Martial Tai Chi™

Thinking Allowed

Different religions describe things differently some times, but there are certain universal truths that cross cultural divides. The purpose of this series is to address certain moral issues from the perspective of the founders of the Martial Training Association. These moral views are personal to us - no readers or students are expected or even asked to agree with our perspectives. While such matters may not be relevant to how hard a person can punch or what the optimal angle for an arm lock might be, moral values are important and can occasionally be discussed if people want to discuss them. At any rate, we do not think that practitioners of Chinese martial arts should be restricted to discussing only Chinese cultural or moral perspectives.

The Tzaddik - The Righteous Person

The Hebrew scriptures and Talmud talk of the Tzaddik - the righteous person. The righteous person is considered to be somebody who deals with self improvement. By contrast, the wicked person is someone who does not try to improve: their self image is one of satisfaction with things as they are. The wicked man tells himself that he cannot or does not need to change because he is fine exactly as he is. If he recognises any imperfection or vice in himself at all, he sees it as part of who he is in some kind of essential or unchangeable sense, rather than merely his habits - the things he tends to do.

Both righteous and wicked people do both good and bad things - it is what they do with those things that makes the difference.

A righteous person looks at the good things he does and gives value to them. He will also look at the bad things he does and think "how can I improve this? How can I change who I am? I do not have enough self control - what can I do to improve?" This is the righteous attitude.

Feed Your Soul

The righteous person eats to feed their soul, not just because their body needs food. By doing so they put the food they eat in its proper context. Their food keeps them alive so that they may be righteous, which is the point of their being a person.

All physical things have a purpose - a proper positive function. Material things - food, money, possessions etc. are not ends in themselves but should be used to fulfill a higher purpose. The righteous person does not just seek to improve on their WICKED deeds, but ALL of the things they do, asking "why do I do what I do and how can I change the habits I have?"

On A Mission

The tzaddik takes whatever is in front of him or her and tries to use it for a higher purpose - for the greatest good of all. Rather than complaining about the state of affairs, they try to turn every negative and neutral thing into a positive. Lots of people get satisfaction from doing good, but the righteous person does good for the sake of helping others - for the sake of improving the universe. Confucius stated that every benevolent action improves the universe by one benevolent action's worth. You should be good for goodness itself rather for any hope of reward in this life or any other.

The wicked person is in a state of inaction - they deny that there is anything to do - that there is anything to improve on. The tzaddik recognises that they would not exist unless there was something positive they should be doing with their life. They know that the purpose of their existence is to do good with it. Each and every one of us has a mission to accomplish and a tzaddik takes on that responsibility.

If not, why not?

And if not now, when?

COMMENTARY

The above text was inspired by a small part of a series of lectures by Chabad of Greater Orlando Florida's Rabbi Sholom Ber Dubov on the subject of Kabbalah (Jewish Mysticism) and Self Improvement. What follows is my own commentary, based on thinking about it within the broader context of Judaic teachings, as I understand them. Please note that I am no expert on such matters and I take full responsibility if I have inadvertently misrepresented or distorted any ideas.

Vice versus Virtue; Imperfection versus Perfection...

Wickedness can enter the world when a mind looks at it and sees everything as perfect exactly as it is and requiring of no further action. Such a person may become a complacent and egotistical mystic.

Alternatively, wickedness can enter the world when a mind looks at it and sees everything as imperfect and merely requiring more personal influence and power to be exerted over it by the observer. Such a person may become a tyrant or a magician.

The central problem stems from the tree of knowledge of good and evil in the garden of Eden. Eden was once G_d's garden and everything there was perfect.

But by doing something other than that which G_d had commanded, humanity became self aware, self conscious and anxious. He contains some of the awareness of G_d within a finite living body. But he looks down at himself and sees himself to be naked and in need of covering up - he is ashamed of what he sees as his own imperfection. This gets in the way of his doing what he needs to do - it interferes with his efficiency by threatening to fixate his mind on the superficial.

So a mind in wicked mode (the mind should never be seen as essentially wicked,) may look at the world and see imperfection. From there it may create new anxieties that need not exist. It will then in all probability give credence to and focus on those illusions, entrenching and amplifying their reality. The thoughts of imperfect minds become realities and damage the world because they are not founded on the truth. Such a person is not seeing the bigger picture - they are not seeing the wood for the trees. We do have the power to impose pettiness and cause disruption. The world may be immortal but it is not invulnerable - if it was, we could not influence it for good or ill.

The mind in virtuous or righteous mode can look at a world that is in total chaos and see the good within it. Furthermore it knows what it needs to do to make everything even better. It knows that G_d would not have put it here and given it the gifts it has unless it was here to do that job - to tidy up that fence or to do the weeding in that corner.

The righteous know that they are here to help to perfect perfection. This is not contradictory - just an awareness that creation is ongoing. It is not yet over - life still has to be lived and work still needs to be done and that in itself is perfection. Inaction and perfection are not the same - it is better to be involved and active - that is all part and parcel of perfection. Perfection is not standing still, not resting on laurels. It is evidently perfect to strive to improve on things ever further. When you know it can be done and you don't doubt it and you know you are capable of achieving it, there need be no stress - no negative sense of pressure or obligation, just an open hearted and willing embracing of the challenge.

So life is preferable to death - don't doubt it because you are alive and programmed for continued survival. Existence is evidently preferable to non-existence. Just as G_d goes on existing, so should you try to go on existing and just as G_d sees fit to go on trying to improve everything, so should you. Progress is evidently preferable to stagnation and needs to be ongoing. Having something to do is evidently better than having nothing to do. When one's eyes are open to the truth of the Torah - the Hebrew Scriptures - one can look at the world and see that everything is good. Then one can embrace one's humanity and know that everything is very good. Without doubt.

Knowing What Is Right - Where there is a Will

Sometimes people ask me how a person can know what is right or wrong - how one ascertains what is for the greater good. I would reply that one must start by acknowledging that such a state of affairs exists. All options are not equal. Kindness is preferable to cruelty is just one example. People know this in their hearts, but intellectuals will often use cleverness to argue against such truth simply because they can, which is a misuse of intellect.

Having accepted that there truly is such a thing as right and wrong, we must exercise our G_d-given discernment to try to genuinely ascertain the most positive outcomes we can: very often, but not necessarily always for the greatest number of beings involved. We must recognise also that such things are not entirely black and white - spectrums are everywhere. With the benefit of hindsight, we can almost always think of ways we could have arrived at an even better outcome, but this is all just part of the progressive process - how we go on learning and how things can go on improving. We must use the information we have at our disposal at the time and do our best with it, without worrying about things that don't matter, such as how we might be judged by our peers.

Accentuate The Positive

When you actively seek to accentuate the positive and eliminate the negative, you will be in a position to judge what is right. If you fall prey to the lie that nothing really matters you will not be able to make such decisions - you'll be part of the problem rather than the solution. Train yourself to listen more and more to your yetzer tov: your good inclination and ignore your yetzer hara: your bad (and frequently lazy) inclination.

Knowledge - Good, Bad or Dangerous to Know?

G_d made the world and everything in it, so it is all good. He made a great many plants, minerals etc. that can be used exactly as they are for food and medicine. He gave people and animals alike the instincts and knowledge we need to use them.

But He also gave human beings the intellect to understand how things are comprised and how they work. We have advanced knowledge of how to assess, extract, utilise and develop active ingredients. He has given us the power to improve things further - to manufacture medicines and foodstuffs and tools that are even more efficient and useful for the greatest good.

The plants, the minerals and the knowledge of how to use them are all good because they can all be useful. The same knowledge that tells us which constituents are toxic gives us the knowledge of how to manufacture both medicines and posions. For that matter, many toxic chemicals can be used as medicines precisely because they are toxic, such as anti-cancer chemotherapy drugs.

Anything used in harmony with G_d's Will to continue creation for the greatest good is in and of itself good, whether at a small or large scale. G_d also gave us a sense of morality and a free will to make choices with and this is all good and necessary if we are to help fulfill His grand design - His great purpose.

If you just listened to an inner voice that told you how to do something constructive - something positive - something beneficial to the world, you probably just listened to your yetzer tov. But if you just concerned yourself with your own self-centred desires knowing full well you could have been doing something kinder or more beneficial for someone else, you most likely just listened to your yetzer hara.

Honour Your Father and Mother

Often a situation can be best improved by conserving, maintaining, servicing or developing what is already there, so don't be a rebel without a cause. Be prepared to listen to the wisdom that's already at your disposal. Honour your elders and betters by hearing them out and not thinking you always know best. Your fresh new take on things might not really be the solution. Wisdom can take a little time to develop - sometimes answers are simple and at other times they can be as complex as they currently are for a very good reason - precisely because many factors need to be weighed up. No one said it was going to be easy. I think that too often people try to oversimplify situations and arrive at new fixed rules, which is a form of intellectual laziness. At any rate, the core work has already been done for us by our ancestors - the Torah has already been given. We just need to run with the torch.

The "Same Old Same Old" Is Not Always Bad!

Look for the good rather than having a cynical default worldview that sees everything as broken, obsolete and disposable. This can be as true in the world of ideas as the world of physical objects.

Very often, necessity is the mother of invention - make do and mend - the Dunkirk Spirit and all that. There are times for reform and times for revolution, but there are many times for conservation too.