Articles

Discipline, Commitment & Motivation

2012-01-01T02:27:53Z

Happy New Year! And with it being New Year, a time when many of us consider making changes in our lives for the year ahead, I thought it would be useful to post this extract from the recent Cheng Hsin Newsletter. It is a response by Peter Ralston to a letter asking about the nature of, and relationships between, discipline, commitment and motivation. The letter writer is known to Peter and so there is some personilastion within its contents, but I think that everyone will find it useful to consider what he has to say. During my apprenticeship with Peter in 2010, one of the most useful personal breakthroughs I made was that discipline, rather than being a restriction, is actually a means to finding freedom from the limitations of my habitual way of being. I trust that you will enjoy and gain benefit from what Peter has to say.

"Discipline is taking on something that doesn’t naturally befall you. In other words, any time you want something to occur that doesn’t arise from what you’re already motivated to do through your programming — be it losing weight, contemplating, pursuing some path or taking up some practice —then you need discipline. Discipline then is simply taking on something different from what's habitually created by your programmed whims and fears, distractions and impulses, reactions and desires. As we’ve heard, those motivating impulses occur to serve what is already identiﬁed as one’s self, so those activities seem to come naturally. For something to occur that does not arise from what's already running the show requires discipline. Taking it on or making it happen is commitment.

"Commitment is simply giving your self over to pursue some action or result or process, period. There is a relationship between promising to do something and commitment. This is true whether you give your word to another or to yourself. Once you’ve promised some action then you are bound to the action that you
promised. That’s what a promise is!

"People often don’t want to be bound by their word because it means they must forego any behavior that is inconsistent with what they've promised. This includes behavior that may arise from one's self agenda. Those whims, desires, or fears that continually push you or tempt you toward inconsistent behavior cannot be acted upon. You don’t get everything you want, and you may have to confront some things you don’t want. Such situations can easily arise when you give your word. Yet this is what being committed is all about, including being committed to keeping your word. Commitment is devoting your life energies, your beingness, to making something happen.

"Given that’s the case, you often have to choose one act over another, because some acts are inconsistent with what it is you're trying to bring about. But, remember, you don’t have to give your word, nor do you have to commit to something. You should know what it is and what it requires, and give your word accordingly. If you do, then keep it. Otherwise, don’t give it. It’s that simple.

"If you don’t give your word, then, in this context, you don’t get those things that only discipline or commitment can provide. What you do get is to answer to all the minor whims you may desire. Whether these whims provide what you want or not is up for grabs. Yet, even if they do, it is always temporary. Committing to something “larger” than yourself, however, actually tends to dissolve most of your life problems and dissatisfaction. It makes your life about something greater than pursuing all the little ups and downs of a self agenda.

"In your own case, you can witness that your failure to commit creates massive dissatisfaction. You obviously can’t take a stand, and when you do, you fail to keep at it. You do get to do what you want when you want, but you are endlessly bound to the force of a self-agenda and its limitations and whims, without really knowing what that is all about. So your commitment is solely to your self. Note that it’snot actually a commitment to your being — which remains unknown to you — but to something adopted to serve survival. Living life in relation to excuses, second guessing, and confusion is not a recipe for satisfaction. Committing to something that you consider worthwhile and then sticking to it, even if you change your mind later on or you ﬁnd it difﬁcult, will create far more satisfaction in your life, regardless what it is you commit to.

"Do you need motivation to commit? No,actually you don’t. Most people think they do, however, since they can’t imagine committing to something unless they strongly desire to get something from doing so. This makes sense. But you don’t actually need motivation, you simply have to do it. You could just commit to something without any internal impulse to motivate you. The internal impulse — such as desire, fear, greed, guilt, shame, lust, and so forth — that motivates you toward some end, is something that relates to your self identity and self image. That’s why it motivates you. But you can create something just to create something without any such motivation. You could commit to wearing a green shirt every day for a week. Or you can commit to something just because you think it is worthy, independent of what it might do for you personally.

"Because motivations related to a self agenda rely on identity and programming, the question of better or worse is irrelevant. Your program already classiﬁes and evaluates what is good and bad and so what is better or worse for you. If you try to create something outside of your set agenda, then you will probably come up with some idea of a better way to go, something to accomplish. And this is likely to be an ideal and so a concept, and this concept will relate to your programmed interpretations of reality. But what else can you do? Either you work to create something that's not already given or adopted, or you follow your impulses.

"When you try to create a new direction for yourself, you are likely to go through many challenges and to proceed in stages. Your ﬁrst attempts, although well-meaning, will be limited to what you already know and can envision. This is all right since you have to start somewhere. As you grow and progress towards this goal, you will need to become increasingly conscious of what stands in your way so that you can get past it and proceed. In turn, getting free of the programs and assumptions that stand in your way will allow you new insights and you will realize that your goal isn’t actually what you want or need. When this happens you will need to change your “idealization” — how you picture or imagine what your goal should look like — to something more accurate and aligned with what’s true, as best you can ascertain what that is at the time. This will go on as you continue to grow and become more conscious, until at some point you can give up your ideal completely and replace it with new goals that are consistent with your real and created commitment — for example, real personal transformation.

"This process needs commitment and discipline. And you can’t let doubts or second guessing stand in your way. You have to clarify for yourself what you want to really be up to and undertake it soberly. In simple, I’d say, do the best you can, and as you grow do better."

If you would like to receive the quarterly Cheng Hsin Newsletter you can sign up for it here.

Cheng Hsin Body Being

2011-06-09T03:43:43Z

An aspect of training that I believe Cheng Hsin addresses very well is how we use our body, mind, senses and feeling. For this area of study we use the term body-being to remind us that we are not only dealing with a physical object but also a conscious being. Whether we are training martial arts, or simply living, we are doing it via the body-being.

The Cheng Hsin body-being is defined as manifesting five principles. These are;

relaxed
whole
centered
grounded
calm

With Cheng Hsin’s goal of being effortlessly effective, it is not surprising that the lead principle is relaxation. Relaxation allows for speed, flexibility, balance and changeability. Relaxing allows us to align with gravity rather than fighting it and effortless power simply wouldn’t be effortless without it. Most people do not even begin to take relaxation to the extremes that Cheng Hsin students do, flinging their floppy bodies around like rag dolls and trying to achieve results without any tension at all. I have not seen any physical endeavour that takes relaxation so seriously.

Being whole requires that we feel all of the body, all at once, all of the time. It is literally a matter of integrity and, like relaxing, affects equally the body and mind. While being sensitive to all our body we want to use it as a whole, with every part directed towards our goal, no part fighting any other. A whole wave knocks you over, the spray only gets you wet. Being whole is vital to balance as it is the whole that we are balancing.

Being whole goes hand in hand with being centered. They are the same event, one being a function of the other. Moving an object from its centre is essential to efficiency and power. Eastern physical disciplines such as yoga and the martial arts have a long history of valuing and promoting the power of the centre region in the lower abdomen. Many people hold their awareness high in their bodies. When we bring our attention down to our lower abdomen we notice that we are calmer and literally more centered physically, mentally and emotionally.

As terrestrial beings, living in the earth’s field of gravity, we have a particular relationship with the ground. If our bodies are poorly aligned with gravity there will be unnecessary strain on the body. This misalignment will drain energy, need to be compensated for in movement and, over time, will lead to deterioration of the body. Relaxing dramatically will draw our attention to these misalignments and we can begin to redesign our posture and movement so that every part is stacked from the ground up. This not only frees the body up, it is also an essential component of generating effortless power.

The way we hold our body is not separate from how we hold our minds. One is reflected in the other. When our mind is disturbed or distracted by thoughts, worries or emotions we will not be free in our responses. Modern sports psychology refers to a flow state in which athletes are able to perform at peak levels, under apparently great stress, while reporting an eye-of-the-storm-like calm. This is not achieved by resisting or denying influences but by allowing them to be, without reaction or resistance. Calm is closely linked with relaxation and is impossible if the body is tense.

These five principles are trained throughout the various practices of Cheng Hsin, training techniques, doing partnered exercises and playing games. Additionally, there are many exercises aimed directly at developing these principles. At the end of three weeks of the Cheng Hsin retreat in Texas, attendees were able to fill an entire whiteboard with body-being exercises.

Those who have practiced Cheng Hsin will have noticed that in training the body there is a great deal of mind work. Consistent with the inseparability of the two, and reflecting Peter’s own training, the mind is consciously harnessed in redesigning our body through the use of visualisation and meditation exercises combined with movement. The fact that much of this work is imperceptible to an onlooker is one explanation of the term internal training. However the result of such training is very perceptible, with greater grace, speed, maneuverability and power. The use of feeling-imagery is something that I will write more on in a later article.

As a specialised tool for body-being training, Cheng Hsin has it’s own set of solo exercises, a Tai Chi set. This set is a choreographed sequence of movements in which all the aspects of Cheng Hsin body-being can be practiced and improved. Although there are specific applications for the various movements they are less important than the overall quality of movement and awareness with the body-being being functional throughout the set.

The study of Cheng Hsin body-being is a huge endeavour and would make a very fulfilling practice all by itself, applicable to all areas of life. There are many more considerations and exercises for developing posture, movement, perception and the nervous system than I am aware of in any system of Aikido and I am certain that aikido practitioners would learn a lot and benefit greatly from exploring this approach and method of training.

Peter Ralston - Founder of Cheng Hsin

2011-05-23T02:20:49Z

Most students of Aikido will have at least a basic awareness of its history and the biography of its founder. The bones of the story are that Ueshiba was a restless spirit, with great energy and drive, who learned Daito Ryu Jujutsu from Sokaku Takeda and then transformed it into Aikido in response to his own spiritual journey which was strongly influenced by his relationship with the Oomoto-kyo guru Onisaburo Deguchi. The Aikido world today understands Ueshiba and his art through the various prisms of the teachers and organisations that have served its international dissemination and growth over the past 40 years. There are resonances between the stories of Ueshiba and Ralston, and there are also distinct differences, so I would like to provide an overview of the birth and development of Cheng Hsin.

Born in the USA, Peter Ralston grew up in Singapore and Japan, returning to California in his mid teens. He had begun practicing Judo at nine but didn’t show particular interest, nor ability, until this time. He had been progressing at the usual slow and steady rate of most students but became impatient with this. He felt he needed to practice more but the dojo wasn’t open often enough. His answer was to begin practicing mentally rather than physically, visualising techniques over and over. At first he imagined that he was successfully completing techniques but when this led to no improvement he realised he was just fantasizing and that his imagination needed to better reflect reality. To do this he had to be more accurate and complete in his visualisation, recreating all of the feelings of actually practicing. He worked back and forth between his experience on the mat and his mental exercises.

One night he did a technique perfectly in his mind and knew that he had it. In the dojo the next day he pulled off the technique perfectly, as visualised. Not only was the technique successful, but Peter also knew that he had discovered something powerful about using his mind. He continued this way of practicing with renewed vigor and one evening;

“I simply “got” Judo. I got what it was, the essence of it. I understood what the founder of Judo, Jigoro Kano, had in mind. Judo was supposed to be easy! After that, it was easy. Suddenly I didn’t have to learn technique after technique searching for “Judo” - I could create techniques from my new understanding. I went from a yonkyu to shodan in fifteen months. No one else in the dojo accomplished this in under five years.”

Peter is quick to point out that this was not magic, it is simply that conscious insight makes an enormous difference in physical performance. As he studied other martial arts he noticed that there was a lot of talk about how things “had to be” or internal powers but much of it seemed founded on belief and fantasy. Even while studying these arts, Peter continued to investigate consciousness directly.

Subsequently, Peter was introduced to Zen contemplation. Within the first few months Peter had a direct experience of reality, an enlightenment experience. The clarity that he gained from this greatly accelerated his martial ability. He was able to read an opponent’s intention and found that the more he let go of his own desires the more he was able to achieve them. Continued intense contemplation led to more insights and, in turn, more leaps in skill.

This amalgum of consciousness, movement and relationship was the birth of Cheng Hsin, which may be translated as genuine heart or true being.

One of the primary goals that Peter set himself was to find an Effortless Power, a power that wasn’t reliant upon muscular strength but could be achieved while remaining completely relaxed. Despite seeking out the best teachers available, no-one demonstrated such an ability. Nonetheless, Peter felt it was possible, and set out to find a way. He was studying Northern Chinese Kung Fu at the time, and while the other, predominantly Chinese, students were performing beautiful movements, Peter was flopping around like a rag-doll. To begin with the results were not encouraging, he bounced off his opponents, or was thrown down himself. But he stuck to it, practicing hours every day, and slowly began to see results, haphazardly at first, and then with more regularity, until he could consistently strike, throw and uproot opponents while remaining completely relaxed, primarily through generating particular mind or feeling states. Through controlling internal states he could produce external results.

The search for an effortless power influenced other aspects of Peter’s training. He abandoned blocking and parrying for other means of neutralisation, such as yielding and dodging. This required a shift in the way of relating to an opponent, no longer adversarial, instead blending with and joining in on their activity, leading them and borrowing their power to return it back to them.

Peter looked into the many martial arts around him and tested himself in competition with practitioners of many arts, refining his methods and understanding. His skill was very apparent to those who met him and he began to attract more students. When it came to teaching people, Peter experienced the difficulty of getting across his insights to others. His approach was well outside of the mainstream and his experiences were not commonly shared. To communicate Cheng Hsin Peter needed to address how people learned as much as what they learned. To grasp Cheng Hsin they needed to personally experience it and have their own insights. He developed exercises and whole courses designed to facilitate this.

In 1978 Peter entered, and convincingly won, the full-contact martial arts World Tournament held in Taiwan, being the first non-Asian to do so;

“I did it for two reasons. It was to complete something for me and to begin something new. Now the completion part of it was that I was no longer going to be involved with that part of martial arts, and I wanted a little recognition. One of the fundamental reasons that I did it is that I’m quite radically different in the world of martial arts; I ask people to do very “uncommon: things, to take on apparently unrelated inquiries, and I demand a very deep level of understanding. I want people to listen to me, to open up to what I’m saying. Winning the World Tournament was done so that I could say; “I did it. What I’m teaching you is functional. It works.” Now they’ll consider it. People listen to me now who wouldn’t before, yet I’m saying the same thing.”

To begin with Cheng Hsin did not possess a curriculum of techniques, in fact Peter resisted the idea of creating a new style of martial arts. Instead he worked at communicating his breakthroughs within the format of existing arts like Tai Chi, Pa Kua Chang, Hsin I Chuan and boxing. His focus was on the principles that underpinned mastery rather than specific techniques. Over time though, a curriculum of techniques did begin to develop that was particularly in keeping with the spirit of Cheng Hsin. As well as a whole boxing system, Cheng Hsin has a system of uprooting, throwing and joint manipulation that could easily be mistaken for a style of Aikido, with a liberal injection of Judo’s body throws and leg sweeps.

Peter ran a full time school in San Francisco for twenty years and then secluded himself in the mountains of Hawaii for several years during the 1990s. In 2001 he opened the Cheng Hsin Centre in Texas where he runs retreats and apprenticeships. (Having served apprenticeships in both Japan and with Peter in Texas, I can tell you that Peter is both less rigid and yet far more demanding, physically and personally!) Peter teaches workshops across the USA, Europe and the Pacific and is always very accessible, handling correspondence and questions from around the world, and from people of diverse experience, promptly and with great care.

If you will excuse me ending this article by speaking about myself; when I began to practice martial arts I dreamed of finding a Yoda-like master, secluded on a mountain somewhere, and sitting at his knee to learn the secrets of the martial arts. (Perhaps some of you who are reading this will recognise, even empathise, with my teenage fantasy.) After having taken myself to Japan, studied full time and searching out teachers, I began to doubt, even mock, the existence of such characters of martial arts folk lore. In Peter I found someone who embodied such a spirit while at the same time being completely real, direct and pragmatic. It has been a great privilege and I continue to be amazed at how willing he is to share his knowledge with anyone who is keen to take on the enquiry into the nature of Mastery and Being.

Once again, I hope you have enjoyed this article and I invite your feedback and questions. In the next article I will look at the Cheng Hsin Body-being - training the body, mind, perceptive senses and feeling attention for effortless effectiveness.

Aikido and Cheng Hsin

2011-05-16T02:48:47Z

At Auckland Seishinkan we practice two internal martial arts, Aikido and Cheng Hsin. Aikido is very well known, while Cheng Hsin has much less public exposure, so it is very common for me to be asked, what is Cheng Hsin, how does it relate to Aikido, and how is it different? These are great questions and I’m always happy to answer them although there can be a bit to take in at one go, so I have decided to write a few short articles to talk about the harmony between the two arts and some of the unique qualities of Cheng Hsin and how it can accentuate our practice of Aikido.
In this first article I would like to use your knowledge of aikido as a place to start understanding Cheng Hsin. I hope you’ll read along and maybe even ask some questions.
Ueshiba O-Sensei said that, “Aiki is the principle of non-resistance,” and “Aiki is without contention. A true warrior is invincible because he/she contends with nothing.” Peter Ralston, the founder of Cheng Hsin has said that, “one of the biggest breakthroughs occurred for me when I realised that there is no such thing as a fight, there never was and there never will be.”
What non-resistance means in Aikido is explored and expressed in myriad ways as Ueshiba’s art has spread and diversified. Cheng Hsin treats this very literally, the sole form of neutralising force is to get out of the way, by yielding to it or dodging, and there are diverse exercises to develop this. There is absolutely no blocking and I would like to return to this aspect in a later article.
Both Aikido and Cheng Hsin are classified as internal martial arts. Although the definition is open to some debate, internal martial arts may be thought to be those which involve re-training the nervous system, mind and perception, changing how we move, relate and produce power. All these qualities are something which one cannot externally see or copy.
Ai means join and joining is one of the foundational principles of Cheng Hsin, where it is described as “merging our activity with the opponent’s activity, blending the bodies together and “joining in” on the motion that he/she is creating, and so create a new one.”
Ki, although clearly integral to Aikido, remains a difficult, even controversial, term to define. Cheng Hsin does not concern itself with whether ki, in and of itself, is a objective reality or not, but it does pay great attention to perceiving, enhancing and manipulating feeling states to optimise awareness, movement, power and skill. This is another topic that I would like to address more fully in a later article.
Following on from, and sometimes conflated with, ki is the issue of power generation. In Aikido we speak of kokyu ryoku, or breath power, another term with a diversity of definitions. From all accounts, Ueshiba O-Sensei was able to produce considerable power and yet remain relaxed, the power seemingly coming from nowhere. How he did this provides endless debate and considerable frustration. In fact many people practicing Aikido resign themselves to working hard with the hope that one day it will click in as a result. One of Ralston’s major goals that led to the development of Cheng Hsin was the search for an Effortless Power. What he discovered, and how it is explained and trained in Cheng Hsin should be of great interest to practitioners of Aikido and is worth an article of its own.
Competitive play is the exception rather than the rule in Aikido circles. When it does occur it is still limited in nature and certainly does not approach the degree of reciprocity inherent in Judo, BJJ or Boxing. In fact, most people engaged in practicing Aikido consider such activity heretical, citing Ueshiba O-Sensei as having proscribed it. Conversely, Cheng Hsin abounds with competitive exercises, games and play. These games allow students to test themselves in a wide variety of unscripted, improvisational situations where the purpose is developing skill rather than just winning. They are also a great deal of fun! The potential for, and benefits of, engaging in such competitive play deserve their own article
Despite it’s international expansion, Aikido is fundamentally a Japanese art. It carries a large cultural capital, including language, culture and history. Furthermore, much of the way in which Ueshiba O-Sensei described his art is heavily couched in his Oomoto-kyo background and is largely incomprehensible to your average Japanese, just as it is to Westerners. The pedagogy of Aikido has also arisen in a Japanese context of the teacher as a physical embodiment of the art from whom understanding must be “stolen.” Ralston is a native English speaker (albeit a Californian) and his teaching has always been aimed primarily at Westerners. Realising early in his teaching career that discoveries that appeared simple to him were not so apparent nor easily communicable to his students, Ralston has worked earnestly on helping his students to make the required transformations in learning that would allow them not only to grasp Cheng Hsin but grow in all areas of their life. This is one of the great benefits of practicing Cheng Hsin.
Aikido’s techniques are visually and kinesthetically a pleasure. They are fluid with expansive, spiralling dance-like movements. There is surely a large aesthetic component to many people’s love of aikido. Many Cheng Hsin techniques were inspired by Aikido. Cheng Hsin also includes uprooting techniques like those of Tai Chi and throws using the body as a fulcrum and sweeping techniques like those of Judo. Footwork and maneuverability are a mainstay of Cheng Hsin influenced by Ralston’s study of Pa Kua Chang. Ralston designed his art to be able to meet any situation and there are also Cheng Hsin boxing, groundwork and sword arts. All are designed to support one another, being based on the same principles reminiscent of Ueshiba O-Sensei’s concept of riai, or integrated principles.
An aspect of study that I believe is addressed more systematically in Cheng Hsin than in Aikido is the specific retraining of the body, nervous system, mind and senses, a practice that as a whole is termed Body-being. In Aikido most of this development occurs through the practice and receiving of techniques, and aikido students are undeniably changed through their practice. Cheng Hsin has a huge resource of exercises and visualisation techniques to support and guide the transformation of the Body-being towards being relaxed, centered, whole, grounded and calm. More about this later.
Both Aikido and Cheng Hsin are the products of the single minded determination of founders who were deeply committed to coming to grips with the nature of reality, and who boldly investigated possibilities outside the mainstream of martial arts. In the forty years since his death, Ueshiba O-Sensei has become a figure of mythic stature and the students who had intimate access to him are now very rare. Peter Ralston is still very active and engaged in teaching his art which, while still cutting edge, is contemporary and accessible for anyone with the passion to explore it. Best selling author Dan made the comment that, “true innovators are, by definition, ahead of their time. Therefore, they remain largely unrecognized, except by a few. How many of us wished we had met Bruce Lee, sat in a session with Carl Jung, or walked around Walden pond with Thoreau? Too late for that, but not too late to take notice of Peter Ralston.
Aikido and Cheng Hsin are kindred spirits. Cheng Hsin has been enriched by it’s contact with Aikido and I think that students of Aikido would benefit profoundly from exposure to Cheng Hsin. I hope you will read the articles to come discussing some of these aspects in greater detail.