Harmony and the Martial Arts

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Harmony, a concept hard to feel and to live by but easy to define, at least academically. Harmony is the quality of forming a pleasing and consistent whole. In the Asian practices such as “Chado (tea ceremony),” “Shodo (calligraphy),” and especially, for this article and for us as karate-ka and martial artists, “Karate-do, Budo, etc.,” the philosophy of Zen influences the practitioners and the arts into a spiritual discipline (not religious but religious in a kind of non-religious way) that is focused on calmness, simplicity, and self-growth. 

In the more physical violence part of these disciplines harmony is a model of conditioning that drastically reduces and conditions the practitioner toward the reduction of effects from adrenal stress-conditions inherent in fear, anger, and other emotions triggered by facing grave harm, extreme violence and possible death. 

Practicing a way of martial art and karate toward a harmonious way of not just applications in the various forms from sport to fighting to self-defense provides us a dualistic complementary way of training, practice, study, understanding, applications and experience that is, harmonious in that it creates a one singular wholehearted way. 

When practiced with Zen principles in mind, practice and training can be a peaceful journey through the chaos of a blunt, physically demanding and emotionally challenging discipline where self-cultivation leads to harmony in conflict, where calmness leads to a positive state of relaxation that reduces drastically those mental obstacles that rise under stressors, the serenity of mind to make decisions quickly speeding up the OODA loop while maintaining a mind-set and mind-state that pulls appropriate legal and socially acceptable actions toward safety and security let alone toward a mind, body and spirit that builds character and personality toward social connectivity building a tribe, clan and group dynamic that is a contributor to the social fabric of our society and culture. 

Then there is the need for “Concentration” that all this practice, training, experience and applications teach us to handle life challenges even with stress inducing conflict along with associated violence of both psychological and physical. 

Zen harmony practices focus on the mind, body and spirit unity, the one whole that is harmonious to nature, to the self and to others in your community. It creates an attitude whereby the benefit is a harmonious nature and feeling while creating a means to act in the moment and in the no-mind state of primal conditioned response created by training in karate, martial arts and Zen-Buddha-Harmony for balance in mind, body, and spirit. 

Harmony is an attitude, a mind-state, while harmony leads to proper attitude, a mutually beneficial way that is represented in the symbol of the, “Yin-Yang.” 

Zen-harmony of the martial arts and karate-do provide pathways toward other benefits that create a sense of aesthetic balanced harmonious presentations, actions and deeds by teaching us to appreciate moderation, asymmetry, perfection of imperfection, rusticity, and a naturalness along with a Zen connection with nature that is demonstrated in Japan by the value found in Shintoism. 

Zen teaches respect of nature by not managing or controlling nature but finding that connection with nature where one establishes and maintains a spiritual bond with nature as can be observed in various Japanese art forms such as chado or the tea ceremony or when admiring the Japanese Zen garden. 

For the martial artist and karate-ka Zen was morphed into its practices from the very culture of Japan and Okinawa because in MA and Karate one emphasizes self-composure, vigilance, and tranquility for life and for the purpose of facing grave harm or death in Self-defense. In its practice toward detachment the practitioner learns to detach the mind in the present moment from distractions of the past and possible future and from the material things that would lead the mind astray toward things not needed in the moment. 

Zen’s connection to the martial arts and karate-do provide a road to a philosophy, a fundamental principle of the discipline, so that the practitioner can better understand that martial philosophy. A philosophy that transcends the mere physical toward the full spectrum of self-defense of theory, physiokinetics, technique, philosophy, self-defense, the chemical cocktail - all principles that govern all forms of conflict along with the psychological and physical violence associated. 

Harmony is something that is often undetectable and unobservable in a direct conscious way when you meet others who have character and personality that just connects with others both in and out of that persons tribe, clan or group. They reflect leadership, brotherhood and a strong sense of honor. 

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