Integral Martial Arts as Integral Spirituality
Nathanael
Running head: INTEGRAL MARTIAL ARTS
Integral Martial Arts as Integral Spirituality:
A Startling New Role for Martial Arts in the Modern and Postmodern World
Nathanael Chawkin
John F. Kennedy University
Integral Theory B
Spring Quarter 2008
The Integral Embrace: Transcend and Include
“…the Integral stages are the first stages that actually attempt to integrate all of the previous stages. One of the definitions of these earlier stages of human development is that each of these stages thinks that their truth is the only truth that is actually correct. And once you get to an Integral stage you realize that all of those truths are appropriate and correct in their own place and their own time and so there’s an attempt to integrate all of these worldviews and make room for them.” Ken Wilber (2006 8:25)
I remember the distinct feeling when I heard a friend of mine had given up his practice of my chosen martial art, Aikido, to pursue fighting in Muay Thai kickboxing competitions overseas. Aikido teaches non-violence as a means to world peace. It is a philosophy with physical form wherein one practices blending and non-resistance on and off the mat. It didn’t make sense. “But he’s such a nice guy….How could he do something so violent?” This contradiction in my worldview, this glitch in my personal meaning matrix has stuck with me as one of the first moments I could look back on and see the assumptions I held unknowingly. “Kickboxers are violent people.” Is that true? “All other martial arts are competitive and violent.” Is that true? “I am a peaceful, loving person, free from anger.” Can I absolutely know that’s true? Fear, it seems, comes from an unexamined sense of other, a “one right way” perspective, yet until you participate first hand in a community that you have made other and sought sincerely to listen for what is meaningful there, to feel what it is that captivates people there, then I would say you have not truly taken on that perspective nor tested the deeper integrity of your own. Without actually participating with an open mind in the ways of others, “taking another’s perspective,” actually getting into another’s shoes so that “I see what you mean,” is reduced to a lot of unexamined “us vs. them” rhetoric: “He or she or they do such and such and isn’t that horrible?” From this level of development should it be a surprise that there is so much projection, politics and in-fighting within martial and spiritual communities, even from people who claim to be promoting harmony, world peace and a spiritual path that leads in the direction of increasing awareness, wisdom and compassion?
My own martial path, starting with Aikido, has been a journey of ongoing inquiry, of questioning my own ideals in order that I might more fully embody them. As such I have experienced first hand what it is like to move from thinking that my truth “is the only truth that is actually correct” to traversing a range of different martial perspectives that in retrospect follow a familiar pattern of development: from unskilled formlessness to the study of a particular pregiven form, to a rational inquiry into what form is functional, to ultimately transcending physical form. It is my endeavor in this paper to transcend and include each of the important developmental movements I experienced along the way with the hopes of contributing to an embracing Integral perspective not only for my own art, but for martial arts as a whole. This ideally will return the martial arts to the spiritual purpose they were originally meant to serve as well as advance them towards a fuller, more Integral embodiment of spirituality by incorporating important developments from the Modern and Postmodern eras. What exactly would this look like? Can there be a perspective that unifies the various martial arts? What are the phases that need to be accounted for in order for our martial approach to create balanced, whole or otherwise Integral development in its practitioners? How can we honor tradition and yet embrace recent developments? While the first step towards exploring these questions is to tell the story of the originally embedded history of martial arts and spirituality, I would like first to introduce the very basics of Integral theory, the so called AQAL, “All Quadrants, All Levels” approach. Understanding the Four Quadrant model allows us to take multiple perspectives on what martial arts really entail and understanding the basic concept of psychological stages of development or Levels will allow us to spot the similarity in evolution between the historical phases of martial arts and those of spirituality. This will then allow me to similarly identify the role of an Integral Martial Arts with the role of Integral Spirituality, as discussed by founder of Integral Theory, Ken Wilber, in his (2006) book by this title, including the question of rationality vs. spirituality and the notion of the Great Conveyor belt.
Just the terms martial and art seem already to imply body and mind and as such they are already quite inherently Integral – what is needed is simply a framework that allows each of its diverse branches, definitions and developments to be brought together in a coherent fashion. The Integral model offers just such a framework – honoring the partial truths of each fundamental human perspective without exclusively privileging any one of them as the sole way to train or develop. The Quadrants divide experience between interior and exterior on the left and right and individual and collective on the top and bottom. The physical conflict that we normally think of as the focus of martial arts in the Upper Right (UR) Quadrant (the exterior of the individual i.e. the physical) is but a metaphor for other perspectives on conflict. A martial artist learns ultimately to deal with victory and defeat in the inner domain of his own mind and heart in the Upper Left (UL) Quadrant (the interior experience of the individual) as the hero Arjuna (or any Zen master) learns in the famous Hindu scripture, the Bhagavad Gita. Not separate from this, conflict must be confronted and resolved in interpersonal relationships (thus “verbal Judo”) in the Lower Left (LL) Quadrant (the intersubjective or interior of the collective). Finally, conflict manifests itself in the environment, requiring service within the Dojo among other structures of society and stewardship to nature in the Lower Right (LR) Quadrant (the interobjective or exterior of the collective). It is also useful to refer to each respective quadrant as “I,” “We,” “It,” and “Its.” Combining “It” and “Its,” we have three domains, “The Big Three” that correspond with classical philosophy’s the Beautiful that is in the subjective “I” of the beholder, the Good that “We” agree upon intersubjectively in social contract and the True that can be known by examining the “It” world objectively: Art, Morals and Science. What is important to remember here is that the quadrants simultaneously arise: conflict within is inevitably mirrored without, conflict in the collective influences the individual and reciprocally so in both cases. An Integral martial artist then is always forging himself in each of these areas, developing his capacity for self defense, ego awareness, skillful means in relationship with others, and engaged service to society – and uses each of these as a mirror and metaphor to work on every other.
“Life is growth. If we stop growing, technically and spiritually, we are as good as dead. Aikido is a celebration of the bonding of heaven, earth, and humankind. It is all that is true, good and beautiful.” Founder of Aikido, OSensei Morihei Ueshiba (Stevens, 1992)
What is fascinating about the Levels portion of Integral Psychology is the principle of transcend and include. Each new Level has important emergent capacities that define it as a Level – a whole that is greater than the sum of its parts (e.g. ‘wetness’ emerging from H2O). In that each stage transcends and includes the capacities of earlier stages, development is also envelopment. Freud summarizes this notion beautifully with his statement: “Where it was there I shall become.” The understanding that each developmental Level has important attainments creates a more compassionate view of personal growth. So, even though I made disparaging remarks above about those who are unable to take a 3rd person perspective, that is, to inquire objectively into their “one right way” truth claims through direct observation and evidence, I might extol this same level in another context. To someone who is essentially egocentric and impulsive, capable only of taking a 1st person perspective (I, me, mine), learning to delay gratification and participate in the rules and roles of a given society on the basis of mutual reciprocity – a 2nd person “Do unto others…” is a not just a first step, it is a major accomplishment in an of itself. While there are many who may cringe when we hear that a former criminal has become a born again Christian fundamentalist, as a student of developmental psychology, we know better. As much as we might wish, we know that it is impossible to skip stages – that growth is a step-by-step affair, and that every human being is born at square one and must be supported in making the journey through the basic Levels: egocentric to ethnocentric to worldcentric and beyond. As such, I think the key feature of Integral (a key feature that separates the term from Holistic) is the inclusion not only of “horizontal” categories such as Body, Mind and Spirit or the Quadrants, but of “vertical” structure stages of development. This lends the willingness to find the delicate balance between supporting whoever it is wherever they are and challenging them to reach out for the nearest handhold in their climb.
The basic levels of egocentric to ethnocentric to worldcentric are expanded by most developmentalists to include a more descriptive number of Levels – normally seven or eight. Each different theory looks at a specific Line of development e.g. one of Howard Gardner’s multiple intelligences, Abraham Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, or Clare Graves’ cultural values (or value memes). Other lines include cognitive (Piaget), moral (Kohlberg, Gilligan) ego (Loevinger), or spirituality (Folwer). Each stage grows in increasing complexity and sophistication as we can see from the color coded stages of worldviews in Don Beck and Chris Cowan’s Spiral Dynamics Integral system (Beck & Cowan, 2005). We can speak in terms of an Instinctive Beige value system that is concerned with basic survival needs; a Magical/Animistic Purple system with tribal chieftains and magical medicine men; an Impulsive/Egocentric Red culture marked by early empires and impulsive warlords; a Conservative-Traditional Blue society where self delays gratification to comply with a mythic order; a western, rational Orange achiever worldview that inquires scientifically; a sensitive Green holistic perspective that maintains the importance of diversity and universal rights; and finally, a Yellow integrated self that is the first level of a “second tier” in that it can allow and integrate each of the prior levels, supporting them just as they are, yet providing skillful developmental tugs where necessary to manage healthy growth up the spiral. Integral theory also explains that this development occurs as an evolution of the human species through history (phylogeny) but also within each human (ontogeny recapitulates phylogeny) such that, assuming healthy development, we move through Red during the “terrible twos,” into Blue around six or seven as we learn to follow rules and roles, Orange as we learn to think critically and strive for personal achievement starting in our preteen years etc.
Now that we understand the basic Levels, I would like to explain how they have evolved through time in a martial “brief history of everything” in a way that we can generally associate certain groups of arts with each different colored stage as they evolved through the historical phases of Premodern, Modern and Postmodern.
Traditional Martial Arts as Premodern Religion: Martial Yoga
Legend tells of Bodhidharma, the Buddhist Monk and master of the Indian martial arts system Kalari Payattu who was responsible for bringing both Buddhism and martial arts to China. After long hours in meditation, the monks of the Shaolin temple needed to strengthen their bodies and so Bodhidharma instructed them in the techniques of the Kalari system. With time, this evolved into what we know today as the animal styles of traditional Kung Fu. While the accuracy of the historic details are blurry at best, an important point is established with this legend: from Dhyan in India to Chan in China to Zen in Japan, Asian religion and Asian martial arts have always been carriers for one another, taking on different flavors as they evolved across the Asian subcontinent from Kalari Payattu, to Kung Fu to Karate and Jujitsu in their respective places. While the term martial seems to imply military or combat tactics (and to be sure, every martial art is part martial, part art in this sense), the Traditional martial arts we know today have a deep history within the monastic Buddhist practices of Asia. It is this spirit of silent, solemn inner awareness and self-discipline, shugyo, “tightening the slack,” that prevails in the strict codes of conduct and service to Sensei and Dojo of traditional martial paths, or Budo. Rather than a means to fight, the first Chinese character, pronounced Bu in Japanese, means “to stop the spear,” implying the actual resolution of conflict, the role of the warrior as diligent servant, upholding the Blue values of order in society. This brings to mind the familiar theme of the hero who sets aside self-interest to preserve justice – using his powers for good by protecting the weak and punishing the lawless. The second character Do or Dao (Tao) in Chinese means the way – which conveniently lends itself in English to being interpreted both as a physical path or way and as the cultivation of the interior consciousness that is mindful of the way you move. This brings to mind the image of the wise old master, speaking in metaphor, assigning menial tasks, ever guiding his young disciples in the principles of the way.
Long before the physical postures of Hatha Yoga were developed (also from Kalari movements), Yoga implied the practice of seated meditation – asana meaning simply the pose one would sit in to do so. Yet since the development of martial arts (including Hatha Yoga), physical postures, breathing exercises and meditation have been practiced in union (as in the Ashtanga Yoga). As such, I use the term Martial Yoga to describe the original, mutually embedded nature of spiritual and martial practice. While meditation allows us to quiet the mind and experience deep inner stillness and pure awareness, martial arts allow us to integrate this stillness into motion, to act from this stillness as a kind of moving meditation. As our interior stillness deepens, our capacity to maintain this inner equilibrium in the face of increasing outer disturbance increases as well until we become, as if, the eye of the hurricane. Through the repeated practice of martial forms, the practitioner reaches a mastery of form, responding formlessly and effortlessly to what arises in the moment. This peak state is generally referred to as the flow or zone state. Properly conceived of then, martial arts are moving Zen, moving meditation – all the many outer, physical techniques merely an opportunity to practice one inner technique: learning to keep our inner balance, to stay centered inside as we are attacked with increasing intensity. And spiritually, the more we mind the way we move and the inner space of stillness from which we move, the more we are moved – as stillness becomes the basis for action as we refine our ego through constant training and service, empty of self, attachment or aversion, what flows through us is the Universal Self. “I am the Universe!” as the founder of Aikido, Morihei Ueshiba exclaimed. We are an instrument of the Divine Will, spontaneous right action flowing forth to support the evolution of all. As it says in the Vedas, “Brahman is the charioteer of all action.” The inherent goal of training is self-mastery, Enlightenment, to become one with the Universe through the expansion of consciousness and compassion until it is unconditional – until it transcends all sense of other. The path of development in Traditional martial arts, as it is inherently Buddhist, is right in line with the scope of the perennial Great Chain of Being, from body to mind to soul to Spirit. Wilber, (2006) comments on this Traditional religious worldview as an important starting point on the way to Integral:
“As beautiful and brilliant as that interpretive scheme is, it is not without its problems. It is not so much that the scheme itself is wrong, as that the modern and postmodern world has added several profound insights that need to be added or incorporated if we want a more integral or comprehensive view.” (p. 218)
The terms martial and art also present a funny conundrum. On the one hand you have a means of fighting, a claim to physical functionality and on the other hand you have a form, an art, a mental practice. But to the extent that this is an inherent problem, it also provides an interesting physical metaphor for human development. Clearly we have two different things going on here: martial and art or stage and State development as they apply to Integral theory. We might suggest that Martial refers to functionality – one’s vertical stage (Level) of development or psychological maturity and that art refers to form – and one’s horizontal State of technical refinement and the spiritual experiences of flow that can result from high levels of performance. The problem with Traditional arts is that before the development of Rational, scientific methodology, martial and art were not differentiated and so, as with the Great Chain of Being, the physical was thought to be only the bottom level of the rung (body, then mind, then spirit) and that any higher level of mastery was the result of metaphysical powers. And herein lies the downfall of what we have come to recognize in Traditional martial arts and religion – old, archaic forms and rituals passed down that have little connection to practical, lived experience. In other words, the problem from the Traditional worldview is that we identify with the concrete, crystallized physical form as real and everything beyond that is thought to be metaphysical. Without knowledge of the evolution of the physical, one got stuck in the magical beliefs, mystical stories, and the sometimes pompous, presumptive, and untested claims common to all Purple and Blue martial arts. (“My style is too deadly for competition…”) Based on these beliefs, practice focused around the repetition of concrete forms in order to cultivate the metaphysical Ki or Chi energy that would enable you to throw your opponent without touching them, or send energy balls at him. This fundamentalist interpretation of reality is rampant to varying degrees in many traditional Dojos: “If I continue repeating my preset forms, eventually I will develop the Ki power necessary to be invulnerable and I will magically develop a formless mastery of all physical combat,” aka “If I merely say my prayers and accept these beliefs as the literal truth handed down by God, I will be saved and I will go to heaven.” The eastern equivalent of this is “If I just keep meditating, I will perfect my personality.” Ken Wilber (2006) suggests a solution to this problem when he says that the physical is not the lowest level, it is the exterior aspect of practice at every level – it is the Integral UR quadrant (p. 219). In reality, subtle energy or transcendent skill where it actually exists in Martial Arts is not magical or beyond the physical (and thus imaginary or meta-physical) it is commensurate with the higher material complexity and the important emergent capacities at each different stage that goes with it as physical training methodologies evolve (p. 227). Therefore the continued refinement of one's form or inner experience is necessary but not sufficient for the emergence of functionality. As with meditation, continuing practice at our current level can create more awareness or lead to glimpses into what actual functional Stage development requires but does by no means presume that we will decide to transcend our identification with concrete forms and the sense of approval we get from our traditional community for mastering the “one right form.” The paradigm shift wherein we adopt the higher order capacity to inquire rationally into what is true for our self at Orange represents the individuation process that every adolescent faces as s/he grows into a self-defining, self-responsible adult. Without this, even the most profound inner experiences will only support us in going “narrower and deeper” as we advance with the State of our inner experience yet continue to interpret them through our traditional, “one right way” Blue value system: unless we endeavor to grow rationally, psychologically, we simply become more of who we already are.
Sportive Martial Arts: The Dignity and Disaster of Modernity
“I do not believe in styles any more. I do not believe there is such a thing as…a Chinese way of fighting or the Japanese way of fighting or whatever way of fighting because …basically humans have only two hands and two feet. So “styles” tends to… separate man… because they have their own doctrines and their own doctrines became the gospel truth …that you cannot change…. But if you do not have styles, if you just say ‘Well here I am as a human being – how can I express myself totally and completely?’ now that way you won’t create a style because style is a crystallization….that way it’s a process of continuing growth.”
-Bruce Lee (1971, 6:48)
Not until a certain point in my own development as a martial artist, namely the shift from Blue traditional values to Orange worldcentric values could I begin to appreciate how riveting Bruce Lee’s words were, how revolutionary his approach, what a visionary he was as a forbearer of Modernity for martial arts. In this one simple quote lies the problem of the Premodern approach not only to martial practice, but to spiritual practice as well – the crystallization of spirituality into static, dogmatic, hierarchical, ethnocentric religions. And in the same quote, the dignity of Modernity: the onset of mature, multiplistic, formal operational thinking and the rise of rational, empirical science – the capacity to observe reality without superstitions, preconceived notions or beliefs. Historically, Modernity, or the rational enlightenment, resulted in what Wilber calls the differentiation of the value spheres – Art, Morals and Science. In the martial world, physical functionality could develop independently from an adherence to Traditional form, just as Art and Science could develop free from the constraints of religious Morality. Instead of memorization and regurgitation of dead forms, one learned by experimentation and direct experience: trial and error, observation and debate with a scientific methodology that carried findings cumulatively forward. Not that form disappeared, but an important body-mind integration ensued where form followed function: i.e. the forms you isolated and refined statically were chosen based on their “high percentage” effectiveness in alive competition and informed a living system, a dynamic mental game plan that was always being refined according to its results in lived bodily experience. It is interesting to note that Boxing and Wrestling and their combination in freestyle fighting, Pankration, (the most popular Olympic event in its day) were developed in Ancient Greece, again, by virtue of the culture allowing objective reasoning to develop independent of religious dictates. Some even say that it was the intermingling of these early martial arts with those of India during the occupation of the armies of Alexander the Great that gave rise to the eastern tradition in the first place. (And indeed I have seen a Greco-Roman statue of Pankration fighters mimicking precisely one of the very distinct moves practiced hundreds of years later in Japan – first in Daito-Ryu Aikijujitsu which then passed it to Traditional Aikido where it is part of the basic curriculum today.)
Within the Asian martial arts, the Modern sportive era began with the development of Judo in the early 1900s by Japanese Jujitsu master, Jigoro Kano. Kano Sensei removed what were considered to be some of the more dangerous movements from Jujitsu, including some of the smaller joint and leg locking techniques, but this in turn allowed the competitors to go full boar. The result was that sport was fully differentiated from art and a scientific system ensued wherein what was functional was refined based on repeated experimenting in competition just as the techniques of boxing and wrestling had developed. This Orange methodology continued with the development of Brazilian Jiu Jitsu from pre World War II Judo, an art that majored in applying the submission and choke holds of Japanese Jujitsu to a unique system of positional ground fighting. This lead to the apex of Orange in the early 90s, in what proved to be a revolutionary globalization of martial arts, the founders of Brazilian Jiu Jitsu (BJJ), the Gracie family, created the Ultimate Fighting Championship where styles from all the world’s martial arts were invited to compete together in no-holds-barred, “reality” fighting matches (initially BJJ defeated all comers without so much as a single punch). For the next ten years, the UFC acted as an Orange scientific system, refining the techniques that worked when almost anything goes. The result was what we now know today as the sport of Mixed Martial Arts (MMA), a unique, living combination of combat sports: BJJ, Muay Thai kickboxing, boxing, wrestling, Judo, Sambo et al. MMA still evolves to this day and bears with it the union of form and functionality resulting in natural movements, realistic timing and resistance. Instead of bowing to your sensei and copying him exactly, fitting your body into rigid, unnatural form that may or may not be functional, you have a coach who maximizes your potential with natural motions that work for your individual body and game plan. MMA coach Matt Thorton calls the gift of modern functionality and its bright Orange spirituality, Aliveness:
“Aliveness is about the freedom to use whatever works in the moment. Right action at right time. Which is another name for true compassion. A freedom that is only fully felt when one is completely immersed in the present moment of now, and free of the burden of beliefs, which manifest as thoughts. A clear mind fully aware of reality as it is now, and operating with absolute synchronicity within time and space, that is the real beginning of Aliveness.” (Thorton, 2005)
Modernity applied important critiques to the world of Traditional martial arts. Just as we could no longer believe the immature claims of the Premodern religions, so too have we begun to question the wish fulfillment fantasies and arrogant claims of the Traditional martial arts, and rightly so. In his video series, “Functional Jeet Kune Do” Thorton deals some heavy blows to the Traditional martial arts when he likens the practice of Kata or any choreographed forms with set patterns of attack and response to “pretending to play basketball” or choosing a sequence of chess moves and repeating them over and over again instead of actually playing a game in either case. As MMA becomes increasingly popular, Traditional martial arts get increasingly trashed. And here it is that in the dignity of Modernity, in the differentiation of scientific reasoning from the dictates of tradition, lies the disaster of Modernity: as with scientific materialism, everything is reduced to the physical. It’s all about fighting. Now spirituality in the UL, morality in the LL, and serving society in the LR are swallowed whole by the UR as the pendulum swings from religion to science. As a result, a deeper, more rational subject concerns itself with a more superficial object. Mistaking spiritual development as a whole for its immature expression in Premodern religion, Modernity threw the baby out with the bathwater. Traditional self-development, self-discipline and service to the Dojo, including reserving instruction in fighting arts for applicants with upright, moral character all went the way of the dinosaur as the grand scheme of Martial Arts were completely reduced to the most narcissistic, surface value. How tough a fighter are you? Who can kick whose ass? Leave it to the West to reduce martial arts to fighting or Yoga to physical postures that improve how you look. Yet this is what seems inevitable when outer development is violently disproportionate to inner: you have self-centered, blood thirsty fighters at Red using high Orange, global-centered technologies. This is a bit scary and presents an otherwise spiritually inclined modern youth, thanks to MMA, with an unfortunate dilemma: “Would I rather be an effective fighter or be ineffective but spiritual?” Wilber similarly discusses this false duality between rationality and spirituality in the world of religion in context of what he titles “The brutal choice faced by college students around the world.” (Note since Wilber uses a light spectrum for his stages, Blue=amber) From Integral Spirituality (2006):
“…a recent poll conducted by UCLA showed that, in America, 79% of college juniors say spirituality is important or very important in their lives, and 3 out of 4 of them pray (!). Yet they cannot discuss their faith with their professors, who are mostly orange to green, and who ridicule it; yet they are no longer really comfortable with the mythic and ethnocentric version of their amber beliefs and the fundamentalist version of religion held by many of their friends. A typical Christian student, for example, is embarrassed to talk about his religion with his professors, and even more embarrassed by his Christian friends….
College students are therefore faced with a brutal choice: continue to believe in the amber stage of spiritual development, OR renounce their faith.
That is exactly their horrifying option – live with amber and embrace Christ, or move to orange and renounce Christ – and it is virtually the only option given to these college students. In the development of their spiritual intelligence, they are frozen at an amber stage…and have no avenues where they can explore the orange or higher levels in the development of spiritual intelligence.” (p. 182)
Holistic Martial Arts as Postmodernity: Contextualizing Traditional and Modern
The 1960s marked the flowering of a third movement in the great unfolding of human potential. This brought the gifts of relativism, cultural diversity, liberal rights and the value of caring human relationships – the reintegration of sensitivity and the feminine. The Postmodern era began as a great pendulum swing away from masculine authority, control, hierarchy, industrialization, and imperialism, leveling scathing critiques at both Premodern and Modern eras in the process. As alluded to earlier, who cares if you develop inner detachment and have fantastic, flowing technique if you are unconscious of your rigid, ethnocentric value system, of the worldview from which you speak, of how you treat others? Spirituality that gives rise to absolute religious truth claims is held as highly suspect for the same reasons as the absolute truth claims of science: who interprets the “truth,” what special interest is behind this and what power does this create? The philosophy of the subject or the myth of the given explain that a pure consciousness free from unconscious cultural filters, ulterior motives, value structures, interpretations or judgments is really not possible. Instead, Structuralism addressed how our knowledge of what is real to us (ontology) is structured in different Stages of development, each of which has a different way of knowing (epistemology). Perception is not monological, the natural world awaiting our objective observation just as it is – it is co-constructive, contextual, based on automatic unconscious interpretation. Perception is filtered through our paradigm: we don’t so much see the world as it is as we see the world as we are. And here matured the notion of the Jungian shadow from the unconscious of Freudian psychotherapy: the repressed, disallowed parts of our self (both bright and dark) that we cannot see except as reflections of our projection onto others – and that seem to come along for the ride, no matter how much we meditate.
In the land of Martial Arts, both Traditional and Modern seem to have missed the message. Yet, this is not a hard problem to remedy. The way you move, that same mindfulness you apply on the mat can be applied off the mat – UR training can become a great metaphor as well for the way you live your life. Use your breathing awareness to keep your emotional center and become conscious of your shadow in LL inter-subjective relationships. Learn to flow. Take martial arts and apply it to your superego! Now that’s UL self defense! Instead of getting stuck in “one right way,” open yourself to being inclusive of other martial styles, as well as the complementary offerings that the Holistic, body-mind practices have to offer: from health, bodywork, dance and somatics to loving-kindness meditation, self-inquiry, personality-type systems, and psycho-spiritual practice. If physical cross training began the multiplistic evolution of functional martial arts, then the psychological and spiritual cross training marked the beginning of the pluralistic inclusiveness necessary for the move to Integral. The message from Holistic practitioners to fighters is a bit more exacting: there is no ultimate fighting. There are only different contexts with different rules. What happens in the street? What about modern weapons? What happens if you maim or even kill someone in reality? What are you fighting for anyways and what does this violence serve besides your self? What does one-on-one cage fighting have to do with anything truly important in the world at large? What is it all really about? In deconstructing the masculine ego of Modernity in this sense, Postmodernity returns the Good – returns LL moral virtue to the picture as part of the larger context in which the physical must embed itself as the original meaning of ‘Bu’ implies. Ultimately the physical must transcend the physical as metaphors for self-awareness, conflict resolution, human relationship, harmony, and non-violence for the development of inner strength. As the founder of Aikido states:
“All life is a manifestation of the spirit, the manifestation of love. And the Art of Peace is the purest form of that principle. A warrior is charged with bringing a halt to all contention and strife. Universal love functions in many forms; each manifestation should be allowed free expression. The Art of Peace is true democracy.” O’Sensei Morihei Ueshiba (Stevens, 1992)
From the perspective of a Green martial art such as Aikido, technique is a somatic metaphor, a mirror for the way we move energetically off the mat. It is a philosophy with physical form teaching us first as martial artists to remove the enemy from the world and find him as shadow within. “True victory is victory over one’s self,” as the founder also states, and becoming conscious of our otherwise unconscious ego reactions allows us to center ourselves and blend with the energy of an attack as it arises without resistance and ideally without injuring our opponent. Indeed from this unitive perspective, to injure an opponent is to injure one’s self – literally the same attacks that the superego directs outwards it directs as well within. In blending with what we make other in this sense, a powerful healing, a mutual transformation of self and other occurs, as we blend with and reclaim that part of our own psyche, unifying unconscious with consciousness.
The Integral Critique of Green
Given our preferences and aversions we often appear to skip around in our development – someone at a Red level of development adopting the highly effective fighting techniques of Orange for purely violent purposes or someone at Blue preaching the concepts of new age Green spirituality with as much of a “one right way” fervor as a religious fundamentalist. However, in order for Orange to be Orange, it must transcend yet include the important capacity to comply with rules and agreements that Blue entails. Otherwise you have a den of thugs not a team of professional athletes. And experientially, it is confusing to think that anyone we know at Green, for instance, has passed through and fully embraced Blue or Orange – considering that the sensitive Green meme is defined almost exclusively by its objection to them. One simple way to understand how a later Level seems to transcend but not include its previous Levels is Wilber’s notion that “All you need is a passing grade [the basic, essential capacities of that stage] to get to the next stage” (cited in Marquis, 2008, p. 77). Thus, we can get a ‘C’ grade in Orange because e.g. we were taught to think abstractly in school and to preach a universal acceptance of all cultures, but then turn around and argue for our own “one right way.” This makes human development a messy affair as almost anyone who is developed enough to speak can cognitively identify with the rhetoric of any higher level, co-opting that level for its own purposes. That being said, a truly healthy Green may be harder to spot than we think. It is the task of the idealistic and introspective Green self to begin to engage in the process of body-mind integration, of uncovering its shadows so that it can embody its theories in practice. This entails a continuous “spiraling” back around to revisit the unresolved issues from the past – a conscious “regression in service of the ego” wherein one turns those basic passing grades into best efforts to integrate undeveloped aspects of one’s own self. The challenge at this point however is that Green talks a good talk. It really is beautiful to identify with non-violence, unconditional positive regard, world peace and cultural equality – but unless Green’s principles are lived, it comes across as flakey or “new agey” to Blue and Orange and is ill-equipped when it comes to authentically connecting with other levels such that it can skillfully provide these populations with what they need to develop. In demanding that its own values be the right values, Green comes across as a higher order Blue parental figure, and like everyone else, cannot see that its own set of values, even if “spiritual,” may not be “the only values that are actually correct.” When this is the case, Green works really well for Green – isolating itself in the same manner as Blue prefers Blue or Orange sticks with Orange and so on. Just stating that others should just be Green already, or worse, that they are already inherently Green and just need to be nourished as they are since we’re all really on the same level makes actual development to the Green level next to impossible. Accepting seven year olds who have no boundaries just the way they are in theory is often tantamount to having them walk all over you in practice. Integral requires striking a balance between healthy masculine values: authority, agency, hierarchy and healthy feminine values: care, communion, and equality.
I might critique my own martial art, Aikido which, as commonly found, is Green to the point that it is content to strip itself almost entirely of its martialness and assume a form more akin to dancing than to combat. But what happens to the validity claims of Aikido when this is case? To what extent can it actually produce so called “peaceful warriors?” If Aikido aims to be functionally non-violent or gentle in practice, what does this actually require from an Integral perspective? Integral non-violence transcends and includes the capacity for violence. Otherwise, pacifism or aggression, yin or yang alone invariably results in violence. It’s not very non-violent to let yourself or others be hurt by an attacker (thus the difference between passive-resistance and Integral non-violence). On a physical level, Green lacks the methodology to actually test its techniques in competition and thereby develop the functionality that will actually accomplish its goal of embodying a capacity for non-violence. What does it mean to be non-violent only in the face of non-violence? Without this integration of inner peace in the face of increasing chaos, the irony as I see it is that anger and violence are merely repressed: pacifists can be some of the most angry people (thus Wilber’s term mean Green), and that, speaking from personal experience, in the name of gentleness or non-violence many Aikidoka become rigid, angry, or competitive the instant someone realistically resists their technique. What might this mean off the mat? Integral, if it means anything at all, means integrated – it's easy to be peaceful while you're meditating alone in a room or looking great in yoga class, but being integrated means that in the face of greater and greater irritation you have the capacity to maintain your awareness, your peaceful spirit, your loving nature – or keep your center and blend as we say in Aikido. And this doesn’t mean you suppress the fact that you’re emotionally irritated to keep a calm, “spiritual” exterior, it means you take a good look in the mirror and do the inner work necessary to “correct your own form,” evolving over time, much as a sportive martial art develops. A Green without the well developed Orange capacity to deal directly with confrontation, criticism and correction without simply avoiding them is limited in its ability to walk its talk. The power of positive thinking, the law of attraction, a mood of always being “loving” or “spiritual,” to the extent they are used to avoid that which is within, all serve to reinforce the ego persona through denial – it is then that spiritual practice becomes an obstacle to spiritual progress. How else can people spend years in therapy, meditation, yoga – or martial arts classes for that matter – even while wishing for the positive, and never really change? Without moving into what they repress, without seeing their judgments of masculine, yang energy, anger, competition, as reflections of that which is disallowed within (but nevertheless comes through unconsciously), the values that Green holds in such high esteem are left without integrity, and the self persists in its self indulgent narcissism and hypocrisy. And Integral, if it implies anything, should imply integrity. The deeper reality however, is that our darkest shadow is also our brightest – the thing we resist the most, the last thing we will integrate is the very thing that will assure that we embody our values. Having the courage to be emotionally honest, to acknowledge and appropriately express our own dark, aggressive impulses may provide the unsuspected step towards being more peaceful in practice; and, for those at Orange, having the sensitivity to “sit around and talk about your feelings,” rather than falling in love with those who can, may be the key to finding a sense of strength that no longer compensates for insecurity.
The Integration of Body, Mind and Spirit: The Pre/Trans Fallacy
Wilber explains that development from Premodern, to Modern/Postmodern to Integral is also the move from Prerational, to Rational to a Transrational level that, again, transcends yet includes the prior stages. But what has been apparent in our “brief history” is that not a single one of the forgoing stages transcends and includes the other stages and it seems we find ourselves back where we started, each believing that “their truth is the only truth that is actually correct.” To the Traditional worldview, the Modern and Postmodern lack true spirituality, service or self discipline. The Premodern looks superstitious and immature to the Modern who throws away its seemingly immature spirituality out of hand. The Postmodern, critical of an approach that is all physical fighting, yet no more keen on Traditional masculine hierarchy, is satisfied to abandon martial rationality and regresses to using diluted Prerational martial forms as a kind of psychosomatic “energy work.” Wilber explains these failures to fully integrate, i.e. transcend and include, with one of his most important contributions to developmental psychology, the Pre/Trans fallacy. The mistake that people make, the fallacy, is that because both the Prerational and Transrational are essentially non-rational, they get mistaken for each other. To restate the basic concepts: having evolved from the Prerational dark ages into a rational scientific Modernity, the feminine, the body and nature all become deeply repressed. As we are faced with the horrors of the Rational, we seek what is yet beyond the mind and non-rational, but make the mistake of going back to the Prerational fearing that any further emphasis on rationality or the mind will only take us further from the paradise from which we fell. This is the so called Postmodern “retro-romantic agenda” – back to the body, back to the way it was before technology, before the Cartesian body-mind split, before western civilization. In this case the fallacy is that Pre is elevated to Trans. However, the mental ego has developed to provide us with maturity, an objective perspective that dispels the irrational, ethnocentric thinking that held humanity in the grips of darkness, disease, superstition and suffering to that point. This creates a very different view of the role of rational thought as the step between early magical and later spiritual reality, one which I would suggest plays a crucial role in the martial world as well. Wilber (2005) explains:
“If indeed rationality is the great divide between subconscient magic and myth and superconscient subtle and causal, then its major purpose in the overall scheme of evolution might be to strip Spirit of its infantile and childish associations, parental fixations, wish fulfillments, dependency yearnings, and symbiotic gratifications. When Spirit is thus de-mythologized, it can be approach as Spirit, in its Absolute Suchness, and not as a Cosmic Parent.
When asked to explain the religious world view that rationalization is supposedly “destroying,” such scholars almost always point to magic or mythic symbologies, thereby elevating pre-rational structures to a trans-rational status. Since development does move from pre-rational myth to rational discourse to trans-rational epiphany, then if one confuses authentic religion with myth, naturally rationalization appears anti-religious. If, however, authentic religion is seen to be trans-rational, then the phase-specific moment of rational-individuation is not only a step in the right direction, it is an absolutely necessary prerequisite.” (p. 79).
The second problem is that having reached the Rational, we think that’s all there is. All Trans phenomena, all higher spiritual experiences beyond the understanding of mind e.g. the flow state, intuition, synchronicity – actually spirit, Consciousness or anything at all that science cannot explain empirically are reduced to Prerational phenomena – primitive, magical, belief based fantasies and inner experiences that are the result of nothing more than temporary brain chemistry. Frank Visser in his (2003) review of Wilber’s work skillfully summarizes the two extremes of science and religion and a third, middle way:
“In A Sociable God Wilber depicts the current status of religion in Western culture in the following way: (1) The established religions are on the wane as a result of the increasing impact of the secularization process. Many are disoriented by this and are currently seeking refuge in prerational, dogmatic forms of religion, which include both orthodox Christian groups as well as sect-like Eastern movements. (2) Others, such as the intelligentsia who dominate the media and the universities, will continue to pursue the process of rational development and will be satisfied with a humanitarian/secular worldview. (3) A small minority will set out in search of transrational forms of spirituality by following a certain spiritual discipline, which can take place within the context of Christian spirituality as well as within the context of Eastern spirituality. As far as Wilber is concerned, at this stage very few people are ready for this. By combining the sociology of religion with a developmental model, Wilber is able to explain why people find the traditional religious message less and less credible. They have essentially outgrown this kind of religiosity and are now looking for forms of religion that match the stage of religious development that they as individuals have reached.” (p. 138-9)
I hope by this point the reader can identify the parallel between martial arts and religion in the previous quotes. We might depict the current status of martial arts in Western culture in the following way: (1) The established martial arts are on the wane as a result of the increasing impact of Modern Mixed Martial Arts. Many are disoriented by this and are currently seeking refuge in highly dogmatic Prerational forms of martial arts. (2) Others will continue to pursue the process of Rational development and will be satisfied with a humanitarian/secular worldview. (3) A small minority will set out in search of Transrational forms of martial arts by following a certain martial discipline, which can take place within the context of a Traditional approach. Even though it seems that “Few people are ready for this” I get the sense in my own interactions with people that there is a growing desire for a certain martial discipline that preserves Traditional philosophy while embracing Modern and Postmodern methodology. Such an approach provides the Traditional context of martial arts as spiritual practice while allowing for the “rational-individuation” that is the “necessary prerequisite” for a truly Transrational Level of martial-spiritual realization. This inclusive third way sees every stage of development as an opportunity for therapy, for spiritual practice – each a different expression of the same mindfulness training (whether Tai Chi, boxing or martial principles in daily life). As the saying goes, “The further you progress, the fewer teachings there are.” Indeed, from this Transrational perspective, what is not Spirit? On the mat, off the mat, what is not an opportunity for practice? We bow onto the mat, but we never bow off. Surely this was glimpsed by the early masters who spoke of a mysterious way that permeated all things and with an Integral view we can actually structure the step by step progression towards this realization: from egocentric formlessness to ethnocentric Traditional form to Bruce Lee’s worldcentric self expression to multicultural Postmodern inclusiveness to the ultimate realization of that which transcends form as the Spirit within all sentient beings. Having arrived to this point, we can now discuss what it means to be an Integrally informed martial artist who embraces each of the prior Levels in order to manage growth up the spiral of development.
Integral Martial Arts as Integral Spirituality: The Great Conveyor Belt
Based on an AQAL approach, we might suggest that the Integral Life Practice (ILP) of an Integral martial artist exercises body, mind and spirit with Premodern, Modern and Postmodern theory and practice. In the UR we develop through Levels of physical technique with Traditional, Sportive and Somatic training practices. Training in the UL is marked by spiritual practice and study progressing from Traditional meditation and philosophy to Modern cognitive/psychotherapy and science to Holistic psycho-spiritual practice/self-inquiry and new age literature to Integral Life Practice and Integral theory. Adopting stage specific theory and practice allows each practitioner to experience the feel of a corresponding cultural worldspace in the LL, thus developing the memetic depth, or horizontal capacity necessary to master the curriculum of each vertical stage. In this sense, each stage is a particular Line of development in and of itself (call it a ‘Stageline’ if you like), helping us to “make the grade” in each case with different kinds of social conditioning. The Traditional worldspace has a flavor all its own, providing the strict etiquette, rules and roles necessary to well establish the capacity for compliant self surrender and service at Blue. The Modern worldspace is distinct from the Traditional, emphasizing the personal achievement, competition, peak physical fitness, toughness and determination necessary to feel at home in Orange. The Holistic perspective is a separate worldspace again, culturing the values of sensitivity, community, and wellness in body, mind, and spirit necessary to mature emotionally. Experiencing the kind of spirit in each type of class and spending time with the kind of people who choose to train there allows us to understand and integrate important aspects of our own self. This in turn contributes to our capacity to be authentically present with many different types of people and to apply skillful means on the basis of this wisdom and compassion. In the LR, the Integral Academy – part Dojo, part Gym, part Holistic center, holds a time slot for each of these developmental worldspaces in order to assure the growth of its students up the spiral of development. Like a Holistic center, Integral brings together many diverse offerings and practices as desired, but unlike a Holistic approach, it “flex-flows” i.e. includes or excludes practices within the bigger picture of what is needed in each unique case to promote growth up the spiral.
This brings us to “the Great Conveyor Belt” approach of Wilber (2006) who explains that since 70% of the world’s population is still part of a Traditional religion, they are the ones who can take the responsibility of encouraging growth towards more rational, introspective and embracing forms of spirituality. This parallels the surprising fact that 85% of martial arts practitioners are under the age of thirteen (Martial Arts Museum n.d.) and seems also to reflect the lack of value that educated adults place in Traditional martial arts as a path of development beyond the childhood shift into Blue. If a martial art or a religion can actually include the study and practice from Orange and Green levels of development necessary to encourage continued personal growth then the Dojo might live up to its name as “place of the way” in a more Integral sense. Instead of martial arts or religion being for children, or those who think like them, spiritual practice is deepened through a continued course of training that is developmentally appropriate. By including what Wilber calls the 3 Ss: State, Stage, and Shadow, we contribute to a fuller definition of Enlightenment that includes both psychological and spiritual growth. Meditation practice provides growth in the inner experience of spiritual states of consciousness. This creates the greater spaciousness and self awareness necessary to advance psychologically through inner work, study and training within worldspaces that contribute to confronting the specific developmental challenges of each successive stage. This ideally provides a smooth course of growth preventing the need to revisit the shadows of each stage in later life: e.g. a “problem with authority” at Red, “one right way thinking” of Blue, the insensitivity of Orange or the hypersensitivity of Green. In addition, this also provides multiple “entry points” to the Conveyor Belt as each person resonates different practices based on their developmental center of gravity. An Integral approach welcomes a student base with a diverse range of initial motivations all the way from “kicking ass” to physical fitness to inner peace. To this ends, the Academy might comprise a team of Integrally informed teachers, each with a different area of expertise, or simply invite the appropriate people in at certain times to hold classes, lectures or workshops. For example, many Traditional Karate schools now bring in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu instructors; many BJJ Academies offer Yoga. Keeping an AQAL approach in mind, the first step is simply a matter of supplementing where needed – a modular approach as in ILP wherein we choose something from each Quadrant and Level. Traditional schools might e.g. offer space and time for meditation, Yoga and massage, host a Muay Thai or BJJ instructor a few times a week, and invite someone to give a workshop on shadow work, ILP, the Enneagram, Life coaching, somatics, or create a Martial arts and “The Power of Now” discussion group. Sportive schools may find benefits from taking up the more structured, disciplined approach to learning that Traditional schools excel in and can enlist their senior students to promote a more service oriented attitude in the gym. They too can offer meditation and Yoga, and even think about sitting around and talking about ideas and feelings a little bit with one of the Green offerings listed above. As for those with Green practices such as Yoga, Tai Chi, or some of the more flowing styles of Aikido – give yourself the chance to confront and transcend your fear or anger in small steps through the kind of psychophysiotherapy that a more combative martial art can provide. Also, psychospiritual practices that support emotional body-mindfulness and shadow work in addition to cultivating “positive” feel good experiences will support Green’s inner work. Overall, you may find moving more intensely into your body in both cases to be quite agreeable – even invigorating and empowering when all is said and done.
An Integral Aikido is an Alive Aikido
In conclusion I would like to briefly discuss my ongoing project to create an Integral Aikido, one which has as its fundamental context the notion of spiritual practice, of stillness in motion – moving Zen, which sees the body on the mat as a somatic metaphor for the way we live off the mat in daily life, but is also willing to continue to evolve and transcend its Traditional definition of form through the incorporation of Modern, alive training – boxing gloves and all. In this case, anything that can effectively secure the goal of Aikido – to control one’s opponent without hurting him – and can be used with the spirit of Aikido becomes Aikido. Aikido, for me, has transcended form, and is a spirit – a way of treating your training partner and a way of being. As I've grown, I've been increasingly surprised to find this spirit all over – not just in my style of Aikido, not just in Aikido, not just in other complementary martial arts, but in all martial arts, and in all people. This is the second step in addition to the parallel offering of these practices within the same Academy: the evolution of a wholly new integration of these practices. “If we stop growing, technically and spiritually, we are as good as dead” implies the freedom to constantly inquire and refine, to make amendments based on the leading edge of growth within a “community of the adequate.” In allowing the boundaries to begin to blur and each of the stages to intermingle, their can be a martial creative birth of a new Aiki form that more clearly reflects our highest self, simultaneously serving as functional spiritual practice, self defense, and way of life. I look forward to pioneering this approach with the hopes that it will satisfy those who seek more sincerely to open up to spiritual experiences, to embody their practice in daily life, as well as those who would like the technique informing this process to feel intuitive and real. Those with gentle hearts have only to claim their power. If the meek shall inherit the earth, then in a spirit of love and gratitude to O’Sensei for the unimaginable gifts that Aikido has presented me with so far, I offer a new approach to lend confidence, prowess, and power to those who deserve them most.
References and Resources
Beck, D., & Cowan, C. (2005). Spiral Dynamics: Mastering Values, Leadership and Change. : Wiley-Blackwell.
Marquis, A. (2008). The Integral Intake. : Routledge.
Martial Arts Museum. (n.d.). Retrieved June 1, 2008, from http://www.martialartsmuseum.com/Themuseum/design.htm
Pierre Burton Show. (1971, December 9). Bruce Lee "Lost" Interview. Retrieved May 14, 2008, from http://youtube.com/watch?v=eZ0RF_QetSQ
Stevens, J. (1987). Abundant Peace: the Biography of Morihei Ueshiba Founder of Aikido. : Shambhala Press.
Stevens, J. (1992). The Art of Peace. Retrieved May 14, 2008, from http://www-cse.ucsd.edu/users/paloma/Aikido/artpeace.html
Thorton, M. (2005, July 30). Aliveness 101. Retrieved May 14, 2008, from Straight Blast Gym Intl. Web site: http://aliveness101.blogspot.com/
Visser, F. (2003). Ken Wilber: Thought as Passion. : State University of New York Press.
Wikipedia. (2008, May 13). Martial Arts. Retrieved May 7, 2008, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martial_arts
Wilber, K. (2005). A Sociable God: Toward a New Understanding of Religion. : Shambhala.
Wilber, K. (2006). Integral Spirituality: A Startling New Role for Religion in the Modern and Postmodern World. : Integral Books.
Wilber, K. (2006, April). The Spirituality of Tomorrow. Retrieved May 21, 2008, from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SUNlpyfT2LU
Access: Public
aikido
June 2008 