This article appears in Deb Maybury's book "Unlock the Door Beyond Sexual Abuse".

Many people mistake martial arts primarily as fighting or self defense. Peering through the lens of the mainstream media, popular movies, and The Ultimate Fighting Championship it does look like that. But let’s look to the discipline of shaolin kung fu to shift our perspective and grasp the true purpose of the practice.

Kung fu is a sharpening tool. It is the act of forever refining, honing, and becoming more competent in the art. At first you have to learn the basics, like in language you learn the alphabet before putting words and sentences together. In music you learn the notes and scales before being able to play. But this mental and physical learning is a medium that provides a channel to free your inherent creative spirit. For the writer it’s finding the word or turn-of-phrase that expresses deep meaning; the silence between the notes brings music to life and touches the soul; for the martial artist it is efficient movements for greater dynamic physical power as an avenue of creative expression. In kung fu less is always more.

What many martial artists misunderstand is that the movements are the vehicle, not an end. Nobody mistakes the piano as the music or the pen as the story. When a martial artist sharpens his skills solely to become a better fighter he has missed the mark. When fear and ego are the driving force of the lessons physical skill grows but this channel of intuitive knowledge becomes clogged. As a result conflict, anger, resentment, and mistrust tend to grow. Instead of freeing the student, the discipline becomes a prison that traps inner light that yearns to extend out and brighten the world.

The martial arts are not about acquiring anything. This is the shift. The practice is about letting go of the negative so the positive surfaces, naturally. There is creative wisdom in you waiting to actualize. It does not push, shout, nor fight. It speaks softly so your mind and emotions must be tranquil and calm to hear its direction and wisdom. Truth—by nature of being truth—need not argue, overpower non-truth, nor clamour for attention. Truth patiently waits for a willing avenue to flow through. Tense thoughts and emotions narrow its path.

Instead of contracting your heart in the face of conflict you must relax, open, expand. The healing creative spirit within you surfaces through a relaxed, peaceful heart. Negative emotions constricting it must be removed. Kung fu exercises balance energetic streams of Qi that flow inside and outside you and neutralize non-supporting emotions. Harmony is restored to the mind and body and a channel for spirit to surface naturally opens.

From childhood trauma all the way to yesterday’s conflict with a spouse, co-worker, even traffic we all have become masters at burying minor and major tensions in our subconscious. Our bodies have become storehouses of hidden dark energy that tends to direct and control our movement through life. Stress mounts, the body tightens, and dis-ease manifests. Until recently there weren’t many options for help for the plethora of stress related illnesses brought on by past traumas and further amplified by our hectic life-styles; save for the pharmaceutical approach. The martial arts have been around a long time but most of the history has been veiled in secrecy and mysticism.

Thankfully, over the past two decades a great deal of knowledge is surfacing from all over the world, stemming from Eastern wisdom of wholeness and connection. You are meeting some of those people in this book ("Unlock the Door"). Let their teachings and stories inspire and reawaken this energy in you.

Find the vehicle right for you to help release the different shades of fear, anger, guilt and unresolved pain that may be guiding and controlling your behaviour. Peace, compassion, and joy are natural states of being alive and are connected to your function on the planet. It’s an inward-out process. Close off the chaos of the world for a few minutes every day. Breathe deeply, put attention on your heart, and you will intuit that this energy is ready to serve you. Now set a course to its realization.

Shifting Paradigms about the Martial Arts

Brad Hutchinson

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