As you enter into physical conflict,
initially you are either the hunter or the hunted. The hunter
has only one goal in mind, to make the kill. This creates
confusion for the hunted. The hunted may have many qualities
that help them live a good life, humility, mercy, forgiveness, but
these qualities make no difference to the hunter, and at that
moment they are of no use to the hunted either. Believing they are
useful or worse, projecting those feeling onto the hunter is of no
value whatsoever, in fact they are enormously
detrimental.
Therefore, there is only one option
open to the hunted and that is to switch to becoming an equal
predator and adopt the hunter mentality. This is not an easy
switch for the person who sees the best in others, believes in the
merciful nature of man or ignores the sign of imminent danger, but
it is the only true option. Believing that, as the hunted,
the hunter will let you off the hook, is mindless optimism at
best.
If you decide to train in the martial
arts, you are training in the arts of the hunter, but that is not
enough. It is the mental attitude that separates the warrior
hunter from the rest. Physically knowing the moves does not
make you the hunter.
You can, however, start to bridge that
gap in training. Practicing the switch from 'monk' to warrior
remains a symbolic gesture in most dojo's, but that symbolism is
rarely understood and even less, practiced. It starts with
the initial meditation. The Dojo is a place of great peace
and great violence and the opening meditation is your initial time
to practice leaving your day-to-day life behind and switching into
hunter warrior mode. You need to start practicing this
immediately, meditation is the head space and time to switch, in
time this switch time will need to be in milliseconds, but for the
time being at the beginning of class you are given the luxury of
taking your time - don't waste it.
My Master, Sifu James Keating refers to
this as 'Raising the Shen' it's not the full explanation of course
but it's a start. Sifu Keating call on that hunter warrior
switch like he calls on a big, snarling dog to stand by his side,
to be deployed or dismissed at his leisure, I like that
analogy. It strikes fear into your opponent's heart, that is
the goal.
If you have switched into warrior mode
in the dojo, you are in an environment that does not present a
clear and present danger to you, mostly you're surrounded by
friends, so the full effect is not there, but that should not stop
you from developing and switching from monk to warrior. The
dojo is there to provide you the opportunity to practice another
key attribute of the hunter, controlled aggression. Every time you
engage in your kumite, or 3 step sparring, or any other aspect of
your training, that is the time to practice moving to hunter mode
and practicing controlled aggression. This is a mind set of total
dominance and faith in yourselves to make the kill.
The story goes that the Samurai will
give up his life readily, I do not interpret it that way. The
Samurai does not want to give up his life easily, the
warrior/hunter samurai adopts a mindset where his self-belief and
confidence does not waver, and with that full commitment he enters
the battle. His death, if it happens, comes as a complete
surprise, not a thought he had considered even for a second at
anytime before, therefore it has no relevance. If he dies,
then he will never know, therefore it is not relevant. This
attitude is frightening, total confidence, and a sense of total
dominance is obvious in the warrior, someone who does not fear
death is an opponent who will be hard to stop.
Training is training, and it is
training for the mind and the body. Many
schools focus on the physical, and talk about the mental, but think
that gap will organically close by itself. That is rarely the
case. Training for the mind to develop that hunter mentally
needs to be part of the school, otherwise your martial arts
training remains a hobby, a sport or an activity, and if that's
what you're looking for then that's fine, but don't call yourself a
warrior. Therefore, when we are training let your ego get the
better of you is not helpful, you only learn when things go wrong,
getting things right actually hinders your growth because it robs
you of experience and options. Training is the best scenario
to develop options, attitudes and techniques, these need to be
honed so they are available to you when you don't have time to
think, are in a hostile environment and in imminent physical
danger.
Practice the hunter mentality every
chance you get in the dojo, 'fake it until you make it'. The
strategies you employ then become options and choices to achieve
your hunter goals. When a mongoose and a cobra fight, both
are deadly, but neither takes a passive position, their strategies
are different, the cobra waits patiently to strike while the
mongoose move quickly and with purpose, but they are both hunters -
warriors for their own survival. When you think this way, you
start to understand why the Chinese style mimic the animals, snake,
tiger etc., the Japanese talk about the elements, air, water and so
on. They are mimicking the strategies and warriors of the world we
live in.
If you find yourself the hunted and you
can switch to an equivalent hunter/predator mentality, then
something shifts in the exchange very quickly. All predators
know that suffering an injury in the wild is a slow death sentence,
which they will try to avoid at all costs. When two tigers
fight, both have huge potential to be hurt, so the chances it will
end quickly with a 'tactical withdrawal' is very high.
Predators do not want to risk injury to themselves. Humans
have the same mentality, why do you think young hooligans pick on
old people? Why is it that studies show that the only thing a
hardened criminals fears to personal injury? If you adopt a
hunter mentality and demonstrate your ability to inflict as much
damage as your opponent, then chances are a 'tactical withdrawal'
will result. If you maintain your hunted mentality, then
prepare for your hunter to go for the kill.
The sword of no sword is the warrior
who projects such a presence of total dominance that the opponent
is too frightened to make a move so they do nothing or
withdraw. My favourite line from the movie "The Usual
Suspects' when Kevin Spacey's character was asked why he didn't
shoot Keyser Soze when he had him in his sights, his response was
"but what if I missed'" and this is the perfect example of the
sword of no sword.
In summary, start to practice
developing and engaging a hunter warrior mentality throughout your
training and especially in your sparring. Your presence and
desire to dominate, what the Japanese call Seme, is an essential
part of training. If you put yourself in situations of
physical conflict, learn to be the hunter and learn to turn it on:
controlled and fast.
