Form is technique/tricks; Art is application/essence.
Form is tangible; Art is intangible.
Form is non-substantial/conceptual; Art is substantial/experiential.
Form is scholarly research/academia; Art is doing/action.
Form is structure; Art is energy.
Form is objective; Art is subjective.
Form is deductive; Art is inductive.
Form is pragmatic; Art is intuitive.
Form is static; Art is dynamic.
Form is a compilation; Art is growth.
Form is a learning tool; Art is awakened.
Form is making distinctions; Art is without distinctions.
Form is man-made; Art is natural.
Form is a sum total of its parts; Art is synergy.
Form can be taught; Art can be suggested.
Form is corporeal; Art is spiritual.
Form is necessary to attain art; Art is without attainment.
Form is attachment; Art is non-attachment.
Form is intent; Art is Emptiness.
Anyone can teach the gymnastics and physical basics of form; those who do
are called instructors. However, in more advanced instruction, form is an
attempt (a teaching paradigm) to convey meaning, and by definition, you are
getting an interpretation of the meaning of martial art; this requires a
teacher. When the master artist concerns himself with matters like
confidence, faith, and belief, all underlying components in martial arts
application, he is attempting to re-present the experience/essence of the
arts. This attempt, of course, must always fall short, for no conceptual
framework can ever truly re-present an experience or experiential
knowledge, but a teacher can lead you in the right direction.
By implication, then, the teaching process must encourage the student in
the areas of creativity and spontaneity if you want results in the area of
application. This is why, as one of my teachers used to say, "You must make
the art your own; that's why they call it martial art and not martial
science or martial Xeroxing." This sentiment is no different than the
thought of the artist Nicholaides who said, "The job of the teacher. . .is.
. .to teach students how to learn. They must acquire some real method of
finding out facts for themselves lest they be limited for the rest of their
lives to the facts the instructor relates. . . ."
What does this mean in practical terms? You don't merely mimic your
teacher, and you should not look like an exact carbon copy of him. Also,
you must be careful not to see the collecting of techniques/tricks as an
end in itself; otherwise, you fall into an ever-narrowing,
ever-more-shallow pedantic morass, both philosophically and practically,
which will choke the life out of the dynamic depth and breadth needed in
application. A slavish attachment to form merely leads to an awkward,
stilted application.
Some examples of attitudes that focus on form and contain no substance can
be found in remarks like:
1. There is only one true way. (This can be read as: this is the true,
real version of such-and-such a technique as the founder taught it; or
flat statements like this was the Master's intent/meaning; or there is
on true inheritor of the one true way; etc.
2. The whole art is contained in a circle.
3. Martial arts are not about fighting.
What all these things have in common is mistaking form for substance;
mistaking the finger pointing at the moon for the moon itself. Martial art
is not about collecting the biggest pile of techniques/tricks; what enables
you to distinguish the master artist from his students without a belt is
not his bigger pile of tricks.
So what's the difference between them? Anyone can be taught the gymnastic
movements of technique. There are many martial arts practitioners who are
very good technicians if you look at their form/movement/body dynamics.
However, when it comes to application, they just don't have it. In other
words, in a prearranged attack or sequence they can perform the technical
movements successfully, but in free style combat or application, they are
lacking.
One of the my teachers used to call the difference "fighting spirit." This
is just one way to differentiate between those who have grasped the art,
and those who merely possess the form.
Substance is found in experience, and experience comes from action, not
concepts. Only by doing or acting (with the body) and using the mind as a
bridge does the spirit awaken to [martial] art.
This type of experience and this level of expertise, by definition, require
a great deal of time and effort, which is essentially the meaning of the
Chinese term "kung fu." So, when we are talking about focusing and
expending a great deal of time and effort, we are talking about two things:
1) We are back to doing; being an artist is doing/living the experience;
verses art critic or art historian who has a vast conceptual knowledge of
the form. This difference between experiential learning and conceptual
understanding can be seen in the teaching methods employed by artists as
compared to those masters of form. This means that the sixty-year-old
painting teacher or martial artist shows/demonstrates the technique; in
conceptually-based disciplines the instructor tells you facts for rote
memorization and regurgitation.
These distinctions are also tied to differentiating Asian martial arts from
the Western sports tradition. That is, the sixty-year-old football coach
tells you what to do and is certainly not getting onto the field with the
twenty-year-old players, while the sixty-year-old martial arts master
demonstrates the art on the twenty-year-old, after which the
twenty-year-old learns he won't be able to do the technique for another
twenty years. Again, compare this to the Western boxing coach at sixty with
fifty years of experience who is no match for the thirty-year-old boxer
with twenty years of experience. The opposite is true in Asian martial
arts.
2) Another quality which identifies a master artist is self-discipline,
which can simply be defined as control of, and direction to, the will. Form
is a tool to help develop one's self-discipline, but self-discipline is not
something that can be taught or given to someone; as a component of the
master artist, it can only be suggested and nurtured. In practical terms,
what one will find as a universal constant is that every master artist,
regardless of the discipline, was never forced to study technique/form; he
did it of his own accord, wholeheartedly, and he enjoyed it.
This is the beginning where art is born, for art is expression; before you
can express yourself, you have to learn about yourself. That's what martial
art is all about, and the form coupled with a master teacher is the path
and the guide to being an artist.
This, of course, is ultimately tied again to application. Self-knowledge is
related to character traits like self-control and self-confidence, which
are fundamentals to any martial application. By extension, knowing yourself
gives you insight into others, an invaluable component in application.
These facts and the form/art relationship are the basis for the old Chinese
saying, "The first ten years [of study] you [begin to] learn to master
yourself; the next 10 years you [begin to] learn to master others."
The Japanese put it like this: "After 1,000 days of practice, we are still
beginners, and after 10,000 days, we may begin to learn the meaning of
martial art."
From a philosophical perspective, most of what has thus far been presented
applies to any art form; that is why the Japanese samurai studied tea
ceremony and flower arranging as complementary arts (cross training, if you
will) to their martial endeavors. This is another way of saying, "The form
is the art, but the art is not the form." From these facts some people draw
the conclusion that "all art forms are the same," meaning that the
qualities of the master artist, philosophically speaking, are the same,
regardless of the art. This may be true on a purely philosophical level.
However, we do not live in a philosophy book. If we see the purpose of a
philosophy as an organized, internally consistent explanation that adds
meaning to our lives, then we must test that philosophy in the real
world--the world of application. What this means is that it is one thing to
cultivate the more advanced aspects of art like mushin no shin (mind of no
mind), or mind like moon, mind like water, while sitting quietly in front
of a flower arrangement or while pouring tea; it is quite another situation
to cultivate that state instantaneously with no notice and maintain it
while someone is trying his best to cut you in half with a three foot
razor.
Although all art forms share the essence of art, only martial art requires
you to perform while facing "hell under the upraised sword." This
distinction makes martial art a dynamic, living, evolving art with as much,
or more, meaning and vitality today as in the past.
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