Tranquil as a Forest but On Fire Within

Please take a minute to enjoy this video.

And in case you don't catch all those words, here are the ones most pertinent to this post: 

Let's get down to business to defeat the Huns

Did they send me daughters when I asked for sons?
You're the saddest bunch I ever met
But you can bet before we're through
Mister, I'll make a man out of you!

Tranquil as a forest but on fire within
Once you find your center you are sure to win
You're a spineless, pale, pathetic lot
And you haven't got a clue
Somehow I'll make a man out of you...

(Be a man)
You must be swift as the coursing river
(Be a man)
With all the force of a great typhoon
(Be a man)
With all the strength of a raging fire
Mysterious as the dark side of the moon!

For those of you who don't know this already, I am taking a Tae kwon do class here in Korea. Our trainer has 7 Black Belts. (The highest you can go in TKD is 9 Black Belts, and he is going to take his test to get his 8th belt in December.) there are around 20 people in the class I believe. Approximately 2/3 or female. None of us have any previous experience in any martial art, and most of us have done very little in our life that was half as demanding, either mentally or physically. Take a look at the scene around 20 seconds in the video where Mulan/Ping walks in front of Captain Li Shang. Now imagine Mulan is a string of foreigners and the Captain is our teacher.

There are several reasons for the looks of disappointment and discouragement that are quite plainly seen on his face. First, most of us could be accurately described as a spineless, pale, pathetic lot who don't have a clue, even after being shown a move 5 different times. Second, being swift as a coursing river, having the the force of any kind of typhoon let alone the strength of a raging fire are skills that come with time and focus, LOTS of time and focus. And third, most of us have no clue what it means to be "tranquil as a forest but on fire within." 

This last point is painfully obvious to me at the moment. And by painfully obvious I mean that I am sore in places I have never been sore before. Why? Because I have so rarely attempted to kindle the kind of fire within my body that Tae kwon to calls for. 

Not only does TKD require strength in the neck, shoulders, elbows, and wrists, upper and lower arms, core, glutes, thighs and calves, hips, knees, and ankles, it requires stamina as does any kind of physical training never tried before. But besides immense strength and stamina, it takes balance, precision, and coordination. 

Balance because standing on your right leg and rotating at the hip while swinging your left leg around, kicking, and returning means your upper half has to go the opposite direction - and when the leg goes up, something has to go down, usually the shoulders. But there is an art to balance. You can balance effectively without executing the position anywhere near accurately. Because every movement has meaning.

Tae kwon do doesn't leave much room for fooling around. Forget to move the other arm at the right moment and you can expect to get a nice kick to the chin. (No, I haven't experienced that yet...) If your foot is too close to your body, your balance will be off and your leg my interfere with the next move. 

But that leg is not the one you are worrying about. Coordination is the area in which we have focused most directly in the last month. Don't forget you have two legs and two arms. Oh, also, you have two ankles and two wrists, and two hands and two feet! And you are using all of them. At once. The best thing I can compare TKD to is dancing, moving every part of your body in different directions, in controlled and hopefully synchronized motion. All muscles are on call and every limb is alert and alive with anticipation. Like a fire flowing inside.

But it's controlled and regulated by a firm and calm mind. The intense fire harnessed in each muscle is masked by a face that presents total tranquility. 

Naturally, I've already got that down to an art. The art of punching and kicking - Tae kwon do.