Mind Over Matter: Higher Martial Arts

By Siao Weijia, Siao Weija, Shi Ming

Book Overview

This unique book by Master Shi Ming and Siao Weijia explores the Chinese science of mind/body and the refinement of consciousness in the higher martial arts. This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1883319153
• ISBN13: 9781883319151
• Release Date: April 1994
• Publisher: Blue Snake Books
• Length: 136 Pages
• Weight: 0.82 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.4" x 6.0" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

The holy grail of martial arts

I saw video footage of Shi Ming many years ago, on the BBC's Healing and the Mind documentary; what he demonstrated defied explanation at the time, and so I wrote him off as a fake. Subsequently, I forgot about him and the video, but one day I purchased this book out of interest, without recognising at all that it was authored by the same individual in the video. Having studied a martial art for a decade already, (Aikido for 16 years now, and Tai Ji for 4) I found the material then to be fascinating, very deep, and very advanced, and still pertinent to my training now. The writing style is very dense, concise, almost bulging with detail, but also very dry, impartial - almost clinical in its description of the processes of transformation that can be achieved through training. And the book really is only intended for someone who is actively training, and has done so for many years. It is not meant to be an academic document, ready to stand the rigours of peer review, because frankly, there would not be many peers of Shi Ming's level, and secondly, he wrote it for the martial artist, as a guide to map out one's training goals well into one's future. What is all the more attractive about this book is that he writes in a way that speaks to all arts, not just the Tai Ji, which is his background. He does not get bogged down on styles or arts, but just focusses on the "psycho-physical" processes that occur while training in an art that has an aspect of softness and development of "internal" power. The book withstands many re-readings, in fact, often the light comes on with some of this material only after reading it through several times. It is useless to pick out a random passage from a random page and quote anything from this work...the whole document is a train of thought that begins with simple concepts and develops throughout the course of the text, to a highly advanced exposition on the transformative process that conscisouness can, and does undergo, through prolonged training in an internal art. It is difficult to understand, nay, believe what the author writes about in the later chapters of the book, if you have not personally experienced and understood the content of the earlier chapters. I was able to follow the author's train of thought without difficulty until about around chapter 8-9, and then I am on unfamiliar ground. So the later chapters for me suggest "what is possible", and what to strive for. Only much later did I recognise that the author's photo on the back cover was in fact of the same man on the video I saw years before. I realised after reading his words, that I had to make a serious reappraisal of the video footage, because knowing the thoughts of this man through his writing caused me to rethink that he may very well have been demonstrating something that was not fake at all, but very real...and that my friends, is very scary. He teaches (or did) in Purple Bamboo Park in Beijing every morning...go check him out for yourself.

Excellent book for the Advanced Internal Matial Artist

This is an interesting discussion of consciousness and its integration and refinement as the key to developing higher martial arts. It reads like most philosophy books with very precise language. If you do not practice a chinese internal martial art you will probably not have the basic understanding needed to follow the authors train of thought properly. If you do, you need an understanding of meditation for concentration and for chi work(Qigong). Furthermore, an understanding of taoist, buddhist, confucian, and chinese medicine methods could only help. Although the author is attempting to interpret his thoughts into more modern scientific contexts I don't think most people are ready to understand this or will understand its importance. "...the purpose of imitating life is to use forms to refine consciousness, use consciousness to refine inner power, and use inner power to refine the mind and spirit, in search of pervasive integration; it is a type of biodynamic principle and technology for seeking the highest level of integration through returning all things to their root." (intro, 11) It is important and if you are ready this will be an excellent discussion.

Very interesting but a hard read

I liked the book. It attempts to make the case for an aproach between the modern science and traditional martial arts saying that both are complementary and necessary for a breakthrough in consciousness research. The book also proceeds to describe consciousness refining consciousness through internal martial arts.It is not a book that deals with technique or gives advice on internal arts. IMO, it is an interesting reading for the serious martial artist and scholar.It is a short book but hard to read due to long, flowery phrases.

Wise, but not easy to read

Great how openly a chinese person suggests to view the advantages of western and eastern thinking and to aim for their integration. Decades of experiences in martial arts must back up the insights especially concerning the mind work. I got a glimpse how and trust that one can work on oneselve.