CONCLUSION: 11
REFERENCES: 13
ABSTRACT:
In this essay we will be looking at Nishida’s idea of pure experience and how it pertains to action in our lives and in the life of a martial artist. We will discuss if his approach is one worthy of following and if it can change the way we perform actions in our life for the better. I conclude that Nishida's approach is one we should all follow to better our experience in life.
INTRODUCTION:
Pure experience was an idea Nishida wanted to use to explain reality. In ‘An Inquiry Into The Good’ he says “I wanted to explain all things on the basis of pure experience as the sole reality”. In this essay, I will try to get to the heart of what Nishida meant when he talked about pure experience and how it can be applied to everything we do in our lives. The idea of pure experience, explained below, tries to incorporate the unconscious, effortless moments of our lives where we are not tied down by the weight of thought and deliberation. To add to Nishida's claims on pure experience I will be including and using the work of academics such as Cal Newport[1], Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi[2], Friedrich Nietzsche[3] and others. The ‘modern’ ideas and theories made by Newport and Csikszentmihalyi for our technological world highlight the relevance and importance of Nishida's work for us today, more than ever. The martial artist and the practice of martial arts is something I believe really encapsulates what pure experience means and how it can be so beneficial to us. I will dive into examples of how this is true in this essay, drawing from both modern works and older works like Nishida’s and even Daoist principles of non-self and non-action. Non-self is the idea that one must separate themselves from unnatural influences and instead become one with the spontaneous state. Non-action, or wu-wei[4], is the principle of action in non-action. It is the cultivation of a state in which our actions are quite effortlessly in alignment. These ideas tie in with Csikszentmihalyi’s flow state and Nishida's ideas of pure experience perfectly, which I will explore in this essay.
WHAT IS PURE EXPERIENCE? :
Nishida writes extensively on the idea of pure experience in his book ‘An Inquiry Into The Good’[5] and describes it almost as a unison between subject and object. Pure experience happens before our “thinking faculties have time to kick into action” and separate out the object from the subject. That moment is when “all of these seemingly separate elements are intimately united and co-existent within that single block of experience” (Maraldo, 2019). Pure experience is the moment you smell something amazing but before the moment that you process that smell and separate it into the fact that it smells like a certain smell and that it is coming from a freshly baked cake or a group of flowers nearby. It is the moment we are within and one with the experience. “The moment of seeing a color or hearing a sound” is prior, not only to the thought that the color or sound is the activity of an external object or that one is sensing it, but also to the judgment of what the color or sound might be” (Nishida, Abe and Ives, 1990). Nishida refers to this moment as pre-reflective. This is an important difference from the typical western idea of experience as we nearly always explain our experience using the subject and object distinctions Nishida dislikes. When we use these distinctions we initiate the idea of dualism[6] which is the opposite of what most eastern philosophies teach. Nishida wants us to understand that our experiences are not individual dependent but world dependent. Experience does not, for Nishida, come from the mental and sensory abilities of an individual which are acted out onto an object. Instead pure experience is when both the self-experiences something but also that the self is as well experienced. Nishida believes that experience does not exist because there is an individual, but that an individual exists because there is experience. Therefore, the things that are pure are the things that are untouched. When we invoke subject and object metaphysics we loss the purity.
What is important to note is that our experience of things are not pure because they are devoid of context or distinctions but are pure because they are “free from the distortions of this manifold by egocentric discrimination and dualistic reification” (Emmanuel, 2015). That is to say, they are free from the labels and the subject/object metaphysics we impose on them. When we pass judgement on our actions or thoughts is the moment, to Nishida, that we loss pure experience. “When one makes judgments about it (experience), it ceases to be a pure experience”. A truly pure experience is just a present consciousness of facts, just as they are. Cultivating this approach and understanding it in our actions is achieving what we would now refer to as ‘flow state’. To think and to act in a state of no-mind is to be free and natural. In Daoism, “such naturally free action is referred to as non-action” (Emmanuel, 2015) . This does not mean nothing is happening, but instead is what Nishida is talking about when we explains the idea of pure experience. There is not a lack of action but rather purity in activity. To cultivate this type of non-action[7] takes years of deliberate practice[8], which we will explore in this essay. Once we achieve or feel this pure experience in our actions, we come to deeply understand what it means to both experience one's self and the action at hand.
CULTIVATING PURE EXPERIENCE:
Cultivating the ability to reach this state of purity in activity is both difficult and requires deliberate practice. In his book Deep Work, computer science professor at Georgetown University, Cal Newport talks about the idea of deliberate practice, which is critical to obtaining the skill of deep work. Deliberate practice occurs when we step outside of our comfort zones and push ourselves beyond our current abilities (Newport, 2016). In order to achieve deep work, which is the ability to enter this flow state idea when carrying out an action, we must call on deliberate practice to hone our skills towards achieving it. Psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi also sets out the idea that it is not the actual experience that matters itself but the way you approach this experience or action (Patterson, 2018). Nishida disliked the idea of dualism and the idea of deliberate practice to cultivate pure experience may sound like action instead of non-action, however, to get to a state of pure experience we need deliberate practice. Daoism, as well as most eastern philosophies such as Buddhism, are very circular in their approach to their teachings. In order to cultivate pure experience we need action, however, this does not mean it is dualist. In fact, it is quite non-dualistic. We need to practice an idea or a technique every day before we can do it in a pure experience and non-actionist way. The same way yin needs yang and yang needs yin to maintain balance. Deliberate practice and pure experience are two sides of the same coin.
Newport suggests taking your approach to achieving this flow state in small and manageable stages. In the current information age we live, our brains are constantly fed when they crave attention. Be it standing in line at a coffee shop or waiting for the bus, any time our brain craves attention we simply take out our phones and browse the internet or social media mindlessly. This has trained us to have both a low level of concentration and an ability to focus. These skills, which we are lacking, are crucial in the cultivation of pure experience as it is these that we need to engage in deliberate practice (Newport, 2016). Choosing a task that is both challenging but not too hard is important to starting out on our journey to achieving flow state or pure experience as “if a task is too easy, you will be able to complete it without much thought or effort” (Babauta, 2019). Csikszentmihalyi also makes this distinction and his research suggests that certain activities people pursue, such as watching television, are some of the least enjoyable things we can do. This is perhaps due to the insignificance and ease of the action. “The most enjoyable moments are the ones full of challenge and even pain” (Patterson, 2018). This is an interesting and important distinction as philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche also reiterates the same ideas when discussing the will to power[9] and what ultimately makes people's lives both happy and fulfilled. Nietzsche believed that the pain, suffering and loss that we occur on the way to the attainment of a goal is what makes the achievement of the goal fulfilling and worthwhile (Philosophize This, 2016). Again, there is a very eastern philosophical approach in this as there is non-dualism between pain and pleasure. Pain is necessary for pleasure and I believe Nishida embodies these concepts in his idea of pure experience. By taking deliberate practice of bettering your ability in a task or skill seriously we can eventually attain this idea of flow state, deep work, non-action or pure experience. This will allow us to do everything we do in a better and more fluid manner. What we smell, taste, see, feel or take part in are all part of our pure sensory experience. For most of us, it is rare that we allow ourselves to just be in this moment. “Usually, we are caught up in a narrative about ourselves, our lives, our current situation, and other people. We might notice the pure experience, but almost immediately we start judging it” and therefore we lose it and its benefits to us (Babauta, 2019). Another way of beginning to cultivate pure experience is through meditation. Meditation teaches us to notice the thought, judgement or situation and then to just let it go again, returning to the experience and the experience alone. This style of meditation is like training the muscle in your brain to become more receptive and better at taking in the moment of pure experience. When we cultivate and achieve this form of pure experience in our actions and thoughts, we also begin to understand the process or the action better. As we reach this flow state we begin to understand what makes up the work or the action that we are carrying out. We become more aware of and understanding of the action itself and begin to understand the relationships we have with it. To do anything at a high level, I believe, requires this ability of non-action and oneness with pure experience. It is only here that we can truly relax and be free from inhibiting thought and therefore we can perform to our best ability. Another important aspect Nishida mentions is temporality and its effect on the pure experience. “When we analyze a present consciousness, what we are left with after analysis is no longer identical with that present consciousness. From the perspective of pure experience, then, all experiences are distinct and in each case they are simple and original” (Nishida, Abe and Ives, 1990). Again, we see the idea of purity in the moment as an important part of pure experience as well as the idea that this gives rise to simplicity and originality in experience. The idea that something of ours can be original or that this approach can help us be more original is something people in the modern day long for. Originality shows us that we are living on our own terms. The martial artist embodies this philosophy to the highest degree.
PURE EXPERIENCE IN MARTIAL ARTS:
Pure experience is something the martial artist is a part of every single day. The nature of martial arts is deliberate practice and pure experience. If the martial artist cannot exercise their movements, techniques and patterns in a free and natural flow state then they are doomed to fail. Every martial artist knows the beauty of pure experience as, when you are in a fight, you think of nothing. You only react and operate in the moment. It is exactly this type of thing that Nishida describes when he talks about the moment one sees a colour and experiences its beauty, right before they assign it to something and intuit subject/object metaphysics. When fighting, the martial artist is in a mode of non-self and non-action. They simply allow the years of deliberate practice to take over and guide them. Many of the words most prominent martial arts either originated in Japan or were influenced by Japanese martial arts. This is quite fitting, therefore, that the true essence of high performance martial arts requires the use of an idea embedded in Japanese philosophy, be it Nishida's idea of pure experience or the Daoist concepts of non-action. In his masterpiece “The Book Of Five Rings”, written around 1645, Japanese samurai Miyamoto Musashi[10] often also shines a light on the importance of pure experience in combat. “Let your mind be free. Do not think about a punch made or a kick just thrown. Do not linger” (Miyamoto and Cleary, 2000). We can interpret this in the same way as Nishida talks about colour or sound. Once we linger on the sound or where it is coming from we lose the pure experience associated with the sound. This is equally true for the martial artist as they must not linger on a punch throw or else run the risk of being stagnant and therefore hitable. It is only when the martial artist is in their state of flow or non-action that they do their best work as they are lead by reactions in the moment. Interestingly, Miyamoto is also quoted as saying “You can only fight the way you practice” (Miyamoto and Cleary, 2000). This brings us back to Cal Newport’s idea of deliberate practice and that to cultivate Nishida’s idea of pure experience, we need to first take part in deliberate practice of our actions to achieve this. In “An Inquiry Into The Good”, Nishida mentions that “pure experience is constructed out of past experience and can be analysed later into its single elements. Yet, no matter how complex it might be, in the moment it occurs, pure experience is always a simple fact” (Nishida, Abe and Ives, 1990). The martial artist always strives to achieve this in battle. The complexity of movements, patterns and sequences should, when called upon, be just that. Simple facts. Simple facts which require no conscious attention or thinking on behalf of the practitioner. For, if they cannot cultivate this pure experience in their actions, then they run the risk of losing fluidity and effortlessness in their movements which ultimately leads to defeat. Nishida also mentions that when we develop and operate freely,“thinking bases itself almost entirely on unconscious attention”. It is only when thinking becomes conscious, according to Nishida, that its advances become hindered. This relates to our martial artist as the entire idea of martial arts is to cultivate this ‘unconscious attention’ in battle. Nishida expands on this idea of attention when he says that we can direct it, in pure experience, towards things perceived with “each act giving rise to the next without the slightest crack between them for thinking to enter” (Nishida, Abe and Ives, 1990). This experience is the flow state that other authors mentioned have talked about. The martial artist strives to operate in this moment, devoid of the subject/object metaphysics that Nishida says hinders our ability to truly be in pure experience.
Today, many of the best modern day martial artists[11] follow this ideal because, without it, they would never achieve greatness. Cultivating this ability does require deliberate practice of the moves, sequences and patterns necessary to be triumphant in combat so we can enter this state of unconscious attention when the time is required, however, even our practice can take on this ideal of pure experience and flow mentality. In the chaos of a battle, the mind finds a way to think of nothing and allow our body to take over. This feeling is truly special and applying the concept in some form in our everyday lives through meditation, creative writing or any activity can transform the way we interact with the world and ourselves. To quote the great Bruce Lee,
“Empty your mind, be formless. Shapeless, like water.”
CONCLUSION:
Eastern philosophical ideas are often overlooked by their western counterparts as the non-dualist nature and circular movement of ideas and concepts can be hard to grasp for western philosophies where dualism is rife. However, I believe we all strive to achieve these eastern concepts in our lives every day and the attainment of what Nishida calls pure experience is just one of these. In the western world, productivity, mental health and fulfillment are all ideas which are thrown around every day by both the people we know and the media, yet very little is done or said on how to attain these goals. It is only when we begin to understand this idea of pure experience or Daoist non-action that we actually see that those who achieve such things embody what it means to cultivate pure experience in their everyday lives. The best sports stars, entrepreneurs and writers all embody this idea of flow state and non-action in their profession. Nishida’s concept is probably now more important than ever to cultivate as our lives become increasingly more distracting and connected through technology and social media. We live in short bursts instead of meaningful reflection of our surroundings. Cal Newport, as well as others, aims to help the modern world towards these ideas through his concept of deep work, an idea rooted in eastern philosophy, and by taking part in meditation, setting difficult goals for ourselves and taking the time to just be in the moment and appreciate what is around us then maybe we can also cultivate Nishida's concept of pure experience in our everyday lives.
REFERENCES:
Babauta, L. (2019). 9 Steps to Achieving Flow (and Happiness) in Your Work : zen habits. [online] Zenhabits.net. Available at: https://zenhabits.net/guide-to-achieving-flow-and-happiness-in-your-work/ [Accessed 23 Nov. 2019].
Babauta, L. (2019). The Mindfulness of Pure Experience : zen habits. [online] Zenhabits.net. Available at: https://zenhabits.net/pure/ [Accessed 25 Nov. 2019].
Emmanuel, S. (2015). A companion to Buddhist philosophy. John Wiley & Sons, p.203.
GeckoandFly. (2019). 25 Inspirational Quotes from Bruce Lee's Martial Arts Movie. [online] Available at: https://www.geckoandfly.com/14374/25-inspirational-quotes-bruce-lees-martial-arts-movie/ [Accessed 25 Nov. 2019].
Maraldo, J. (2019). Nishida Kitarō (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy). [online] Plato.stanford.edu. Available at: https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/nishida-kitaro/#PurExp [Accessed 22 Nov. 2019].
Miyamoto, M. and Cleary, T. (2000). The Book Of Five Rings. 1st ed. Boston: Shambhala Publications Inc.
Newport, C. (2016). Deep work. Hachette.
Nishida, K., Abe, M. and Ives, C. (1990). An inquiry into the good. New Haven: Yale University Press.
Patterson, R. (2018). The Flow State: How to Enter Your Brain's Most Productive State. [online] College Info Geek. Available at: https://collegeinfogeek.com/flow/ [Accessed 23 Nov. 2019]
Philosophize This! (2016) 26th Sept. 16 [Podcast]. 26 September. Available at https://philosophizethis.org/the-will-to-power/ (Accessed: 2nd November 2019).
[1] Calvin C. Newport is an associate professor of computer science at Georgetown University
[2] Is a Hungarian-American psychologist. He recognized and named the psychological concept of flow, a highly focused mental state conducive to productivity.
[3] A German philosopher, cultural critic, composer, poet, philologist, and Latin and Greek scholar.
[4] Wu may be translated as not have or without; Wei may be translated as do, act, serve as, govern or effort.
[5] Is a 1911 book by the Japanese philosopher Kitaro Nishida.The work has been described as a masterpiece.
[6] The division of something conceptually into two opposed or contrasted aspects, or the state of being so divided.
[7] Unconflicting personal harmony, free-flowing spontaneity.
[8] A special type of practice that is purposeful and systematic. While regular practice might include mindless repetitions, deliberate practice requires focused attention
[9] The will to power describes what Nietzsche may have believed to be the main driving force in humans.
[10] He became renowned through stories of his unique double-bladed swordsmanship and undefeated record in his 61 duels.
[11] See Anderson Silva or George St. Pierre for examples.
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