Practicing the Presence of Peace

When you think of martial arts, peace is generally not a word that comes to mind. Images of movie fight scenes and heroic battles are more typical.

But Taekwondo teaches much about peacefulness. Its practice emphasizes the value of human life.

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Glaring at you with eyes so sharp and cold
Drawing from you the worst within your heart
Unleashing violence raw and uncontrolled
All around you the fear appears to dart

Violence is the manifestation of fear.

I fear that I will lose what I have, so I hoard my possessions and gifts. I rob others of the opportunity to benefit from my abundance.

I fear that others will harm me, so I pull back and close myself off to them. I withhold the possibility of connection.

I fear that I don’t have enough, so I seek out more. I strive to win, even if it is at the expense of another.

I fear that I am not enough, so I lower others. I see and treat others as being less than myself, stripping them of their humanity.

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Coil your strength before your blocking move
Find the center of your greatest power
Bring peace within so that you may remove
All the fear that strives to make you cower

If you want to live a life of peace, start with finding peace in yourself. You cannot control the circumstances around you, but you can choose your mindset.

That means recognizing that you are valuable. You are worth something simply for being human. You can touch and affect others. You can use your talents and skills to make the world a better place. You can act with love and generosity.

See the beauty in yourself. I see it. Others see it. Find peace in knowing that you are treasured.

I found this in my study of Taekwondo. When I started, my techniques were poor and incomplete. I felt like I couldn’t do anything.

But I took and passed promotion tests. I broke boards and learned patterns. I can’t deny my progress. It’s banded around my waist in the form of a red-striped belt.

Sometimes it’s hard to see that value. All you hear are the lies of the dragon. In those moments, seek out the truth. Truth opposes fear.

Return to your centered places – the familiar spaces that energize you. With each belt in Taekwondo, we learn a pattern. As we advance, we draw strength from the patterns that we already know. Practicing them gives a foundation for the high patterns.

Pay attention to emotion. When you feel fear, call it out. Pretending it doesn’t exist only serves to let it simmer underneath. Once you notice the emotion, seek out its source. Take it to the farthest possible end – keep asking why until you dig no deeper. Then you can understand how to deal with it.

When you feel calm, reflect on it. Think about what it is that gives you that peace. Then you can bring more of it into your life.

Learn to master yourself. One of the blessings Taekwondo gives me is the ability to maintain control in stressful circumstances. It allows me think clearly when my body pushes me to react in a way that harms myself and others. That makes me strong.

When you are strong, you have the foundation to act with peace. Confident in who you are, you have nothing to prove to anyone. You are enough.

Make peace a habit. Develop it like you would with any other skill or practice.

Taekwondo is an act of constant training. There is always something to improve. There is always a way to get better. It’s the same with peace.

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From peace and strength within uncoil your block
Stand in the value that belongs to you
From love and grace the hardest hearts unlock
Uphold others in all you say and do

When you have a mindset of peace, you are able to respond to others in kind. Peace comes out of your heart.

See others as valuable. Recognize their humanity. If you value them, you are less likely to harm them. Love has no room for violence.

In Taekwondo we show respect through bowing – to each other, the instructor, and to the art. This respect lets us see each other as partners in our training. We seek to build our classmates up – even when sparring.

Avoid situations of harm. Influence an interaction to prevent it from coming to violence – be it physical, emotional, or mental.

While I have the ability to physically injure someone, the goal of an encounter is to leave without harm. You avoid harm not by winning a fight, but by avoiding the fight in the first place. Fights are unpredictable. It’s impossible to be assured of safety.

When facing violence don’t be passive. Making yourself a victim helps no one. But don’t be aggressive either. That lowers you to the level of the violence.

Instead, take the middle ground of being assertive. Claim your value. Don’t let anyone take it from you. Respond in a way that shows respect to the other person. Speak the truth of their value.

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The way of peace is not easy. I’m finding it to be much harder than violence. But like Taekwondo, the training is worth it.

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What are some ways you find internal peace? How do you use that to counter external violence?

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A peaceful time of day. I made this photo in Chicago, IL.