“Be like water making its way through cracks. Do not be assertive, but
adjust to the object, and you shall find a way around or through it. If
nothing within you stays rigid, outward things will disclose themselves.
Empty your mind, be formless. Shapeless, like water. If you put
water into a cup, it becomes the cup. You put water into a bottle and
it becomes the bottle. You put it in a teapot, it becomes the teapot.
Now, water can flow or it can crash. Be water, my friend.”
-Bruce Lee
This very famous quote is a firm representative of what Harmony to a martial artist means. We do not attempt to change what is around us, we adapt to it. We change to deal with the environment. Life itself is an example of this in practice. Think about how evolution works. The creature does not itself try to change what is around them, instead, they adapt to it, either making behavioral changes or even physical ones. They do not attempt to change the nature of what is around them.
When you attempt to change something, there is always conflict. The thing will resist change, whether it is an item, an idea, or even a person. Instead, we learn how to adapt to what is already there. Think about board breaking. What does that have to do with harmony?
When you attempt to break a board, you are attempting to change it. If you fail, the board reminds you that it is a solid block of wood. However in order to break it, you have to change your focus to yourself. You have to break through the fear of failure and simply break the board. You have to imagine it already broken. When your mind changes, so does the board and soon, it will lie broken at your feet.
When we go through life, conflict will inevitably find us. In order to preserve our own harmony, it is important to note how we deal with the conflict. We can easily fall into the emotional difficulty that comes with it, or we can learn to make the change necessary within ourselves to progress through the conflict. Many of my previous posts have gone over this, and I suggest you take the time to read them.
Now that you have done that, I want you to realize that this does not mean you should simply go through life letting everything happen to you. Far from it. Instead, like water, we only do what is necessary to preserve our own Harmony. Something to ponder.
Train hard,
Head Instructor Shawn Morris