Seeing the Forest through the Trees (by Sensei Mark)
A friend once asked me what I wanted to be. He thought he’d figured out his ideal career. But for me it has never been about what job I do, but about the person I want to become. My life is given meaning by the journey. The Dojo has always been my laboratory for developing myself, for confronting my fears and increasing my abilities. This is not isolated from outside: sometimes I get an inkling that something I’ve seen in a book, or on TV or the radio, relates to an idea I’ve gleaned in the Dojo. These hunches often lead to a rich seam of personal growth.
So it was that I noticed one day that if I looked at somebody – not right at them or at any particular part of them – but in a diffuse way, I could see more about them than if I focused on specifics. I could see how they would move, and even get hints about what sort of person they might be. The closest I could come to explain it was that I had learnt to see the forest through the trees. I soon forgot about such crazy thoughts however!
But last weekend at the Black Belt Seminar when Tim San and Richard San began to talk about ‘the space between us’, and how we could feel hints of another person’s intentions, my ‘hunch-ometer’ went off the scale!
We did things like block a punch before the attacker knew he had thrown it. We drew and cut with our katana just as our partner decided to do the same. We did other crazy, brilliant things that are best kept in the memories of those of us who were there. Later, of course, one tends to rationalise and reduce events to bits we can easily understand. When I blocked just before Kevin San threw his punch, and I did it repeatedly and reliably, was I: unconsciously picking up minute movements of his shoulder; reading his intent from his breathing; or synchronising with his rhythms? Many of these things I have consciously done before. These are the skills we learn as we become more capable Martial Artists. But I think we were doing more than this. We were doing all of them at the same time and more besides. We were seeing the forest through the trees.
This is what Black Belt seminars are all about. We spend so long training specific techniques and trying to consciously master movements. These are the trees in our forest. But sometimes we need to step back and see the big picture. It was a very interesting view!
Mark San