Maintaining One Point

a martial arts principle

“I practiced the method of maintaining one point, one center, when there is commotion around you.” — from a student of Aikido

A distant descendant of Dude-Li

Each day can bring many storms. There are many ways to interact with them. Old master Dude-Li used to call these storms “funnel clouds.” It was the whole idea that life’s storms rise both from within ourselves and also externally.

One day, Retlaw Kram, a self-described descendent of Dude-Li, decided to grab the tornado by the tale. He was all inspired by the teachings of the old masters, and even by updated versions of teachings like the Port Huron Declaration:

• “To be idealistic is to be considered apocalyptic, deluded.”
• “The apathy here is, first subjective — the felt powerlessness of ordinary people, the resignation before the enormity of events.”

Retlaw grabs his pen and tablet

Now the thing is, Retlaw was mostly a loner, not much of a co-mingler. And seeing how messed up things were, he started thinking about things like tornados. And he would write about it.

He was a bit quirky, which was not to say he was dumb. But it did mean that some of the things he’d write would make you go, “Huh?”

Conditions in the here & now

“A single condition alone can be difficult to contend with. But when one or more conditions are simultaneously occurring, it becomes very hard to sort through what to attend to first, because it just becomes a big, muddy mess of a whirlpool. It’s like trying to reach into a spinning tornado and pull out that one single piece of debris, as though that ‘one less thing’ will somehow stop the storm, or still the violence or disruptions.”

“And here — right here — is where it can become, in a sense, impossible to manage. Because we start chasing down so many conditions, one after another after another. And then back to the first, and repeat, repeat.”

Life’s a circus act, and nobody gets that

It’s like that performer in the circus who gets all the plates spinning at once: there reaches a point where things start crashing and shattering.

The game cannot be won using a ‘chase the condition’ strategy. Not only because it’s endless chasing, but because the landscape of conditions are forever shape shifting and changing as they take turns moving in and out, this way and that. The tornado gobbles up new debris as fast as it lays down a trail of destruction in its wake.

And it gets worse. Because not only do the conditions constantly come and go, with all their various needs and attendant matrixes, but they are each demanding their own fully customized, individually crafted solution. Right now.

This is what we all encounter, when adversities are upon us: a world out of control. And one that often actually believes itself to be in control.

Dude-Jitsu for everyday life

People and situations that are out of control present unique opportunities, in part because they are striving for a sense of control, they are searching for better balance and ultimately for harmony — whether they call it harmony or something else. When we aren’t getting balance and harmony in our life, we go on a mission to find it.

This unresolved quest to relieve stress and tension — often revealed in some form of attack or disruption — puts the everyday-life martial artist at an advantage. Why? Because it becomes our responsibility to realize what the attacker is actually seeking, and to help them achieve it.

If you meet a deceiver, move him with sincerity; if you meet a bully imbue him with harmony. If you meet a perverse or self-seeking person, encourage him with moral duty and integrity. There is nothing under Heaven I cannot knead or mold. — from the Master of the Three Ways, Hung Ying-Ming.

The idea here being, life’s attacks are manageable. So, you gotta understand the end game, and become someone who can help point out the proper direction. Become like a compass.

And understand, too, that people have been talking about this stuff for a long, long time.

“A person who first sees a small man trained in aikido with mind and body coordinated throwing someone twice his size, or comfortably dealing with four or five other men probably considers it all very strange because he is thinking only in terms of the laws of the body and seeing it only with the body’s eyes. Were he to realize that the mind controls the body and view the case from the standpoint of the laws of the spirit, he would see that it is in no way marvelous.” — -Koichi Tohei, founder of Aikido

With martial arts training, it becomes much easier to deal with a single attack and even with simultaneous attacks of multiple adversities. But what is it within the training that allows us to focus on multiple attacks, yet meet them all with a common denominator? Because if we try to meet each individual problem in life with its own singular, customized solution, it won’t take long to become overwhelmed. The logistics of this approach can quickly exhaust us and is clearly impractical.

Taoism, Dudeism and Dude-Jitsu

This is what is sometimes called the One Point.

“The originator of Taoism, Lao Tzu, basically said, “mellow out, man.” Although he said this in ancient Chinese so something may have been lost in the translation.”

“Down through the ages, this “rebel shrug” has fortified many successful creeds — Buddhism, Christianity, Sufism, John Lennonism and Fo’-Shizzle-my-Nizzlism. The idea is this: Life is short and complicated and nobody knows what to do about it. So don’t do anything about it. Just take it easy, man.” — from Dudeism website

I agree with the essence of what Dudeism is conveying here. But, speaking as a martial artist — and in particular as a guy focused on applying martial arts in everyday life- there is a bit more to it.

In this instance, Dudeism is laying out the basic concept. And it’s doing that by giving Taoism a modern-day spin. Dude-Jitsu supplements this, by putting a modern-day spin on martial arts, by opening that world up in a way we can use in everyday life situations.