| Martial arts training increases self confidence and self | | | | ensures harmony and health as it circulates through |
| control. Unlike western sports which focus on winning | | | | the body's meridian network. |
| and competition, Asian martial arts aim to develop | | | | You can see how the etymological meaning of the |
| self-knowledge, self-improvement and | | | | character Qi parallels the fundamental goal of the |
| self-management. The goal in western sports is | | | | Asian martial arts. By cultivating, harnessing and |
| mastery over the opponent; in marital arts, it is mastery | | | | controlling the force of Qi,, Karate and other martial |
| over the self. | | | | arts transform mind and body into the power of the |
| In fact, traditional martial arts work on the cultivation | | | | third. |
| and harnessing of Qi, the life-force or life energy that | | | | This is the same understanding that dawned on Eugen |
| we are all born with, also known in India as prana or | | | | Herrigel, German Professor of Philosophy who spent |
| kundalini. As we have seen earlier, this energy | | | | six years in Tokyo studying the ancient art of |
| becomes creative and productive when it is developed | | | | Japanese Archery. What is it, he asks himself that |
| by training, a concept that is illustrated in a most | | | | allows the archer to hit his target unerringly? Is it pure |
| intriguing way in the etymological history of the Chinese | | | | technique and practice? Is it the breathing and the |
| ideogram for Qi. | | | | special cultivation of No-Mind that his Master insists |
| The early depiction of the character-ideogram Qi, was | | | | upon? |
| formed with three horizontal lines indicating vapor. | | | | It is both. The practice and training must be repeated |
| Later, the character changed somewhat into a stylized | | | | and performed until near exhaustion. Why? Because |
| version of vapor placed like a container over the | | | | at the point of performance, the archer must know his |
| ideogram for fire , an apt depiction suggesting that the | | | | art well enough to let it go so that the action becomes |
| power of fire must somehow be contained and | | | | un-selfconscious and purposeless. Mind and No-Mind |
| processed before it can be manifested in more | | | | have to be balanced. Working from Mind alone cripples |
| acceptable ways. | | | | the intuitive response. Working with No-Mind only is |
| Eventually the character went through a further | | | | pure randomness without developing vision. |
| evolution; the symbol for fire was replaced by that of | | | | What he comes to understand after years of practice |
| rice . This change brought the idea of cooking into the | | | | and training is that mastery is achieved, at the moment |
| meaning of Qi, suggesting that energy must be cooked | | | | of the right mind, when the technical and the artistic |
| or processed into the distilled essence of vapor or | | | | come together as one, when technical training and |
| steam during its flow through the body. | | | | artistic transcendence flow together as one entity. |
| According to Claude Levi-Strauss, cooking is a symbol | | | | This right mind cannot be achieved through |
| of the transition from Nature to Culture and the act of | | | | transcendence alone if the technical foundation has not |
| cooking is the mediator between the raw and the | | | | been laid. Nor can it be achieved through technique |
| socialized "cooked" meal. The ideogram Qi, , therefore, | | | | alone because the development of an ego-less spirit |
| can be seen as a pictogram of two forces | | | | also has to be in place. In Herrigel's case, it took him six |
| transmuted into a third term. The essence of Food | | | | years of formal training in Zen Archery before he |
| (rice) and Air (vapor) in the body merge into the power | | | | could dissolve the heuristic structures of a Western |
| of the third, into one force recognized as the | | | | mind. Only then could he arrive at the moment of |
| combination of the two -- the benevolent Qi-- which | | | | transcendence, at the third term - the power of Qi. |