Body-Mind-Spirit Harmony & Joy
This essay is in Dancing in the Kara of Te, in the "Learning the Karate Way" section.
We talk about “getting it together”, to centre our life and somehow keep it that way. Big ‘somehow’!
There are reliable ways to do this and countless approaches. It comes down to one thing: bringing mind-body-spirit into such harmony and joy that it’s the normal state of being. ‘Mind’ comes first in the Western-world arrangement of these elements, with the body to carry it around, while the spirit is some ineffable other.
Many kara-te schools have a deep training exercise called Sanchin, or “three battles”. It aims, with the body taking the lead, to bring body-mind-spirit into one. It’s an ancient practice said to come from Shaolin Temple in China and further back still.
To be powerfully whole and centred for a brief time, then longer and longer intervals, can spill into everyday life, separate from intense practice times. Eventually, such capability becomes integral enough at all times to no longer need conscious effort.
I put this into graph form, shown on the next page, for a talk given to the British Columbia Explorers’ Club.[ Inspired by John Harper, who gave a brilliant presentation two years before about his 20 years of research on the B.C. coast that revealed ancient Indigenous clam gardens built of rocks placed at low-tide line. He recounted his progress by charting his ah-ha moments, elations, and disappointments.] Members go on amazing, often arduous journeys to the ends of the Earth, then report back to each other. How did my inner struggles fit with their rugged outdoor ones?
Kara-te studies are a continual journey of exploration and physical challenges. The charting was an exploration, too, because I didn’t know how it would come out.
The timeline covers 17 years of kara-te practice. The dots are for belt rankings, from white to green, brown to black, then first-degree black belt to 3rd. The blue line follows my physical progress.The yellow line is for mind and the purple line for spirit. They bounce around with what’s happening in class and elsewhere, as the lights go on and off in my head and emotions rise and tumble. You’ll see that I started in a negative place for the spirit of training and my ability to copy the teachers. In my Power-Point talk, I give reasons for the downs and ups.
But look. Regardless of the mind-spirit roller-coaster, once my body got over its initial clumsiness, it steadily grew more capable. Even being totally dispirited and bummed out didn’t affect my physical progress. Finding control, joy, and peace in movement, breath, and focus pulled up volatile thoughts and feelings to the bodily level.
They’ve stayed integrated since, without fail, to present day. [As I write, in 2024, this continues. Small disturbances happen, of course – that’s life – but they inwardly resolve within about half a breath.]
But look. Regardless of the mind-spirit roller-coaster, once my body got over its initial clumsiness, it steadily grew more capable. Even being totally dispirited and bummed out didn’t affect my physical progress. Finding control, joy, and peace in movement, breath, and focus pulled up volatile thoughts and feelings to the bodily level.
They’ve stayed integrated since, without fail, to present day. [As I write, in 2024, this continues. Small disturbances happen, of course – that’s life – but they inwardly resolve within about half a breath.]
As this graph shaped up, I laughed. It shows exactly what Okinawans have known for long centuries and have built into their gift of kara-te to the world: We learn through our bodies. Trust it to take the lead. Tend to it. Keep it as strong and healthy as possible. Keep improving its coordination, flexibility, and patterns of moves, all with good breath. Learn how to position yourself well around contentious others, while staying integrated and inwardly unflappable.
Physiology and kinesiology studies bear this out: when we learn to move in new and better ways, we learn to think in new and better ways. It’s just the way we’re wired, every one of us. And these quiet triumphs lead to more stable emotions and, ultimately, sure-fire harmony tapped deeply into joy.
Is it worth the time and dedication needed to get to this place? Better than the alternative, to keep talking about “getting it together” without learning to embody this powerful need
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