The benefit & trap of the internal arts:
We are lucky that in our lives, the internal arts exist.
They serve as a mirror, or a method to highlight our holding tendencies.
By using the arts as a medicine, we are able to remedy the illness of holding.
Of course, as with all medicines , they are to be used with wisdom.
Now for most, the internal arts come from the view of self defence – cultivating, both against ourselves , and also outside threats.
And so, here en-lies the problem, the trap :
Find release to control your opponent.
Let me put it simply – release to find liberation, quickly changes into release to oppress.
Or let’s say I’m practicing the arts for self health or healing.
Finding release brings a degree of freedom and comfort. This search for imperfections quickly becomes a quest for perfection.
And thus we find ourselves with the same underlying control mechanism in place, trained and fostered diligently, now veiled as cultivation. Hidden – well almost – because of course, what we see is the tendency to try and control our world, persisting and growing even stronger.
