty lies. When the mind starts to empty itself, it works like emptying a suitcase: all the things in it are made visible and then put aside - even the gritty and grimy parts. The mind is never forced to do anything, but can be gently nudged towards the goal of calmness and emptiness.


The calm mind can do wonders to a person’s mental and physical capacity, although it’s traditionally frowned upon to use the zen mind as a means towards an end - the “ocean of calm” should be a goal in itself. It is inadvisable to meditate with the goal to reach enlightenment - enlightenment might follow naturally from meditation, but one should never consciously strive towards it, as goals in themselves are the antithesis of meditation.


There are several possible different surroundings for meditation from strictly scheduled retreats or temples to isolated places in nature, even inside a busy classroom (although one must be a seasoned meditation veteran to be able to simultaneously focus and empty the mind when one is in the middle of a noisy environment). If one is to follow the basic tenets of zen, the environment makes no difference, as the environment should be secondary in importance to the vacuum of the mind.

According to the individual temperament of the beginning meditator, it might be easier to lay aside all thoughts in a certain type of environment; in my personal opinion it is easier to meditate if the body is tired (for example after training): the mind is still sharp but flexible and the body’s need for movement is stilled for the time being. Similarly for some other meditator, nature can be an ideal or a difficult environment depending on their experience with meditation and  their personal relationship with nature. Whatever the surroundings, the experienced meditator can still and focus the mind; the beginner might benefit from a certain type of environment. 

=> Emptiness is the same as Fullness.  The reason why we use  a word of emptiness because we cannot see and no idea of it. There is a theory of Kong(공, emptiness) in Korea as I made descriptions years ago at the Helsinki dojang. 

Making our mind be empty is to have to be filled with pure energy( light or love etc.) as miscellaneous thoughts in mind disappear. Pure energy come from nature. Please see it at the theory of spinning-top for more and better understanding from where it comes at the drawing.


9) When you teach martial arts, do you only teach fighting skills? If not, what else do you do, and is mental training included? Can you explain what it is in reality and how it works?


There are several different martial arts with several different philosophies: some martial arts such as Krav Maga focus on finishing the enemy through physical means (as a part of training for Israeli soldiers), when some others subscribe to a very specific path which incorporates mental training in addition to physical training. Haedong Kumdo, in my view as a teacher, is strictly in the latter category.


For me there are very few instances when physical training does not include mental training, indeed I see it as at least as important a focus, and Haedong Kumdo definitely falls into this category. I do not only teach fighting skills - there are few opportunities to use a sword in actual combat nowadays - but an amalgam of both physical and mental abilities. One can not exist without the other, much like an arm is not enough for wielding a sword with purpose: the mind must be behind it.


Martial arts teaching also includes other physical skills in addition to actual fighting skills: I teach endurance, stamina, flexibility, focus, agility, balance, accuracy, eye for distance and precision to name only a few.


I could also say that I teach all of those skills mentioned as mental or spiritual skills. Through the sword one can learn mental endurance and stamina through increased self-confidence and practice with focusing and reading the opponent. One can also learn mental flexibility and agility through exercises that include reacting to the opponent’s movements and trying to anticipate them. The healthy and friendly atmosphere at a dojang can help with mental balance and the forms are excellent material for polishing the accuracy of memory, as I know only too well. Practicing with the sword can also help with decision-making and mental precision, as at the dojang one practices making decisions for example in pair drills.


These examples are only skimming the surface, and many more could be given of the Haedong Kumdo way of blending physical and mental training. Practicing breathing through Haedong Kimu and even actual meditation periodically are naturally also great examples of how Haedong Kumdo is also a mental skill set that can benefit the practitioner even after the door of the dojang closes. 

=> Human body machine compose mainly of three parts, one is body, the other is mind and spirit. so they work under an organism at the same time. If we cut one of them off , human body do not move more. So balance and harmony between body and mind in the spirit is fundamental factors in both meditation and daily life. see it more through the figure of spinning-top's theory  


12) In your personal opinion, what is the most important part in martial arts for you?


I have gone through quite an impressive string of different martial arts in my life, but I’ve only stuck with few, Haedong Kumdo naturally included. The paths that I have abandoned all have something in common: I felt that they focused on the wrong things and that because of that, they didn’t really work out for me. Examples of the wrong things include excessive adherence to formalities, making the art too much into a sport, not making the art into a sport enough and the insistence that everybody should practice exactly the same way and at the same speed et cetera.


All of these other martial arts were out of balance somehow, and that balance is delicate indeed. That elusive balance is, for me, the most important part of martial arts. Let me try to explain it by describing my typical training day:

I come to the dojang 20 minutes before the day’s practice starts. I have my son Ilo, 4 years, with me, and I walk him to the comfortable hangaround area with sleek, black couches where he can wait while Mommy practices. A passing Aikidoka greets Ilo and a Hanmoodoin gives him a fist bump. I change into my trusty dobok, a bit wrinkled from a full workday in my backpack, and head out to the tatami.


We line up, bow and start practicing. I am entirely focused on my training: it develops both my physical and my mental skills. I learn a new form, which I don’t really need to know yet, but as I’ve already mastered the previous ones, I can move forward. We do some sparring which my competitive side absolutely loves. I hop in to help with teaching some of the color belts as the group is large and varied in belt level. People smile and everyone is in high spirits.


At the end of the day’s training we do kimus, some calisthenics and sit for a while meditating. I am utterly spent but content. The dojang is my happy place, and it has once again showed its power to challenge me, to let me develop myself, to let me help others to develop and to spend time in a loving and accepting environment.


I guess one could summarize all of that into one word: love. My own personal love for developing my skills, my love for the people I practice with, my deep-seated love for teaching and helping other people on their path to self-development, the loving, relaxed atmosphere which doesn’t judge you for having wrinkled pants and the sense of loving calm that comes to me after a hard day’s training while meditating.
That love, for me, is the most important part of martial arts.

=> As I always say, Energy is light which is strength  for our life.

Energy come from Nature, which will raise all things include human being in the universe. We call it "Love", which is the love(energy or light) of nature. 

Haedong Kumdo

3 Dan test

Gerardo Iñiguez

A brief essay on martial arts

- Can you explain what energy is and where and how it moves inside your body? 

If you are going to explain and teach mental training, you should study and know how 

to learn it. As with all other things in the Universe, energy in the human body is movement and interaction. 

Movement itself, or the potential for it, arises from the effect other things have on our body, or from our desire and ability to change our state and achieve something different. Interaction allows movement, prevents it in certain circumstances, and allows us even to distinguish it from the absence of action. 

This is a very general definition, and so there are many types of energy,

depending on the kind of movement and interaction we have in mind. Likewise, the way energy moves in our body is just a representation of the series of interactions, cycles and mechanisms of cause and effect that generate a given movement. 

Some of the biological and physiological processes inside us might not be controllable, 

such as metabolic pathways and hormonal cycles, but some are, like the way we decide to move our muscles and relax our posture. 

Then, mental training in martial arts should start by recognizing that energy is movement, but that this movement has several layers inside us, some of which we can affect 

directly, and some of which will just change as an indirect consequence of our actions. By finding the movements that have a greater impact on our wellness of being, both physical and mental, we will be more likely to find what could be called a good configuration of energy in our bodies, and therefore a more peaceful state of mind.

=> Energy is Light in the universe, it will come from nature. 

If we could stay into the light and be able to feel or see it, 

we would be able to get to understand it  and  see a good configuration of energy in body, which  itself will lead our body and mind to be peaceful and calm.

- With the understanding you have of energy and its movement inside the body, explain what is good for our body and mind.

Taking miscellaneous ideas from philosophy, real-world events, and experiences of individuals, it seems that a good shortcut to even try to define what is good for our body and mind relies on balance and middle points between extremes. 

On both our minds and actions, we as humans live in an ambiguous place between the objective reality of our past and the endless possibilities of our future. Our present, this almost non-existent moment in which we decide everything, moves between replicating the concrete things we have done in the past, and exploring new things we could do in the future, if they are even possible. 

As people grow up, they start developing mental structures to understand this process, and choose a point in this line between facticity and possibility where they feel the most comfortable. 

Some people might decide that what they already know is the ultimate truth about the Universe, and there is nothing to explore, while others might decide to live in a constant state of flexibility, of change, of wonder at everything that might appear in front of them. I believe what is ultimately good for our body and mind is a middle point between these two extremes. 

=>A middle point between two extremes mean right thing or right way, which is not enough expression‎. It is Jung Do(중도) or Jeong Do (정도) in Korean which many people use and describe it like that. Actually right thing or way is not exactly a middle point between two extremes. Why? because it changes all the time. I draw and show it. 

eg.) see it at the 37p of the book "Think out of the box" about Jung Do

We have to be able to find sufficiently accurate mental structures that describe the world, the way our body moves, and how we achieve the things we want in a peaceful way. 

But we also need to accept that we don’t know everything, that we may not know anything ever, and that wonder in itself is an amazing tool to find personal calm and happiness.

=> We also say it is an enlightenment when we finally come to realize that, "oh, nothing for human to be able to know." Yes, that wonder could be made description as an enlightenment which is Light come from nature. Look at the theory of spinning -top which is for better understanding as a metaphor.

- What practical examples can you give of learning the above 

(energy, relationship between mind and body, what is good for the body) 

through your training in martial arts? 

A nice example I thought about recently is the relationship between pain and stress 

in the body, and their effect on the ability to have relaxed movements in martial arts. 

Below levels of pain that are clearly reactions to harmful processes both outside and 

within the body endangering our functions, there is a type of pain that reflects on 

our level of stress and the mental expectations we have on things around us. 

A pinch on our belly, a slightly awkward movement of our fingers or neck, an off-key 

sound or loud discussion nearby; these events are not harmful in themselves, but they create pain if we’re stressed, or if we expect our surroundings to be something different from what they actually are. 

This is a particular example of the way people exist between the extremes of facticity 

and possibility, and it could also be understood as the level of neurosis in our minds, 

the moment in which our mental structures start deviating from reality, 

and cause stress because facts do not correspond to the world we expect to live in. 

In the practice of martial arts, this type of non-harmful pain is represented by awkward movements that do not follow the natural workings of the body, and are not efficient and peaceful enough in achieving a given goal. 

If we’re stressed, or if we have particular ideas about how to move a muscle that do not correspond to reality, we will move this muscle in an unnatural and awkward way that will not fulfill the purpose we aimed at. 

But if we sufficiently let go of certain mental

structures about how to act, if we wonder at 

our surroundings and accept there is always 

another possibility, we may find a truly 

relaxed movement that balances between 

power and agility. 

At the end, moving naturally in martial arts will be like accepting that certain pains are not really pains at all; they are ways the Universe is surprising us, awing us with the myriad of things that become possible at any moment in life.

=> Yes, you can see it surprising you into the understanding of spinning-top theory, which does not feel pain etc.