wfs@mgweed.UUCP (10/03/83)
* Zen and Intuitive Response(Part 7) * In the posture, the student is told to clear consciousness of events, people, and activities outside the dojo or dojang. This is a moment for stilling the mind, ridding it of extemporaneous thoughts, leaving the social "ego" behind because these will distract, distort, and slow reflexive consciousness. A good instructor or sifu wants a disciple to be in a supple, instinctively quick, wu-hsin mode when instruction begins. The physical body and technique will only be as fast and as focused as the mind is able to react. Just as a relaxed muscle is quicker and more responseive than a tensed one, so too is a relaxed, unencumbered consciousness quicker and responseive to sensory stimuli. In the long run it is the siritual aspects of any discipline that separates men from boys, winners from losers, enlightened from illusioned. The study of Zen in the martial arts will cultivate a wu- hsin consciousness that is receptive, open, and quick to learn: with a lightness of spirit and natural intuitive resourcefulness that can guide and instruct you if you only let it. "If one wishes to become master of an art," writes D.T. Suzuki, "technical knowledge is not enough. One has to transcend technique so that the art becomes an us that instinct and intuition are fundamental to existance and have their place and application in the scheme of things. We need only get out of the way with our overbearing, conscious intellect and perhaps thhe next time we are lost, indisposed or seeking a solution, we will discover with a smile and nod there is a shorter way home and we know it all along!! * END *