The art of fighting without fighting is a phrase made famous by
the great Bruce Lee, and was included as a line in at least one of his films, but it is not just an empty phrase used because
it sounds good, it describes a very real and powerful aspect of kung fu called 'no mind'. Many people consider the attainment
of the 'no mind' state to be the pinnacle of kung fu. Within the Chan Buddhist framework of the Shaolin temple and the
philosophy that these warrior monks have imparted to the martial arts community the art of fighting without fighting is a
spiritual acheivement, pursued in modern times purely for spiritual purposes, but this very special art also leads to a dramatic
multiplication of your fighting skills.
To put it as simply as possible, the art of fighting without fighting is the
ability to wholly unite the mind and body so that there is no longer any distinction between thought and action. In this state
a fighter does not have to think about what to do, consciously select the next move or decide how to react to attacks;
the mind is completely clear present and alert, not distracted in any way by thought or emotion. When a fighter attains 'no
mind' kung fu the instincts, reflexes and other natural intelligences of the body work in complete harmony with their technical
style and training, rather than against it as is often the case, reaction times are greatly improved, the fighters awareness
opponent and his intentions and actions increases and becomes more vivid, to the point that it seems that they have a
supernatural sense of premonition guiding them, energy levels increase (especially in stressful situation where the tension
and over-excitement of the mind negatively impact the body), and hesitation and mistakes are eradicated. 'No mind' kung fu
is not a style of fighting itself - it has no outer forms and techniques, but rather a state of being which greatly multiplies
the effectiveness of any particular style (kung fu or not) that you may otherwise practice. Although it is very
difficult to wholly attain to the state of 'no mind' kung fu it is relatively easy to begin to make progress towards it and
you attain significant benefits for any amount of progress that you make.
Aside from continuous training and repetition so that your techniques and
movements become second nature and can be used without even needing to think about it there are three main methods for attaining
'no mind' kung fu that we will look at here: Qi Gong, imaginary opponent training, and 'the hammer principle' for training
with a partner that was devised by Bruce Lee and forms a part of Jeet Kune Do kung fu training.
One of the main purposes of Chi Kung, or later developments from it
such as Tai Chi, is to promote greater unity between mind and body, and that is precisely what is needed to attain no
mind kung fu fighting.When you practice Chi Kung exercises you should be constantly trying to increase your awareness of your
whole body, silence the mind of extraneous thoughts, and feel your way deeper and deeper into every movement. People often
do not realise how weak their body awareness actually is because, obviously, we are always aware of our bodies to some limited
extent. But this peripheral and generally partial awareness is not enough for the purposes of kung fu; what you need is a
full, clear, even and vivid awareness of your whole body, both internally and externally. Concentrate your awareness
on a specific part of your body and you will notice how this awareness (direct awareness, not just the visual awareness if
you are looking at it) is more detailled and vivid than your ordinary bodily awareness; the goal of Chi Kung is to increase
your awareness of the whole body to something like this extent. The Shaolin Steel Jacket training given in the Hard Chi Kung section helps with this and includes specific body awareness exercises; you may also want to look
at the Basic Chi Kung Exercises in this site or learn about Taijiquan (Tai Chi).
Imaginary opponent training is similar in nature to western shadow boxing.
It basically involves practicing your techniques with an imaginary opponent in front of you. This need not just be an isolated
training practice - ideally you should imagine an opponent in this manner whenever you practice any of your techniques. This
sounds like a very simple and unremarkable practice, but it is actually very important and can be a powerful training tool
if used correctly. The point of this training is to condition yourself to react automatically ina certain way in every
possible situation. We all have instinctual responses, and for a martial artist these can work against you if the instinctual
response is not in harmony with your techniques or style of fighting. This kind of training helps to unite your instincts
with your technical training. You may have heard of a western psychological experiment called 'Pavlov's Dogs', in which a
bell is rung every time the dogs are fed; after a while the sound of the bell causes the dogs to salivate and produce stomach
acids in the same way as the sight of food does, even if there is no food present; in the same way you can programme your
body to react automatically to your opponents actions in the appropriate way that your fighting style teaches. It is important
that you put some effort into this and think about it; if you are practicing an attack do not simply imagine an opponent standing
stone still in front of you allowing you to hit them, that would be pointless, instead think about the circumstances in which
you would use that particular attack, imagine your opponent moving around in as realistic a manner as you can, imagine them
moving into the kind of position in which your attack would be used, see the opening in their defenses in your minds eye,
and then exploit it. When you are specifically doing imaginary opponent training give it as much realism as possible; dont
just practice one or two techniques and then let go of the visualisation and go back to the starting position to continue
- try to cultivate some continuity. Imagine yourself hitting them and hold the visulaisation to include their reaction - continue
from there; make it as fluid and un-choreographed as possible, stringing together combinations. You should even imagine yourself
missing or having your attack blocked sometimes, as this will inevitaby happen in a real fight. This can be quite difficult
if you are not used to visualisation practices but it gets easier over time. Of course the same advantages can be gained from
two person sets and from sparring, but imaginary opponent training does have some advantages. Compared to a two person practice
set imagniary opponent training can be much more realistic and fluid, taking into account more different possibilities. And
in sparring it is often difficult, especially in kung fu, to stick strictly to your style and not get sloppy and just scrap
it out; you will also have a limited number of opponents with a limited range of attacks and techniques to deal with, whereas
in imaginary opponent training there is no limit to the number of scenarios you can train.
Training the hammer principle in Jeet Kune Do requires a training partner
to practice with. It gives you two great advantages: not only does it help train you to act instantly without thought
and cultivate the art of fighting without fighting, but it also trains you to take full advantage of the fact that your opponent
cannot do this. The thing is that unless you are trainined to do otherwise your attack will not be instant, and the subtle
movements of the body as it prepares to unleash the attack can be picked up by an observant and trained fighter. This training
teaches you to recognise this preparation in others and anticipate their attacks, as well as to strike instantly yourself,
without this initial period as the body prepares itself, and without your opponent seeing the attack coming.
In this training two people stand facing each other at just over the distance
of an extended arm (this distance can be experimented with during the training to see what works best). One person, who is
usually called the 'trainer' holds is hands up in front of his face, just under shoulder width apart, with the palms facing
towards eachother. The other person is the attacker, and they stand in the on-guard position. For this training, however,
the on guard position is slightly different to the usual position, and the reason for this is that it includes an extra little
trick to land a punch without your opponent seeing it coming. In the ordinary on-guard position the hands would be held up
in front of the face, at about the level of the nose; from this position straighten the lead arm, keeping the elbow
and upper arm still, until the hand is roughly in line with the chin. You will notice that this lowering closes the gap between
the lead arm and your opponent. Using this kind of movement in a fight would almost certainly be viewed by your opponent as
a non-threatening gesture; they would notice the lowering rather than the fact that this was moving it closer to them, and
would probably think it was because you were getting tired (lowering of guard is one of the most common signs of fatigue)
or loosing concentration. Having closed the gap between your lead hand and its target without your opponent realising that
this is what you are doing increases your chances of landing a punch without them seeing it coming. During a fight it is important
to keep up your guard for defence, so this lowering would only be momentary, and followed quickly with a strike, but for the
purpose of this exercise this lowered position is held stationary for the on-guard position. This is because you are practicing
to strike without giving your intentions away with the subtle physical preparations discussed above to your training partner,
and this lowering would certainly give the game away to an opponent who knows that you are practicing this technique.
From these positions the attacker shoots out his lead hand in a finger jab
whilst lowering the arm as if holding a hammer, and attempt to tap the trainer on the forehead with his fingers. The trainer
must try to parry the attack, deflecting it away from his head. The attacker must concentrate on trying to strike without
the trainer seeing it coming.
The trainer must be focussed and present, and watch out for the attackers
preparations so that he can anticipate the attack and parry it. At first these preparations will be quite clear to see, but
as time goes on the attacker will be trained to gradually eliminate them. The first, and most explicit way that the attacker
can do this is to move the hand before the body or feet, because this movement is smaller and harder to notice; also if you
lead with the hand in this manner your strike will hit just before the lead foot lands, adding power tot he strike. Beyond
this it is a matter of trying to erase the separation between the decision to strike and the actual strike. If you decide
in advance, thinking it in your mind that you are going to strike, then it is almost impossible to stop this thought
unconsciously transmitting itself to the body which then prepares itself for the strike. The idea is that the mind and body
are united, that the decision to strike is simultaneously the action of striking. Although this distinction is not easy to
explain or, perhaps, to picture precisely in your head as you read this, this training is specially designed to help
you recongnise the distinction and eleiminate it - the subtle preperation of the body are inseperable from the time lapse
between decision and action, and in trying to eliminate these so as to conceal your strike from your training partner you
are also working towards the unification of mind and body.
And by swapping around and having a go at being the trainer as well you learn
to recognise them in yourself by first seeing them in your partner, and at the same time you also learn a useful combat skill
- to anticipate what your opponent is going to do before they do it.
