Knights Errant of the Holy Order of Awareness

Knights Errant

Turning Negative into Positive

TURNING NEGATIVE INTO POSITIVE

I didn't get it. How could I turn feeling negative into feeling positive? All this talk by my Jiu Jitsu instructor made no sense - turning negative energy into positive energy.

Over time, however, something happened: I began to see I could do it. Here is an excerpt from a Q&A from my Instructor Certification Written Exam, in 1995.

Q. What Does the "Dynamics of Teaching" mean to me?

A. … They remind me to accept who I am, where I am, and what I know - and to feel good about that. They provide me with inspiration - such as "be positive". I find that phrase early in the day. I'm working that point, including the seeming contradiction of turning negative energy into positive energy. This concept [of transforming the polarity of energy and attitude] seems to violate basic principles of engineering and physics. But I'm doing it!

So, what was I learning about? It was like learning how to take a river which could flood homes and businesses, and turn it into something positive - like a producer of electricity. It was learning how to take the negative of a physical attack, and transform it into something better.

I was learning that the way to overcome negativity in the world began with learning how to overcome it within myself, and how to - in a very real sense - become one with it, become one with the attacker. And it wasn't about simple affirmations, like "be positive." Simple affirmations don't work when someone is taking a swing at you. But that affirmation was a trigger each day, to help place me in a Jiu Jitsu mindset, a mindset represented these days by The Monastery of Nothingness.

I was learning about universal principles. At first it was mental, a lot of intellectualizing. Next, I began finding ways to apply them in my everyday life - along with continued intellectualization  But over time, the intellectualizing stopped, because over time the everyday, practical applications seeped in. They became part of who I am.

In martial arts it is said that it takes 3,000 to 5,000 repetitions for something to become a conditioned reflex. So, I did my everyday life repetitions. I practiced far more off the mat than on the mat.

And after a lot of years and thousands of hours of study and training, some life lessons have emerged. For example, a question arises - what am I practicing? And is it taking me in the direction I am needing to go?

The Spring-Loaded Shoulders of Anxiety

I was in my brand new Jiu Jitsu gi (uniform) for the first time. I was 39 years old, needing something but not really sure what the 'something' was. I had all kinds of insecurity, but I couldn't admit it. And all this tension up in my shoulders and neck. 

When I looked in the mirror I didn't see any signs of tension. I saw a swimmer's tapered physique. A tapered wedge. Which is what I looked like in my first Jiu Jitsu class in 1990. At least that's what I thought.

My first sensei saw something different. 

"Drop those shoulders," he'd say repeatedly to me and other students.

I had to push them down. Because if I didn't force them down they'd immediately wind back up. I was spring loaded. Had been for years. 

And a week of Jiu Jitsu didn't instantly 'cure' me. It took quite a few years of training, mostly because I had a really hard time acknowledging that I had a problem. Or any problems, for that matter.

Over a lot of years of training, I subsequently learned that if we don't think we have a problem then our problems co-exist indefinitely. That's easy to intellectualize - far simpler than actualizing it. Especially for a low self esteem, high ego guy like me. But once I started admitting my problems, the answers came really slow. Because once acknowledgement occurred  I still needed a way to overcome my problems, fears and anxieties. 

So, I turned to a different Jiu Jitsu teacher. And this is how the study of universal principles, such as The Principles of Ki, became a life saver for me. He relentlessly advocated the need for including the study of universal principles in the Jiu Jitsu curriculum - from the start. 

"Why wait to reveal principles when someone is a third degree black belt?" he stated to his own instructor. "People need this now. They need it from the moment they become a white belt. It shouldn't be reserved for advanced students. All of us, even beginners, need universal principles in our life."

His curriculum had them from the day he founded his school. Some he developed himself, and some he borrowed from other arts and teachings - as was the case of The Principles of Ki.
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References - For Additional Use

RELAX COMPLETELY
Excerpts from Koichi Tohei (Aikido sensei, and founder of The Ki Society)


Five Principles of Relaxing Completely:
a. Each part of your body settles in its most natural position.
b. You relax positively, without collapsing or losing power.
c. Your sense of presence makes you look bigger than you actually are.
d. You are strong enough to be relaxed.
e. Therefore you have an attitude of non-dissension.

There are three basic states of the physical body; what we will call the "noodle" state, tense strength (tension), and relaxed strength (Relax Completely). The first is a state of nothingness, a noodle that falls limply. Tense strength is seemingly all-powerful but as Ki tests reveal, is ultimately weak. Relaxed strength is a state in which a person cannot be disturbed by the chaos that sometimes surrounds us.

Each part of our body settles in its most natural position.

We all know that tension can accumulate in our back, neck, head, feet, etc. But, we don't always know how to properly get rid of the tension or how to prevent it from accumulating in our body. Stress causes tension and we need to know how to relax in stressful situations. One quick and effective method to deal with stress is to stand with good posture and shake your wrists rapidly for one to five minutes. This exercise will allow your body to literally shake off the tension in your muscles. The proper way to shake your wrists is to begin by letting your hands fall to your side naturally and then begin to shake your wrists in an up and down, palms up motion. After one minute or so slow down by 1/2 until the wrists come quietly to rest by your side. If you want to relax your whole body, then shake your wrists vigorously so that your heels come up off the floor every time you shake. This helps you settle each part of your body in its most natural position.

You relax positively without collapsing or losing power.

Many people assume that true relaxation is a weak or limp state, but this is far from the truth. If we try to get rid of stress by more exercise, more stimulation or massage we are only dealing with the symptoms. Relaxation must be practiced so that we can become a more mature person who can be relaxed under pressure.

Your sense of presence makes you look bigger than you really are.

When Tohei Sensei walks into a room everyone turns and looks. He is so large, so composed, so relaxed. Tohei Sensei is 5' 2". Most people, when they are around larger people feel small and become tense. When you know how to relax completely your posture is correct and your presence is much larger.

You are strong enough to be relaxed.

This can be Ki tested by having your partner grab your wrist very tightly. If you try to move your arm by muscle tension it is very difficult. But, if you move in a relaxed way by thinking that you are just going to scratch your head, you move easily, hence strong enough to be relaxed. It is commonly believed that an aggressive behavior is stronger than a relaxed behavior. But, while one may receive a temporary advantage by being aggressive, in the end, the strength through relaxation behavior will win out.

Therefore you have an attitude of non-dissension.

When you are completely relaxed you naturally have an attitude of non-confrontation. Also, while you are relaxed completely and you have this non-fighting mind, you are open, aware and flexible enough to respond appropriately to any challenge.

Relaxing the mind

Sometimes I will toss and turn all night. My mind will be spinning thoughts in circular webs, over and over. Coming back again and again to the same worries, the same concerns. My stress stays high, and I wake up in the morning exhausted.

But using the Principles of Ki, I have a different experience. When I see my mind running in circles, I stop. Because I already know that if I keep running in circles, I just keep going around and around the same thing. There is no solution, only stress and exhaustion.

I relax my body, but more importantly I relax my mind. 

I think many people have no idea how to relax their mind. But there is a spot that is between the frantic spinning of thinking too much and sleeping. It is a supple area, between hard tension and being a piece of limp pasta. It's an 'in-between' place.

Martial artists are trained to be in this spot, sometimes referred to as 'mushin' or empty mind. But the mind is not at all empty. Rather, it is calm. And in that state of calmness, we can learn to sense the slightest ripple. A cat completely understands this. It will sit in a window, perfectly still, watching for the slightest sign of movement.

Ripples are disturbances in the calm, similar to Yoda describing disturbances in the Force. They can be negative or positive. But when our mind is frantic and disturbed, how can we expect our highly disturbed and frantic minds to sense nuance, to sense the slightest sign of movement? 

Until we calm our mind, we cannot sense the ripples. Until we can sense the ripples, we cannot sit in calmness. Until we can sit, walk and live in calmness, we are lost in noise. 

It's like going out to enjoy the calmness of nature, and bringing a jackhammer with you. Until we quiet the jackhammer, we will likely be unable to sense the first ripple of thought and intention. Cats stare within stillness. Their minds are calm but not empty; they are alert for the slightest ripple.

"Most people can see the difference between the mind and body being coordinated and the mind and body not being coordinated but they cannot see or understand how to maintain this state of being. We often think the mind is a difficult thing to understand because we cannot hold it in our hand, it has no color, shape or physical or visible boundaries. While the body is finite and has substance with visible boundaries. In today's society, we have to deal with our daily challenges and many of us suffer from anger, anxiety, sadness, etc..... This is because most people still think of the mind as being separate from the body. But, since both are born of the Ki of the universe, and are fundamentally one and the same, it is relatively easy to unify mind and body with practice. The difficulty is learning to maintain it in our daily life." - Tohei Sensei, of The Ki Society.

Finding the middle way

So often when we are attacked in life, we either meet the attack with a forceful response, or we cringe and cower. It's an all or nothing approach. And in many cases, people only know one or the other of these polar opposite responses. Clearly, there are times when these responses are effective, but there is an entire world of other responses, found in the middle, which are often overlooked. It's as though we think our planet is only made up of the north and south pole, and ignore the great body of earth that lies between them.

Jiu Jitsu is a martial art known to be a defensive art, an Art of Self Defense. Not all martial arts share this perspective; some arts attack, others defend. While defense is the basis of Jiu Jitsu, it can also attack. But one of the great values of Jiu Jitsu is its ability to modulate, what we might call the great playground between the north and south poles.

For example, when we are in a call and response situation, some martial artists only know one response: to meet force with equal or greater force. This can just as easily happen in arguments and disagreements. Jiu Jitsu can certainly attack. But it also has an ability to modulate, to meet an attack with a 0-100% response, or anywhere in between, with control. Jiu Jitsu reveals a world of responses in the middle - between 0% and 100%. 

The 'middle' is one of those words that has been hijacked to mean 'compromise', or to mean 50% conservative/50% liberal, etc. These are watered-down versions of a genuine and valuable centered approach. A more centered approach is similar to balancing on a bicycle; tip too far to the left or right and the ride becomes wobbly and unstable. 

We tend to view our world in black and white, on or off. "Light switches only go on or off," we state with genuine conviction - but we leave out the world of the dimmer switch.

When we drive our cars, our foot modulates on the gas pedal. If we deployed an all-or-nothing approach driving a car, we'd quickly crash. So, it's not as though we are unaware of the world of the 'middle'. In my opinion, it's more like we don't take the time to consider finding the middle or a more balanced approach in other areas of life.