Moo

In Korean they call this “Moo.”  Moo is one of the basic tenets of all martial arts training.  In Soo Bahk Do, we were always taught to understand the symbology as “Stop Sword” — the left hand portion of the character representing the stopping of the sword represented in a flourish on the right.  Take it a step further, it means to stop fighting.  In a sense, Moo represents peace.  But it is not itself peace, it is, instead, action toward resolution.  The manifestation of violence ceased by nonviolence.

It is interesting to many Westerners initially to practice martial arts toward the goal of nonviolence.  True martial arts promote peace, cooperation and camaraderie.  The practice is itself meant to cleanse the body and mind so that the practitioner feels at peace.  Maybe for some who get carried away with power, they want to go out and start fights.  Maybe for others, dealing with power teaches them the important lessons in wielding it appropriately.  Maybe some do not even know they have power at all.

Sifu says if you stop fighting inside, you no longer fight outside.  So it is not the physical discipline that is of utmost importance, it is the internal cultivation.  Note that I say cultivation and not discipline, though in a sense it is a discipline.  There is a fine line, however, and it must be distinguished.

In many esoteric disciplines the sword represents the mind — intellect, cutting words, wit, anxiety, so on.  And so in the material realm to see the sword both as an artists tool or a deadly weapon is much the same when applied to words and the mental realms.  Taoists might interpret “stopping the sword” as overcoming the human mind, or the ego, to follow the true path of the Tao.  You don’t win against the mind by squashing it.  You merely learn to detach yourself from it by continuous effort to unify all as one.  When the ego acts up, you learn to observe it rather than involve yourself.  You learn to wait rather than be dragged to and fro by the ego’s ceaseless whims.  When someone crosses you, you do not immediately anger.  You become selfless.  In a sense it is in recognizing that others’ ego conflicts are not your own, and not for your ego to take on, no matter how much it desires to gain or destroy.  True Tao is true peace.  True peace comes from the inside — as what is inside is always reflected on the outside in equal measure.

In other words, when you have peace inside you will have no desire for a fight.  One that comes your way will be dissolved into the nothingness of nondesire.  It will not be of use to you to harm another, be it with action or with words, because these acts of violence only remove you from peace.

Training is a process of dissolving the ego.  Internal training is allowing the All of the Universe to come in and be one with the individual.  You can’t experience All if your ego is interfering.  It’s impossible.  So instead, you must let go.  Forget about pain, forget about being better, forget about winning, forget about what happened before, forget about letting go, forget everything.

Sifu says that if you follow the path, your actions will be naturally virtuous because you will not want to disturb the delicate balance of being one, once you have experienced it.  Inner peace is easy to the Taoist, who does nothing but allow himself to be as he is in truth.

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