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Before you can begin to understand The Way Of The Spirit, you must first let go of what it is you think spirit is. When I refer to spirit I am speaking of the unseen. The wind that blows through the trees. The eyes that blink on their own. That sweat that comes from the heat of the sun. The subconscious mind is name for it. The Original Mind, or No-Mind are other names for it. It is also known as Spirit. When technique becomes second nature, The Way Of The Spirit Manifests.

In order to taste my cup of tea or that of any teacher, student, or master; you must first empty your own. You cannot approach a fight with the attitude that you know a technique that can stop anyone. While many techniques are deadly and can stop many opponents there is no single technique that can do it all. Unless you release yourself to the spirit of things your art will only be on a physical and mental level. You must transcend such confines and enter the spiritual level of Martial Arts. It's not about giving up all material existence and becoming a monk. It's about realizing that the sweat that comes forth of it's own accord, is the same as blocking an opponents blow. The hand that blocks, when allowed to, comes of it's own accord.

Use techniques as a child uses a toy or plays a video game. Learn them, have fun with them, but do not reflect on your proficiency in them. You will not have time to think in a fight, only time to react. You practice alone to perfect form, timing, and power but you cannot focus on these things in a fight. It's like playing a live show for a musician. If he is not aware of the song that is being played he will not be able to practice his, form, or timing, or technique. The time to do that has passed, he must do what he can do.

The Way Of The Spirit is entering by form and exiting by form. We enter by form when we perfect our techniques. When we practice in slow motion. When we focus on hitting the right spot. When were aware of our footwork. We exit by form by releasing ourselves to these techniques. The form will become second nature. Before you knew any technique the way you would throw a punch would be second nature. It's based on how you have seen others throw a punch, or how you have thrown it in the past. You must return to this empty state of mind. The way you throw a punch is the way you throw a punch. You should not be shouting commands within your mind when engaged in Mortal Combat. We are not machines programmed to throw certain strikes or combos. We are not Jab, Cross, Hook, or 1,2, Uppercut. We are living, breathing, creating, entities, that can adjust to any situation without labeling it. We can throw the ultimate combo using any punches and angles we see fit, as long as we give ourselves permission to do so.

The problem with many stylists is that they don't give themselves this permission. They may say, well, a backfist is not boxing and definitely not the strongest punch so I'm not going to use it. Yet if an opportunity came up to use the backfist, they may deny it or go for a punch that doesn't fit the context. This is like forcing a puzzle piece into the wrong spot. While highly advanced technique can win many fights, it will never take you to Master status, and you will by no means be undefeatable. The man who surrenders himself to the Spirit of the unknown will always win. When his art flows like water, reflects like a mirror, and responds like an echo, then and only then will the Student become the Master.

Jeet Kune Do is the spiritual enlightenment and art of the late Bruce Lee. While Bruce Lee practiced technique constantly, and emphasized heavily on training the body and mind, he was no stranger to heightening his Spirit and level of awareness. Jeet Kune Do as it is taught in most schools, will create a lot of very good fighters. They will be able to defend themselves against most attackers. However, if the practitioners do not let there deadly techniques become second nature they will never utilize the full power of JKD. I love JKD and use many techniques from it, I will never call myself a practitioner of it though. It's Bruce Lee's deeply personal insight into the art of expressing the human body. You must develop your own personal insight. Use whatever techniques will be most useful to you in a given scenario and discard all excess material.

Slaves had a martial art style called Capoeira. The combat system was disguised as a dance so that it could not be detected as a fighting style. Thus the slaves used techniques that were most useful in there given scenario. Develop and create your own path to the martial arts. You are the Martial Art. Wing Chun was developed by a woman so that people larger in size could be taken down easily. They were techniques that came from the spirit of the individual. How you throw a jab will be different for every single person. Even masters of the same art throw a jab differently. Maybe if you turn your wrist a certain way you get a leverage of power. Maybe punching horizontally hurts your wrist and is inefficient compared to your vertical jab. The point is too strengthen your strong points and not to worry about your limitations. Test out concepts and adjust as necessary. Discover what works best for you by testing, tweaking, and modifying any technique you come across. A tornado kick may serve no purpose to some martial artists, but it may have been developed to defend against people who were weak against it, or had no knowledge of how to stop such an attack. Thus a purposeless technique can be one of the most powerful maneuvers in a given context.

The Tao Of Jeet Kune Do's opening chapters are about Zen and The Way Of The Spirit. Bruce conveys how to transcend mere physical technique and truly become one with your art.

"The consciousness of self is the greatest hindrance to the proper execution of all physical action."

"To obtain enlightenment in martial art means the extinction of everything which obscures the "true knowledge," the "real life." At the same time, it implies boundless expansion and, indeed, emphasis should fall not on the cultivation of the particular department which merges into the totality, but rather on the totality that enters and unites that particular department."

Face the ocean and see how all the streams merge into this one source, instead of looking at the one stream and seeing how it leads to the ocean. Totality meets the demands that partiality always fails to. One must always look within for answers and cease looking for external solutions. Infamous Martial Artists and Swordsman Miyamoto Musashi emphasized this is The Book Of Five Rings,

"...there is nothing outside of yourself that can ever enable you to get better, stronger, richer, quicker, or smarter. Everything is within. Everything exists. Seek nothing outside of yourself."

You are The Way Of The Spirit. You possess the deadliest of Martial Arts, and the most masterful of techniques. If not you than who? Develop your own spiritual insight to the martial arts. Create the next Wing Chun, Jeet Kune Do, Tae Kwon Do, Or Aikido. They all different names for the same realization. The realization is that the individual is already capable of figuring out how to defend them self. Use your mind to study as many martial arts as you can, and plant the seed of your own style. Feel free to name whatever plant that emerges but remember that the source is nameless.

"The zen point of view suggests that you stop all conceptual thinking. stop thinking about what you "feel" is right or wrong. Quite frankly, because all the universe is simply no-thing-ness(or Mu), there is no reason to pursure any attempt at perfection. Perfection is all there is and when you come to realize this, you will have understood my Way of strategy and the Way of the warrior, at which time you can forget about it and just be "it." Best to have put it this way. Simply Be! YOU are the Spirit of the Thing Itself!"
-Miyamoto Musashi

This is only the beginning of The Way Of The Spirit, Much More Will be added as time moves along. Be sure to check out The Art Of Healthy Living for more great Free Martial Arts Information.