Zen and Taekwondo,
What's the Connection?

Email Inquiry 10/16/99

The Rev Ed ----- wrote:
 Hi,  What do you see as the connection between Zen Buddhism and Taekwondo?
 Ed ------

Historically, not much. None of the founders or developers of modern
Taekwondo were trained or educated in philosophical matters such as that,
and so what early comments might suggest in that regard were really
paste-ons from the Karate roots, and in Karate's case, its founders
weren't really educated in that area either. 

Only Judo's Kano seems to have been up to the task of examining and evaluating those aspects, since his academic specialty was Chinese literature and he had a formidable polymath intellect. Many of the early pioneers of Taekwondo were Judo men, and so I think any authentic idea of Zen in martial arts leaked in
from Judo. However, since philosophy is more often used as an explanation, rather than a foundation, in most human endeavors, I think that Taekwondo has developed a powerful Zen component, even though it is poorly expressed by most of the writers on the subject these days. Firstly, Taekwondo has developed an interesting circular style of non-resistance to direct attack, instead usually using footwork to avoid a direct attack, and simultaneously using that footwork to position for a powerful counterattack. From the Tao te ching, we see the expression

Taekwondo competition, when it developed the continuous action format,
abandoned a flag format that awarded points to the initial attacking
movement, assuming it made the appropriate level of contact or
positioning to deserve a point. This made defense in karate tournaments,
where this flag scoring originated, very difficult since the action was
stopped to award the point to the attacker. Taekwondo's development of a
continuous action format in the mid-1960's made this idea of defensive
movement as a means of defeating the attacker a key strategic component
of Taekwondo competition.

Secondly, the kind of training necessary to reach an elite level in a
complex movement art such as Taekwondo really does require the mind-no
mind (moosim yoosim) level of participation. There is simply not enough time to
contemplate an opponent's movement consciously, and formulate a response.
It has to be entirely at the reflexive level, and the amount of movement
and the number of movement skills involved in a typical Taekwondo
responsive action, to be successful, really requires something resembling
the "zen" state referred to by zen philosophers. Taishen Deshimaru
sometimes mentions that someone who has had an "authentic" experience in
Judo will understand a zen state.

When I had my first such experience, it was a revelation. I was fighting a much larger opponent. My coach felt bad at tournaments when no one would be in the heavyweight divisions, except maybe one or two, and usually the same guys. So, he always volunteered me to give these guys someone else to work with and not just show up and be disappointed. This was two weight divisions above my
level. Because of the size and strength of these individuals, I ran a much higher risk of injury than in my own weight divisions; however, my first experience with this idea of a zen state was with a competitor from Samoa. He fit all the stereotypes: huge, strong. We fought for a little while and most of my action was just to avoid his enormous strength. Suddenly, he was at my feet and the referee was declaring "ippon" -- winner. I had no idea what had happened, but my coach explained I had suddenly turned and thrown him with a powerful seoi nage, my trademark throw. It apparently was picture-perfect and I was awarded "best technique" of the tournament, as well as winner of two weight divisions, my own, and heavyweight. Try as hard as I could, I could not remember a single aspect of the throw. It was as though I had blacked out and my body took over completely and did what it knew it had to do, naturally.

With Taekwondo competitors, at the elite level, I see this kind of
training occur regularly and when a perfect point is scored, involving a
highly complex body movement, powerfully applied at just the right
moment, it is quite a sight. Many are having what I see as an authentic
zen experience, made all the more authentic by the lack of knowledge of
zen. 

I think it is a natural result of the kind of training necessary these days to do the WTF kind of Taekwondo. I hear the competitors, when training, tell their juniors that they won't really begin learning Taekwondo until they are exhausted, and I think of how a zen idea is coming naturally to these young athletes, recalling Lao Tzu: 

And, too, the idea from Kano that the empty mind, facing a competition,
ultimately is a more flexible mind for the unexpected: "The distinctive feature of Judo is to make no anticipation or prepared attitude in a match." These Taekwondo athletes are learning through their own experience, rather than an academic study of zen, that the conscious mind is often an impediment to a successful development of genuine competition ability. So, that's how I see the role of zen in modern Taekwondo. Best

                                                       -- Kim Sol, University of Montana