The Asian martial arts have their philosophical references foremost in the three predominant philosophies/faith religions: Buddhism, Taoism, and Confucianism. These being often conveyed in a language and a choice of words offering a less tangible interface for the Western people. Through these very often esoteric-looking phrasings with metaphysical overtones images are being generated in the head of martial artists, that normal people in the West consider rather as being off the hook. But nevertheless, even the most dedicated martial artist lets himself being attached to those things, because they all hold something mysteriously different and with which they gladly would like to deliberately distinguish their social context from their fellow men.
Because of the strangeness of these languages and cultural conditions, there can be no uniform development of the physical and mental level – often decades are needed, so that the development on the mental level through the engagement in the underlying philosophy/faith religion leads to a comprehensive understanding (‚enlightenment‘). To successfully master this process, people get so extremely involved in their martial art, that they learn the language of the country of origin, choose a life partner from this cultural area, set up their school room and private habitat in accordance with the cultural background, have symbolic or calligraphy tattoos, etc. – although their culture is not rooted in the cultural area, where their respective martial art derived from. It is still an attempt to simultaneously achieve a fusion of the ego with that cultural background, supposedly to better develop the physical level and to represent this even more authentic in the sense of the original to the outside.
Considering the practice of martial arts, there are two main levels of implementation: the physical and the mental. The physical level is characterized either by a very close traditional way or a factually orientated approach of physical logic. The mental level – as a result of mainly Asian origin martial arts – is characterized by the above philosophies/faith religions. If now the physical level is very closely based on the traditional way, then the characteristic of Asian philosophies/faith religions is matching. But when the physical level follows the approach of factual body logic, is then an Asian philosophy/faith religion the matching counterpart on the mental level? Or are there philosophical approaches also from the West, which are identical in content with Asian philosophies / faith religions, but are more accessible to Western people due to the language?
A small example here should be the approach by Eckhart Tolle – the power of presence. Eckhart Tolle (February 16, 1948 in Lünen as Ulrich Tolle) is a Canadian spiritual teacher and best-selling author of spiritual books. He is originally from Germany and lives in Vancouver. Eckhart Tolle was born in Germany. According to own statements, he studied at the University of London and was active in research and supervision at the University of Cambridge. At the age of twenty-nine years, he experienced according to own information, a sudden and radical spiritual awakening. From that moment on, he felt the call for being a spiritual teacher. He has published four books. The first, being found as number one on the bestseller list of the New York Times, was translated into 30 languages.
In his work – Now! The power of Presence – Eckhart Tolle describes, how the momentum of the present can block mental processes and thus does not let intuition develop its strength. Translated into a martial arts context this means: a strategy of self-defense or fighting based on the fact, that you must retrieve sequences you’ve learned under considerably dynamic conditions and realize them during fighting, or mentally find one’s tactics, then intuitive perception is not able to its work. The present moment in this as well as the philosophical context according to Eckhart Tolle means, that the perception of things in the moment must be as is, in order to act intuitively. As soon as the thought process starts you find yourself in a purely virtual isolated world, that turns off the perception of the actual and thus, the intuition at all has no reason for action – because intuition only sets off, when actual changes are required.
To transfer this idea for example into the martial arts of Wing Tsun-Escrima, it provides a mental guide at the philosophical level, which can help instantly bring the over centuries developed physical exercises in line with the mental level. All exercises converge to the power of presence – the pressure conduct (note of the author: the force of the actual). Pressure conduct is the only way to be able to exactly intuitively assess your current situation (provided the appropriate training and continuous development). This empowers to intuitively process and handle information, so that the intuitive physical action plans developed through the training can be released by a decision of the will.
This means, that a strategy for self-defense or to fight, which strategically excludes or physically avoids the fact of pressure conduct from the start, is a purely a virtual one that has no connection to the physical level. For example according to the history of Wing Tsun Taoism had built the bond from physical to the mental level to preserve the balance between the forces – Yin/Yang – within a dynamic process. This classification of Yin/Yang with the corresponding visual symbolism leaves almost no tangible realizable mental idea for western people.
Thus, it is even easier, to immerge into Asian philosophies by the aid of a Western philosophical approach, thus achieving an even more comprehensive understanding – analogous to learning multiple languages!