Mind of No Mind - thoughtless technique

"You should have three attacks that you perform as effortlessly as you do a breath" Pamana Tuhon Chris Sayoc. 

In Japanese martial arts the term is Mushin, meaning the Mind of no mind.  It's a term used to describe the idea that your body will, through rigorous training, execute the perfect technique at the perfect time, without your conscious thought.  This is of course what all martial artists are after.  As Sijo Bruce Lee said "I don't think of hitting him, my fist hits all my itself". 

I remember when I first had that experience in the martial arts.  I was a teenager, living on my own in a house with no electricity, out in the country hills of Arkansas.  Literally all I did was train.  Day and night, when my buddies came over, we trained, when they left, I trained.  I had a heavy bag hanging in the house that was my number one tool.  I had a 2 liter coke bottle hanging from a rope as a swinging bag and I trained on everyone who came to visit.  During this time I was teaching, under special permission from my Instructor, at my house twice a week (I was only a purple belt), training at his school twice a week and on my own when not in school or working.  My point is total immersion.  My first moment of mind of no mind was sparring one of my class mates.  One moment we were lined up ready to go, the next they were gone!  I was surprised by the fact that this person was no longer standing in front of me!  Where had they gone? I was confused by this, then I got a clue.  A tingling feeling in the inside of my right forearm and on the back of my right calf.  when I looked down they were on the floor unconscious with my Instructor kneeling over them.  I had swept the opponent when he entered without a thought.  I was completely surprised by it, just as my opponent was.

Over the years I've had many many more times such as these.  Once while working as a bouncer at a club I was in the parking lot (which is always bad!) dealing with a customer who was causing issue with the local Police.  While dealing with him, a car wreck occurred just next to us.  They asked me to watch this guy while they handled the wreak.  So we calmly waited and watched the officers.  I watched this guy and saw his body posture change, saw him make up his mind to fight us and run.  Now, I had seen this guy fight a few times in the club, he knocked people out and ran.  As he got off his car and walked to one of my bouncers, I approached from the side.  Just as I opened my mouth to start to De-escalate the situation, he turned toward me to sucker punch me with a big right hand.  Without time for thought, I entered with a Silat entry, gained neck control and kneed him in the chest.  I then spun him to keep him off balance and kneed him again, this time I allowed him to fall to the ground.  After the police had him again, I second guessed myself, had he really punched at me? I didn't remember seeing the punch.  Maybe I just jumped this guy?!  but how had I ended up on his right shoulder when I was approaching from his left?  After talking to my bouncers they all said he had turned to hit me and they all were surprised by the attack.  Even though they were physically close, they were waaaay to far behind the time curve to join the fight, it was over by then.   That's just one of the many times it happened in a real fight on the street.  Don't get me wrong, it doesn't always work that way.  I got hit my fair share of times, but it was always because I got cocky, underestimated the opponent, didn't read his body language correctly, wasn't paying attention to his sucker punch buddies or something along those lines.  No one I squared up with ever hit me.  Ever.  That's not how it happens.

One of the few times I had this happen outside fighting was at my school.  We have birds that seasonally nest in the awning of the doors at our school.  One evening when a student walked in, a bird flew in with him.  Once in the school he flew around the training area, from one perch to another.  I thought it was funny at first but then was concerned.  How am I going to get this thing out of my school?  The bird had landed on a picture of Dan Inosanto hanging on my wall.  As I stood there staring up at it wondering what the hell I was going to do about this bird, it dropped off and flew right by me.  Without realizing it, I reached out and caught it.  It's wings folded perfectly back along it's body, it's head sticking out on one side, tail feathers and legs on the other.  I turned around and my students were all shocked.  They looked like I had just grown a second head.   I walked over to the back door and kicked it open and tossed it into the air where it flew away.  That's one of the few times it's ever happened outside of fighting and it's a pretty cool one if I do say so myself. 

My point of this is two fold.  One is to help people realize that this level of achievement is totally possible and can be amazingly effective.  Two, the first time it happened to me I was just a teenager,  not a martial arts Master!  Just a kid busting his butt everyday in training.  When your really working hard, training everyday and you immerse yourself in what you do, it comes naturally, comfortably and without thought or effort.  That's what we are all searching for, striving for.  This frees your mind to concentrate on the essential mental tasks of evaluating your opponent, solving problems, communicating with team members and planning to set up the opponents.  So this is by no means the end aspect of training, it's what frees you up to do the real work! 

Guro Harley