A Warrior’s Zen Slap
There are life lessons everywhere, even in the most unlikely of places. For the Evolving Martial Artist, fighting is a metaphor for life. Engaging a daunting adversary who hits and inflicts pain is like entering the every day battles of life. Hell, it hurts.
Tough lessons are often employed by Shaolin kung fu masters to teach the tough demands of combat. And life. In American history, the Gold Rush brought people to the Black Hills of South Dakota and as the camp grew, a town sprung up around the prospecting. David Milch’s ground breaking Western HBO series Deadwood, based on real characters and events in the Old West, was a study in human evolution and our struggle to bring chaos to order.
In this scene from Deadwood, Al Swearengen (Ian McShane) the complex protagonist, ruthless and brutal, yet with his own morals, loyalties,and even, at times, kindness, imparts a life lesson to the Deadwood’s newspaper publisher, A.W. Merrick (Jeffrey Jones) who is demoralized by violent misfortune, after being threatened, finds his office and printing press vandalized and in ruin. In Swearengen we see a classic example of the Eastern zen slap or as we say in the West, a kick in the ass.
However crude, it is wisdom for martial artists and non-martial artists alike.
Lawrence Tan & Toni Josephson
I am confused. Most of the time you say Martial-Arts is more than fighting and one should also focus on spiritual side of Martial-Arts but in this post you say, For a Martial-Artist fighting should be a metaphor for life. Do you mean there are stages in life, in youth fighting should be the metaphor or way of life but in after mid 40′s spirituality should replace fighting ?
Yes, just like there are different seasons, there are different stages in life represented by the warrior (physical), scholar (mental) and monk (emotional.) We are all three, yet at different stages a different part of us may be more dominant or appropriate. When young we must use our energies to maximizing our bodies skills. At middle age our physical skills will diminsh so mental strategy and knowledge takes precedence. Emotional maturity, ideally – though not necessarily so – unfolds as we age.
In aspiring for higher spiritual ideals, the Evolving Martial Artist is a realist in regards to the reality of violence and conflict in life. Therefore sometimes life can be compared to a battle and other times a dance. We spend our lives learning when we must struggle against the tide and when to let go and flow. Knowing when is the ideal called mastery.