Person, Heart, Heaven, Earth

The I Ching says that "Heaven" is 3 [odd] and that a person is also divided into three parts, i.e. the Jodan [upper], Chudan [center], and Gedan [lower]. The I Ching says Heaven is above [upper] while Earth is below [lower] and that humanity is in the center. We know that humanity or person benefits from the marriage of Heaven and Earth while our "hearts" benefit from our minds and connections to the Earth.

The heart also resides in the center much like humans [person] resides in the center of the Tao as connected by Heaven, Earth, and Humanity.

Pay attention and you will notice that the number three appears in lots of places. In the fighting arts we have the trilogy of Te or "Kihon [basics], Kata [prearranged techniques], and Kumite [drills;sparring, etc.].

Earth is 2 and refers to our connection the Tao as it manifests myriad things with its interaction to Heaven, i.e. Yin [negative energy] and Yang [positive energy]. The action or interaction of the Yao lines in the gua provide for yin and yang and as those lines change so does the yin and yang.

Training is like this where we have hard training and soft training, yin-yang. We also must work hard at life and then take time to relax from life, yin-yang.

In the fighting arts we use chinkuchi or hard and koshi/gamaku or soft in performing our techniques. It is the ability to either be hard or soft that provides balance in practice as well as life.

Yin and Yang or two also applies to how Isshinryu was formed, i.e. naihanchi which relies on gamaku and koshi or soft to perform it properly while sanchin relies on chinkuchi or hard to perform. The blending of the two provided us the third element which is Isshinryu. Sanchin [Heaven/hard], Naihanchi [Earth/soft], interact creating Isshinryu [Humanity/persons] proficient in the fine art of Okinawa.

Study the I Ching, connect to the Kenpo Gokui, and find the complete wholehearted Isshinryu (3). Connect the spirit and mind to achieve health (body-spirit-mind) [3 again]. If you work hard and study with conscious effort and focus on all aspects of the arts then you will find open doors to all things under Heaven, on Earth, and within our Hearts to achieve Tao of Life.

Lets not forget the most important (3) three. What I call the "Ultimate Three" which is "Birth, Life, Death" which are the three that govern us all regardless.

No comments:

Post a Comment