According to Buddhist philosophy, reality is whole & unified. However the human mind divides reality into opposite components represented in the Tai Chi symbol as the Ying and the Yang. Examples of such opposites are high and low, you and I, night and day, good and bad.
Beneath the surface of combat, there lies deeper lessons. On the most fundamental level, your opponent is an object in reality for you to interact. When you opponent throws a punch, you react. What is important is the mental attitude in the response.
The object of the martial artist is to free him/herself of the partial views of the Yin/Yang. This allows the mind to view reality in its totality. To a novice martial artist, the person delivering the punch would seem to be at an advantage. Such a view is partial and neglects the situation in totality.
As an aggressive action, a punch represents the force of Yang. As a result, the defender must respond by becoming Yin. To the untrained eye, the most successful method of defense would be to evade the attack. However, an experienced martial artist would realize that every technique has its weakness. He/she would realize that ‘advantages’ and ‘disadvantages’ are illusions of the mind. An aggressive action requires physical commitment; this leaves the individual off-balance. An experienced martial artist would capitalize on this opportunity. He/she may ‘complete’ the aggressors attack by counter attacking or intercepting the opponent in the middle of the attack. A good martial artist has the ability to see the Yin within the Yang and the Yang within the Yin. A punch that once seemed advantageous became a disadvantage.
The martial artist also learns to apply his/her combative experiences to every day situations. Fundamentally, Fighting is responding to a circumstance, therefore martial arts improve the ability to respond in all circumstances.
The martial artist learns to change ‘negative’ experiences into ‘positives’. Hardships, failures and disappointments all have their advantages as well as their disadvantages. The enlightened martial artist learns to view his/her circumstances as neither negative or positive. He/she accepts the situation as is. The martial artist focuses on the positives in the midst of a ‘negative’ situation. This allows the martial artist to deal with difficult times in a constructive manner.
Also, a good martial artist has a broad acceptance of people. He / she realize that ‘good’ and ‘bad’ are classifications of the mind. Human beings are neither ‘good’ or ‘bad’, but both. The experienced martial artist learns to see the good points in a persons character as he/she views the weaknesses in the punch. This makes the martial artist a non-judgemental and understanding character.
Martial arts serve as a means to free a person from onesided thinking. A martial artist learns to accept life in it’s totality with it’s ‘advantages’ and ‘disadvantages’. Aside from the skills of self defence, Martial arts paves the road to becoming a better person.
