T H E S P E A K I N G T R E EB A N G A L O R E , D E C E M B E R 1 8 , 2 0 1 1

One mind, any weapon— Hunter B Armstrong

Cold DayIt was a cold winter day, and aheavily dressed man noticed

Nasruddin outside wearing verylittle clothing.“Mullah,” the mansaid,“tell me, how is it that I amwearing all these clothes and stillfeel a little cold, whereas you are

barely wearing anything yet seem unaffected by the weather?”

“Well,” replied Nasruddin,“I don’t have any more clothes,

so I can’t afford to feel cold,whereas you have plenty of

clothes, and thus have the liberty to feel cold.”

Strange CompassThe villagers had found a compassin the desert.They brought it toNasruddin who was the wisest

person in the county.They askedhim what it was. Nasruddin lookedit over, smelt it, played with it andstarted crying at first.After weeping

for a few minutes, he started toexamine the compass one more timeand then he burst out laughing soloud that he fell down from his

chair.The villagers asked him whatwas going on. He replied,“I criedout of pity for you who obviouslydo not understand the purpose ofthis instrument.Then I laughedwhen I discovered that I did notknow what it was for either.”

No MealThe local religious leader invitedNasruddin over for dinner one

night. Nasruddin, not having eatenmuch that day, was famished when

he got there, and eager to eat assoon as possible.After two hours,

however, the religious leader had yetto offer Nasruddin any food, andinstead spoke nonstop about avariety of religious topics.As

Nasruddin grew more annoyed witheach passing minute, he finallyinterrupted the man and said,“May I ask you something?”“What?” the religious leaderanswered, eager to hear somereligious question that would

prompt him to continue talking.“I was just wondering,” Nasruddin

said,“did any of the people in your stories ever eat?”

MULLAH NASRUDDIN

The couple gifted themselvesa new car for their firstwedding anniversary. Theydrove downtown, zipped

through Beach Road,watched a moviein a drive-in theatre, and finally re-turned home, happy to be alive.Theydidn’t have garage facility and so had toleave the car parked in the street.

To their utter shock, when theywoke up the next morning,the car wasmissing.Their new car, stolen! First car,first wedding anniversary gift, and theyhad enjoyed the car for just a day.Thewife couldn’t take it.With eyes full oftears she sank into the sofa.The husband, too,was a littlejolted,but his love for his wifeprevailed over the moment.He hugged her and said,“Thecar is lost.You can feel heavyabout it. Or, you can take iteasy.Either way the car is lost.Then, why not take it easy?”She was inconsolable but the momentpassed.

Two months later the police recov-ered the car from one of the car rob-bery gangs, and it was returned to thecouple who were glad they found it af-ter all.That very evening,while drivingback home, the husband rammed thecar into a truck. It was his turn to feelmiserable for he just couldn’t take it.On returning home, eyes filling withtears,he sank into the sofa.She was sad,too,yet her love for him prevailed overthe moment.This time,she hugged himand said,“The car is crushed.You canfeel heavy about it. Or, you can take iteasy.Either way the car is damaged.Butyou are alive and well.Then, why nottake it easy?”

When something unpleasant hap-pens,you can either feel heavy and mis-erable or take it in your stride. Eitherway, after the emotional drama, whathas to be done has to be done.The po-lice complaint has to be lodged; the carhas to be sent to the workshop; the in-surance has to be claimed… what hasto be done, has to be done.

The child has failed in one of thesubjects.The father wrings his handsand the mother cries.After all the emo-tional drama, what? You will have totake extra care coaching your child onthat subject — maybe he will be sent

for special tuition — what hasto be done has to be done.Youleft the milk a little longer thanrequired on the stove. Theboiled milk is beginning tooverflow from all sides of thevessel.You scream and shoutand your BP shoots up… af-ter all the emotional drama,

now what? You will switch the stoveoff,take the milk vessel off the stove andset about cleaning the stove and kitchencountertop. So, eventually what has tobe done will be done.

From a stock market crash, to a keyemployee’s resignation, to the death ofa beloved… after the emotional drama,eventually what has to be done will bedone. Here we are not discussingwhether to get emotional or not, butwe are talking about avoiding dramat-ic emotional reactions.

Understandably, you will skip aheartbeat when you lose your vehicle,you will sink into helplessness when thechild fails,and tears will roll down yourcheeks at the loss of a beloved. Emo-tions, yes. Emotional drama, no!

Emotional maturity is not aboutavoiding emotions,but it is about avoid-ing emotional drama.Anyway,what hasto be done has to be done.Then, whythe drama? ■

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Animals Are Better Than Us■We react dramatically because we iden-tify ourselves with being successful.Wetake things for granted,assuming that ifwe work hard or spend some extra mon-ey then success will be ours. Ideally,weshould accept reality as it is,but the prob-lem is that we are not able to accept fail-ure. In certain ways, animals are betterthan us because they live in the ‘now’and accept reality as it is.

Shabbir Thingna

Drama Is Unavoidable ■The difference between being emo-tional and being dramatic is very small.Emotional drama is required to expresswhat we feel, especially when we arehappy.This drama is necessary and un-avoidable part of life for us.

Aishwarya Chandak

We Project Sad Thoughts ■ Drama helps in retaining the emo-tion to linger beyond it’s season.We lovedrama because it crystallises the senseof ‘I’ and strengthens the sense of ouridentity. Most outburst are centred inour sorrows because it feels heavy. Onthe other hand,happiness feels light andis not easy to hold on to. Sadness stayslike a rock,happiness flies like a butter-fly. So we project our sad thoughts andplay the drama queen.

Sathya Lakshman

Emotional Outbursts Are Okay ■ We have to evolve to become emo-tionally mature.We are all human, themore we face hardships,the stronger we

become. Over a period of time, welearn that nothing is permanentand what is done is done. Grad-ually,the so called ‘emotional dra-

ma’situations become fewer.However, a bit of emotionaloutburst is good;it makes you

feel lighter and is followed bya sense of acceptance.

Ruchi Goyal

Drama Attracts Attention ■ In an age, where people don’t havetime for each other, emotional dramahelps attract attention. Often, it’s inse-curity that makes you do such things.Thanks to technological advancements,our material needs are taken care of,butour emotional needs are not.Emotionsmake us human, so they are good.

Mansi Madan

Emotion Is Energy In Motion■ Emotion is sometimes described asenergy in motion.Emotional drama canbe relaxing sometimes as it helps releasepent-up energy. It gives us the oppor-tunity to show our acting talents.It alsoshows our range of emotions. It showsus the possibilities of the expression ofthe energy flowing through us.

Hemu Karkera

Don’t Go Against The Current ■What is wrong in emotional drama?We must vent our emotions,but if werestrain ourselves from doing so, it isharmful for our emotional health. Itis quite natural to cry on a loss and toexpress what can lead to frustrationand depression. Let’s not try to stopthe flow of emotions.

Mohan Thakur

T T RANGARAJAN wonders why we give in to our emotions so much that we become dramatic

Why So Much Emotional Drama

Martial art is all about cultivating integrity.What doyou mean by this? ■You must not confuse integrity withmorality and ethics; to have integrity isto perform and live with 100 per centof your being, without doubt, hesita-tion, remorse or fear. It does not meanyou are perfect or always right; it meansyou act in full accord with yourself andassume responsibility for your actions.

The central purpose of the martialarts is to fuse the various centres of thebrain and nervous system into one whol-ly-tuned instrument,so that everythingworks together.Different parts of yourbody react in different ways.But if youhave integrity,“there is no try”, as Yodawould say.You either do, or you don’t.

If you are unified, someone who isnot, cannot defeat you in any context;we first defeat ourselves, then surren-der victory to our opponent. So peo-ple who lie and cheat cannot truly becalled martial artists, because they lackunity of purpose.This may appear likean oxymoron, because deceit is verymuch a part of combat, but once theconcept of integrity is understood, thediscrepancy fades because those whomake deception the central precept oftheir lives, tend to first deceive them-selves, then move on to deceive others.

To thrive despite turmoil, is thatthe philosophy of ‘Pammachon’?■The central tenet of Pammachon issimple: we seek power over no man,but surrender power to no man.AsNikos Kazantzakis once wrote, in thespace beyond belief and hope, we arefree.The goal in the end is freedom ofevery kind; freedom from fear, greed,envy, poverty and ignorance.There isa great degree of self-examination in-volved in the process, of course, andfacing the inevitable realities of ourexistence is central: both death andillness are facts of life and it would bepointless to pretend otherwise.

You’ve said “muscle mass is too much work, why botherwhen firearms are used in modern combat”.Then whymartial arts?■ Freedom. But freedom does notmean shirking your responsibilities!But on a more mundane level, the an-

swer to your question is self-defence.If you have access to firearms and havesome experience shooting, you willknow that a firearm is secondary tothe person using it.Without the righttraining,a person under stress will prob-ably miss a large target with a pistol atshort range.Someone without the rightphysical and mental training runs therisk not only of using a weapon bad-ly, but having that same weapon tak-en away and used on themselves.

But let’s forget about Hollywoodmovies for a moment, and look at theaverage person’s life around the world.The rude drunk or unruly stranger islikely the worst threat many people

will encounter.And yet, the threat ofviolent crime, limited though it is, isextant. It is far better to be preparedthan unprepared, and at the most ba-sic level, true martial arts training canhelp prepare you for this.

The second basic benefit of mar-tial education is awareness.Being awareof when to use force is a fundamen-

tal responsibility. People who do nothave martial training often overreactwith extreme violence when a moreamicable response is appropriate.

Martial education allows the prac-titioner to know all aspects of theirmind, and know that we can be bothgod-like with compassion and wis-dom and brutal and deadly as a di-nosaur. It is the monkey brain that pro-motes fear and worry, lust and anxi-ety over social (pack) affairs; today wegive it far more credence than it shouldhave. I say let the monkey sit next toboth the angel and the dinosaur as anequal member of the team, for that iswhat nature intended,and if it is lucky,it can even catch a glimpse of the mindof God.And that is true freedom.

How does one come to realiseDivinity through martial arts?■ Introspection can help you come toterms with the Divine, if you are bothlucky and skilled; it is a parallel path tothat of Indian yoga,with the added spiceof physical combat in its repertoire.

Martial arts are indeed an ancientpath towards realisation of the DivineSpark within all of us,perhaps the old-est such path still extant.We have dif-ferent components of our nervous sys-tem; each one of these is an inde-pendent ‘mind’ that strives for controldepending on the circumstances. In-tegrating these components is a three-stage process, which, for a minorityof practitioners becomes a four-stageprocess allowing them to come into

contact with a part of ourselves notnormally encountered.

As in combat, are the principlesof timing and distancing of greatimportance for success in life? ■ What you truly learn from martialeducation and can apply to social af-fairs goes beyond timing and distanc-ing; it has to do with viewing the for-mation. Only a fool would attack acastle’s strongest walls, right? A wiseman looks for weak points or flawsand does not attack a castle’s strength.The shape of the castle, its composi-tion and layout, the thickness or thin-ness of its walls, all constitute thefortresses’ formation.

Everything in life exhibits a for-mation in turn, whether we are talk-ing about an individual, a group ofpeople, an entire society,or even a na-tion. Martial education allows you toview that formation in its entirety.

I’m not really sure what ‘success’means in this context however; it isvery easy, almost juvenile, to use suchskills in the pursuit of money, for ex-ample.But I know of no serious mar-tial artist who has done so; materialpossessions are not something we over-ly aspire to. And yet we have obliga-tion to provide for both our self andour family,and never be a burden.Also,‘thriving’ is a relative term. Balance isessential, as Socrates taught us, and thatthis balance is the same whether weare talking about nature and the en-vironment in general or human soci-ety in particular.

In any case, it would be against ourprinciples to ‘deal’with people, as thiswould be actively pursuing power overthem.Again, it is not a difficult thing;for a martial artist, people’s thoughtsand intentions play across their bod-ies and faces like lights on a Christ-mas tree. Instead, we use our skills toprotect ourselves and our families, andas our power grows, to protect the so-ciety we live in and beyond. Such isour burden. ■

poonam.jain1@timesgroup.com

Pammachon or Greek martial art is being revived by KOSTAS DERVENIS. We can be both god-like withcompassion and wisdom, and brutal and deadly as a dinosaur, he tells POONAM JAIN

Keep Fighting Fit

THE SECOND BASIC BENEFIT OF

MARTIAL EDUCATION IS

AWARENESS. BEING AWARE OF

WHEN TO USE FORCE IS A

FUNDAMENTAL

RESPONSIBILITY. PEOPLE WHO

DO NOT HAVE MARTIAL

TRAINING OFTEN OVERREACT

Seekers vote for emotional drama on

speakingtree.in

KOSTAS DERVENIS

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