By
Scott Shaw
In the martial arts, one of the primary things that the
trainee focuses upon is developing the skill to accurately see a vulnerable
point on their opponent and then deliver a precisely targeted strike to that
location. Where as most people who enter into physical combat do so with a wild
and undefined barrage of offensive techniques, the martial artist understands
that style of combat is not only unreliable but also causes the person who is
utilizing it to expend a lot of energy. For this reason, precise targeting is
part of the primary curriculum for all schools of martial arts.
Life is not much different from this. Some people, for
whatever self-defined reason, choose an individual and then focus a targeted
attack upon that person. Look around, you see it everywhere. You see it in the
news, you see it in conversations, you see it in internet posting, and you see
it in bar fights. What is occurring in all of these cases is that one person
has targeted another person and is attempting to overpower them via a precisely
target attack.
The motivation for this style of attack can be wide-spanning
but the one reality of it is that one person has decided that they should hurt
and/or defeat another person. But, as we all understand, the definition of
attack is based upon the concept of winning and losing. Just as no boxer or MMA
fighter is the champion of the ring forever, this too is the case with the
person who instigates attacks. They may win but they will eventually end up the
loser.
In the martial arts, the true martial artist always avoids
physical confrontations. They say nothing and do nothing to escalate personal
conflict. From their training they understand that they posses highly developed
techniques of self-defense thus they have nothing to prove. But, the world is
not like that. Many people do not want to exist at a level where they understand
that each person is their own person and defined by their own reality. Instead,
they want to judge, they want to attack, they want to sucker punch, they want
to hurt other people so that they will appear to be more than the individual
they are attacking. But, are they?
As people living on the path of consciousness, we are the
one’s who do not partake of that level of intoxication. But, again, it is all
around us—there is no way to avoid it. So, what should we do when we witness
it?
Though there is no absolute answer to this question, perhaps
the best thing to do is to simply not participate. Do not allow yourself to be
brought down to the level of the person who attacks. Do not encourage them. Do
not cheer them on. Say nothing, do nothing; that would be the ultimate example
of Zen. Or, if you have the ability, create a situation that completely alters
the course of the confrontation and redirects it to a positive place. For in
the martial arts this is the ultimate level of self-defense, not to fight but
to not fight. Just as Bruce Lee so ideally stated in the movie, Enter the
Dragon, “I call it the art of fighting
without fighting.”
Ultimately, be more than the person who targets other
individuals. Make the world a better place by not contributing to or
participating in that style of attack. Exist in the space of understanding that
each person is who they are and because they are who they are any attack on
them is an attack of all of us. Thus, the person who is instigating the attack
is doing nothing more then sending everybody who listens to them or is inspired
or invigorated by their actions to make the everything worse for all of us.
I believe we all want our life to be better. I believe we
all want the everything of the world to be better. How do we achieve that?
Never attack.
Copyright
© 2019
