Human vs. Monkey

Blog Article/Post Caveat (Read First Please: Click the Link)

When I say human I am referring to the more logically centered part of the brain and when I say monkey I am referring to that emotional side of our brains - you know, the one that gets us into a lot of things that often result in conflict and violence. 

You can say “ego vs. non-ego” if that suits you as a karate-ka and martial artist because that is one of those things we supposedly train to remove from our lives but the rub here is that we “cannot remove that which is a part of us as humans.” 

Here again I am working on a part of the principle of “philosophy” as it regards “yin-yang.” The principle of philosophy also speaks to concepts such as mind, mushin, zanshin, empty cup and so on, all meant to help us train out our ego’s, etc. All that contribute to the monkey brain, the emotional side of human existence.

Honestly, as I continue to contemplate such things I have come to realize that you CANNOT remove those aspects of being human unless you are a psychopath, i.e., a non-human like state that is missing things like empathy and so on. 

The best anyone can do in these principles and sub-principles is to train in order to have some control, some say over how much of our ego’s and emotions are allowed to influenced the monkey so the human brain is unable to exert influence over what you feel, say and do especially in conflicts and even more so in violence. 

It is more about recognizing those emotions and how we handle and react when situations trigger the adrenal stress conditions of survival then through proper training, practice and a type of experience in reality based programs to achieve success in suppressing those urges and allowing a bit more of our logical human side to remain safe and secure when conflict and violence appear. 

As with the Universe; as with human existence and as with all the myriad things that make life there are always going to be two sides of the one existence. Yin-yang is about all of this and as you may already realize yin-yang is in constant motion, continuous flux and effected by the flow that is the spectrum connecting the extreme end of yin to the extreme end of yang. 

There are those gradients between the extremes represented in how the symbol is for yin-yang and training along with practice and reality based training experiences will give you the tools to hold the less emotional so that the dominant logical side can prevail. This is our true goal in training the mind, for mushin and zanshin states as well as non-action and the empty cup (by the way, the mind is never empty but you get the idea). 

Bibliography (Click the link)