Martial Arts Training and the Power of Qi

Martial arts training increases self confidence and self control. Unlike western sports which focus on winning and competition, Asian martial arts aim to develop self-knowledge, self-improvement and self-management. The goal in western sports is mastery over the opponent; in marital arts, it is mastery over the self.

In fact, traditional martial arts work on the cultivation and harnessing of Qi, the life-force or life energy that we are all born with, also known in India as prana or kundalini. As we have seen earlier, this energy becomes creative and productive when it is developed by training, a concept that is illustrated in a most intriguing way in the etymological history of the Chinese ideogram for Qi.

The early depiction of the character-ideogram Qi, was formed with three horizontal lines indicating vapor. Later, the character changed somewhat into a stylized version of vapor placed like a container over the ideogram for fire , an apt depiction suggesting that the power of fire must somehow be contained and processed before it can be manifested in more acceptable ways.

Eventually the character went through a further evolution; the symbol for fire was replaced by that of rice . This change brought the idea of cooking into the meaning of Qi, suggesting that energy must be cooked or processed into the distilled essence of vapor or steam during its flow through the body.

According to Claude Levi-Strauss, cooking is a symbol of the transition from Nature to Culture and the act of cooking is the mediator between the raw and the socialized "cooked" meal. The ideogram Qi, therefore, can be seen as a pictogram of two forces transmuted into a third term. The essence of Food (rice) and Air (vapor) in the body merge into the power of the third, into one force recognized as the combination of the two -- the benevolent Qi-- which ensures harmony and health as it circulates through the body's meridian network.

You can see how the etymological meaning of the character Qi parallels the fundamental goal of the Asian martial arts. By cultivating, harnessing and controlling the force of Qi,, Karate and other martial arts transform mind and body into the power of the third.

This is the same understanding that dawned on Eugen Herrigel, German Professor of Philosophy who spent six years in Tokyo studying the ancient art of Japanese Archery. What is it, he asks himself that allows the archer to hit his target unerringly? Is it pure technique and practice? Is it the breathing and the special cultivation of No-Mind that his Master insists upon?

It is both. The practice and training must be repeated and performed until near exhaustion. Why? Because at the point of performance, the archer must know his art well enough to let it go so that the action becomes un-selfconscious and purposeless. Mind and No-Mind have to be balanced. Working from Mind alone cripples the intuitive response. Working with No-Mind only is pure randomness without developing vision.

What he comes to understand after years of practice and training is that mastery is achieved, at the moment of the right mind, when the technical and the artistic come together as one, when technical training and artistic transcendence flow together as one entity.

This right mind cannot be achieved through transcendence alone if the technical foundation has not been laid. Nor can it be achieved through technique alone because the development of an ego-less spirit also has to be in place. In Herrigel's case, it took him six years of formal training in Zen Archery before he could dissolve the heuristic structures of a Western mind. Only then could he arrive at the moment of transcendence, at the third term - the power of Qi.