Martial Arts as a Practice of Mind

by Chris Pearce

Taekwondo, commonly translates into English as, “The way (do), of hand (kwon), and foot (tae)”. Although there are many specific benefits to the practice of “the-way-of-hand-and-foot”, in this essay I will focus simply on the benefits of practicing “the-way”, and it’s necessary mobilization of discipline.

All skill requires practice. We can do very little at birth, and we begin to learn even the skill of breathing by crying to exercise our lungs. We only learn to see, hear, eat, pee, vocalize, stand, and walk by practicing. With this core understanding, we can start to assess how our common beliefs about skill are mired in misconceptions of learning and knowing.

As an example, let’s investigate the “IQ test” as an assessment of skill. This test assumes one type of mental skill as an indicator of the quality of many types of intelligences. Granted, the kind of intelligence that the IQ test measures is valuable, but, it may not be the mental skill that everyone who takes the test is practicing. We can see then that the I.Q. test “compares apples to oranges”, as long as we remain ignorant to multiple intelligences.

Of course, people make sense of the world in different ways, yet, we are too often ignorant of that truth in the moment. My previous ignorance of this basic truth, that “all skill requires practice”, and the resulting benefits of understanding this, is what I’ve come to realize through my practice of “the-WAY-of-hand-and-foot”. In addition, I will assert that any disciplined approach to a specific practice (or “WAY”) can offer improvements to the mind as well as the body through it’s core value as the universal process of learning. Martial arts practice has always been evidenced in support for numerous skills and capabilities, yet simultaneously defined by a narrow focus on fighting.

The most common reason people give for putting their children in martial arts classes is so that they will learn how to act with moral self-discipline. The list of qualities that the average parent wants their kid to learn in martial arts classes includes leadership, protecting the weak, legal and moral self-defense, overcoming challenges, persistence in the face of adversity, seeing the big picture, self-discipline, self-improvement, self-motivation, cooperation, teamwork, body confidence and awareness, love of exercise, learning from failures, and the ability to concentrate and focus. That is a lot of expectations to have! Why, if the main purpose of martial arts was fighting, would this ever have come about? The answer is simple: martial arts were always about more than fighting.

– Phillips, Scott Park. Possible Origins: A Cultural History of Chinese Martial Arts, Theater and Religion (Kindle Locations 642-648). Angry Baby Books. Kindle Edition.

In agreement with the core connection between skill and practice, it follows that all mental skill requires practice similar to physical skill. Mental skills are at the root of all action and all physical skill. The processes through which the internal practice of thought, feelings, ideas, and choices, are expressed as actions, speech, and movement, is the focus of psychologists. However, aside from any understanding generated by psychologists, these same internal mental processes are also the daily practice of everyone. As an exercise in irony, I will note that even the activity of psychological study is a mental practice in itself.

The caveat that comes from this understanding that skill and practice are integrally connected, is this: you will learn the skills to do whatever you spend your energy and time practicing.

No matter what we are doing, that becomes our practice because we are doing it. This epiphany may seem simple, however, many people are not in skillful control of all their own choices or actions, and, with this understanding, we start to recognize that thought alone may not be as helpful as we believe.

We are always practicing. Whether or not the action is intentional we will learn habits, good or bad, simply by what we spend our time doing. These habits of mind, intentional or inadvertent, have farther reaching effects on our lives than we may first expect. Most importantly, what we do affects our mind as much as, if not more than, what we think affects our actions.

As evidence for this “reverse” effect in the mind-body-connection are many peer reviewed biological studies as well as numerous pop psychological articles that promote taking superhero poses or making joyful facial expressions in order to combat depression and low self-esteem. I caution against taking these assertions with a grain of salt. The most compelling results are actual shifts in hormone levels as well as personal testimonials of freedom from mental suffering as affects from engaging in these practices. The summarized articles are linked here:

If this kind of action to thought feedback is affective with simple posing and smiling, try extrapolating from those activities to the level of physical training that we experience in practicing Taekwondo (“the-way-of-hand-and-foot”). It becomes immediately obvious how powerful this path (way) can be at affecting strength, power, patience, and the numerous personal traits we endeavor to improve.

Further support for this concept of practicing “the-way-of-hand-and-foot”, as a promotion of mental skill, lies in the history and origins of martial arts.

Martial arts were never only about fighting, and in fact, the original value of martial arts was religious theater. The intention was as a vehicle for practitioners to embody immortal and powerful gods and spirits and improve oneself.

For most of the last thousand years, the vast majority of people in China got their models of righteousness from theatrical characters on the stage. Many of the heroes, villains, judges, and comics of the stage were based on actual historic figures like the honest, brave and righteous General Guan Gong, a hero who lived in the second century and was immortalized in a collection of plays called The Three Kingdoms. Guan Gong, like many of the characters of Chinese theater was made into a god—in this case, the god of war and accounting… What we call martial arts training today was the basic training for playing character roles like Guan Gong on the stage. The large generals and judge characters of the Chinese stage, like Guan Gong, all used similar physical theater training; they walked around in horse stance, giving orders and fighting. The horse stance used in martial-arts classes everywhere is the same as the horse stance used in theater. While there is a great deal that goes into training a traditional professional actor, the base movements are identical to those used in martial-arts classes.

– Phillips, Scott Park. Possible Origins: A Cultural History of Chinese Martial Arts, Theater
and Religion (Kindle Locations 649-652). Angry Baby Books. Kindle Edition.

What is most valuable to me when understanding the origin of martial arts in it’s theatrical and religious contexts is that it’s role as training in martial and military force doesn’t need to be divested from it’s role as training in social and moral development. In fact, when those connections are made, the discipline, trust, respect, and compassion expected of an adult in our culture is developed through the practice, and not in spite of it.

In my own experience studying Taekwondo, and persevering along the often frustrated yet continued path of “the-way-of-hand-and-foot”, offers me innumerable benefits of character and mind. Through many experiences studying “the way”, I have learned patience, trust, forgiveness, compassion, discipline, perseverance, etc. I attribute these skills to the practice. Through following the path as it is taught, taking refuge in the fact that many people have followed this path before, as well as trusting those that follow it along side me, I believe my own experience is evidence that all skill is gained from practice, and that the core values of following the path are embodied in the discipline to continue along the way.

Can we know without understanding? Everything we know, we know by doing.