Breath, Blood, and Bone

In martial arts training there is a time when we need to remind ourselves that there are inner workings to the art as well as external. It can be easy to get caught up in the physical actions that we must perform, and forget that they rely and interact with aspects that we can't see.

There is a teaching that brings this to mind called kokyu, kodo, kotsu: breath, heartbeat, and bone. Or sometimes we say breath, blood, and bone.

Breathing and heartbeat are fundamental to our lives. This is a common way to tell if we are alive even, isn't it? Are they alive? are they breathing? is there a pulse? I think you see the point.

Our breath is invisible but it deals with the flow of air from outside to inside and back again. More than philosophically it joins us with our outside environment.

Our blood and bone too, unless we get a wound, we don't see them. But we can feel them inside of us, and they can give us a feeling for what is going on inside.

All Japanese martial arts rely on the Tanden. The Tanden is the core of ourselves. Almost all the schools, when they wrote down their teachings say something like, 'the teaching begins and ends with the tanden'.
The trick is how to find this invisible and elusive point within us. Most often we are simply reminded to look inside. Quite often, this is advise is not enough and we need some tools. Breath, blood, and bone have served as these tools since ancient times. Or even when we find the tanden, how do we manifest it in our lives. Ah, once again the same tools are available: breath, blood, and bone.

This teaching is not my own, or just for a few. But has been handed down through many traditions as a way to enliven our daily interactions. Awareness of our breath, blood, and bone remind us of many other inner dimensions that we live with, and bring awareness to many other aspects of our daily lives.

thank you for listening,
rick 'jyozen' beal