Violence – My Perspective
I’ve come to believe two things about violence: it is fluid in nature and it is morally neutral.
I don’t think I’ll get much pushback about violence being fluid. After all, almost all of us train in dealing with any number of unpredictable scenarios. There’s a reason we rarely drill by starting with more than a single block – there’s just no way to accurately predict how an opponent will react after their first strike is blocked. So we train with a block and immediately follow it with multiple counter attacks.
Okay, so we’re good with violence being fluid, right? Now let’s talk about violence being morally neutral.
I credit Iain Abernathy with that little gem. Until I heard that for the first time, I was happily living in my “violence is bad” worldview. Violence was (and still is) something to be avoided. And, if violence is to be avoided, then that must mean it’s intrinsically bad, right?
It certainly seemed like the proper and safe perspective. Calling violence a bad thing certainly puts to ease people who are not in martial arts. After all, they see us practicing some pretty savage techniques; moves that can be absolutely devastating to a person.
But here’s where I ran into a problem in my own understanding of violence:
Then why do I train?
I’ve written before about morality in the martial arts and, specifically, about the “unprincipled application of violence.” I stand firmly behind my position that the *unprincipled* application of violence is wrong and must be avoided. But what about the *principled* application of it?
I think most of us would agree that there are times when violence is necessary. Its necessity may be tragic but still necessary.
Imagine walking down the street and someone pulls a knife and demands your wallet. You give it to him but then, instead of taking it and leaving, he starts to advance on you. This isn’t a scene any of us wants, but try as we might, the concept of “awareness, avoidance, and de-escalation” isn’t going to work. So we move into a state of self-defense and prepare to attack in a manner that is “quick, brutal, and decisive.”
In this instance, violence is unavoidable and is likely the only way the confrontation will end and still let us go home afterward. Yes, there are times when violence is necessary to prevent a greater tragedy. Regrettable, but necessary.
And that’s where I’ve arrived – that is violence is sometimes necessary and used to counter violence that is directed at me. But then violence can’t simply be labeled as “good” or “bad”. Thus violence becomes morally neutral and it’s whether the violence is principled or unprincipled that determines its morality.
It Requires Intention
It takes intentional thought, however, for me to make the mental switch to where I am seeing violence as neither intrinsically good nor bad.
This is where meditation comes in. There are a lot of different reasons for meditating and there’s an equally large number of meditation methods.
For this post, I’m going to reference two of my favorite methods: visualization and Mokuso.
These two methods, for me, go hand-in-hand. Visualization lets me gradually adjust my attitude toward applying violence (in a principled manner, of course) when warranted.
Mokuso is a form of meditation used in martial arts. It’s used to focus on breathing and its purpose is to prepare the warrior for battle. In this case, I use it to train myself to breathe and remain calm in the face of stressful conflict.
To combine these two methods, the breathing focus in Mokuso helps me when I start the visualization scenarios. When done in tandem, I’ve found great clarity in my thinking and my approach to conflict.
In fact, I find that I am far more calm and willing to go further to avoid conflict and violence. It has helped me discover how to engage violence and, just as importantly, not engage it. And I’ve been able to move it to where I am discerning violence as either principled or unprincipled.
Visualization
If you’ve never practiced any visualization techniques, it’s an incredibly easy and powerful way to practice self-defense scenarios when you don’t have a training partner. You basically close your eyes and let your mind come up with different attacker scenarios and you defend against them. You can either make it a completely mental exercise or, as I prefer, to physically practice the techniques. The first few times you practice this, you’ll find yourself telling your brain what the attacker should be doing. But after a short time, you’ll discover that your brain is quite adept at coming up with subconscious scenarios, leaving you to react as need be.
As I said, you can either keep it a completely meditative exercise and just walk through the defense in your mind or practice the actual techniques. If you choose to practice the techniques physically (and I do recommend it), start off slowly. Let your attack happen slowly and give yourself time to react accordingly.
It’s this technique that helped me overcome my hesitancy of engaging a violent encounter. In the interest of full disclosure, I’ve never had to actually defend myself against an attacker. I hope I never have to but should that happen, I feel far more confident in engaging my attacker (again, when warranted) than I did before I started my practice of visualization.
This technique has also helped me in more practical ways, too. My timing is better, my footwork has improved… all in addition to learning more about why and when I would engage violence.
Mokuso
Mokuso (pronounced “mohk-sou”) is a form of breathing meditation. But unlike methods such as mindfulness where your focus is on the breath, Mokuso also focuses on the path of the breath through your body. You start by slowly breathing in through your nose and visualize the breath going up and around the inside of your head, then down your spine, and then spiraling into a point in your diaphragm. You then pause for a brief moment, and then exhale slowly and visualize your breath exiting your body in the reverse path – spiraling out of your diaphragm, up your spine into your head, then out your mouth.
I try to make my inhaling last 5 seconds and my exhaling last 10 seconds, for a total of 15 seconds per breath or 4 breaths per minute. Twenty breaths is a nice five minute focused meditation. The point of Mokuso is to create a calmness within you while opening your mind to what you’re experiencing – your actions, your reactions, your attitude… Again, unlike a more traditional mindfulness meditation where you’re trying to avoid thinking, Mokuso encourages us to think about the breath and ourselves.
Mokuso meditation by itself is a powerful practice and I would encourage you to try it before your next training session or even afterward Or better yet, both!). But done in conjunction with visualization, you get a powerful one-two combination for dealing with the psychology and morality of violence. And, in the end, you’ve navigated your own path through your own thoughts and biases, ending in a place where you are comfortable with your own principled application of violence.
Your Perspective on Violence
I’m curious how you see violence and what techniques you employ to reconcile violence and a life of non-conflict. Please leave me a comment below!
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I agree with you completely, Rob!
Violence is a tool, much like a fork or a hammer. It isn’t inherently good or bad. It is all up to how you use it. You can use a hammer to build or to break, but the hammer stays the same??? Great piece!
Thanks Ron!The hammer analogy is perfect and I hope you don’t mind, but I’m going to start using it, too!