Wake Up and Live!

“To be “awoken” in martial arts means to be attentive, on guard, to be alert in any situation, whether it be a physical or emotional conflict.” – Dr. Kacem Zoughari

You can say this is a sort of Zanshin, or heightened awareness of everything around you and within you.  I’ve felt this at various states many times in my life.  For seemingly unknown reasons, suddenly I became acutely aware of everybody and everything in the room.  Through all the mixed laughter and conversations, I could pick out key phrases and words.  There was a spike in the energy of the room and I felt it.

I’ve felt this many times.  Most of the time, it goes away without any sort of idea why it happened.  But, in other situations it precluded some sort of danger.  I can remember being in a noisy bar and having my attention instantly expanded into the room, hearing words that carried the tone and language of aggression.  Two men were squared off and ready to fight each other.  Fortunately, in this situation at least, cooler heads prevailed and the situation didn’t turn violent.  But, not all have ended that way.

I remember another situation from my days catching crooks where I had a young male suspect detained.  He was cooperative and not resistant, but somehow my senses were pinging.  I was uneasy and felt I needed to search him closer.  As I conducted a more thorough pat down search, I felt a lump in his sock, just under his pant leg.  It was a knife!  I had missed it in my initial search, because I was only doing a cursory pat down of his waist.  Was I reading his intent?  Would he have tried to deploy it against me?  I don’t know.  Nothing else gave me any indication of the threat, except for a feeling.

There are many such examples, but as I stated, most I have no idea the reason for a spike in awareness.  However, I don’t take it lightly when it does happen.  I also don’t become paranoid, either.  I just accept the feeling and embrace the increased awareness without making any assumptions.  I think that last part is the most important.

In training, many times I can see the awareness heighten – and deaden.  I’ve seen people glaze over, or be focused elsewhere, instead of on the lessons being presented.  Our Soke has mentioned numerous times how he doesn’t teach, about how we have to “steal techniques”, that we’re learning how to “see”, and so on.  When you train in Soke’s class, things move very, very fast and seldom are repeated or explained on a technical, how-to level.  You either catch the moment or you don’t.  That requires a high state of awareness, to have one’s mind awake and receptive, to not only see what’s happening, but also remember it.  This is probably one of the single most important lessons a student can receive.  But, many times people can be overwhelmed, or they get tired and drift.  It is in those moments that secrets can be missed, maybe even a pivotal point that could mean the difference between understanding and confusion.  That moment of dullness in one’s perception and awareness is a Suki, or weak point.  Now imagine if that happened while a criminal approached you with a knife concealed in his hand.

However, to be paranoid is just as dangerous.  It makes you assume, overreact and narrow your awareness and attention to singular things.  There’s a balance to be made here.  Being “awake” has more to do with a state of being than an act.  Thus, it should require conscious mental energy to be that way.  It just is.  But, we also use our mental energy to keep our awareness up, to not allow ourselves to slip into an under-attentive or overly-attentive state.  Our mind is the rudder, keeping our consciousness on the natural course and making small adjustments to maintain our heading.  The best pilots use little energy, making subtle and very small adjustments.  This requires lots of focused training and valuable experience.

So, how does one “awaken” in their budo path?  First and foremost – pay attention!  Practice self-awareness of the shifting acuity of your perception.  In other words, don’t let yourself drift off in thoughts during class or when out and about in your day to day activities.  Be mindful of everywhere and everything without being paranoid.  Be mindful of when you are starting to fade and nudge yourself back to awareness.  Again, you aren’t making any assumptions or reading into anything.  You are just being aware and allowing those perceptions to run inside you without attaching anything to them.  If those perceptions urge you to act, then you act.  The difference is you aren’t using your mind to “tell” yourself to act.  You just act.  You are trying to build a connected relationship between your awareness, your perceptions, and your actions that isn’t dependent on the conscious mind to direct it.

If you want an experiment to see where you are in this ability to stay “awake”, take a basic solo kata or technique and practice it over and over again.  Do it a hundred, two hundred, three hundred times or more.  Grab your wooden training sword (bokken) and just practice downward cuts over and over for a thousand repetitions.  While you are doing these, you are focused on your technique, your breathing, your balance and so on.  At what point do you find yourself drifting off, becoming bored or thinking of other things?  That’s your Suki, the weak point in your mind.  That’s where you are falling asleep – and when you will miss a pivotal point.

Once you capture and maintain this “awakened” state, live from it.  Carry it with you throughout your day and let it stay a natural part of yourself.  Eventually, you will always have this going, even while laughing, playing and relaxing.

Being in Zanshin, fully awake inside as well as outside, does not mean you are shifty eyed, tense and ready to fight at a moment’s notice.  It’s quite the opposite.  You are relaxed, free and unattached to fully exist in every moment, at the very point in which that moment materializes.

And if that moment involves danger, you adapt and keep going without any attachment to take you away from fully being in the next moment.