They are a big part of how I structure my spiritual practice, as such its evolving and multi-faceted. But I'm happy to talk a bit about it
:lol:
For me the 'forms' represents discrete/different ways of thinking, not acting. Much like Bruce Lee's 'no forms' approach instead of prescribing kata's or routines within labelled groups, I tried to look at how the brain and body might work and then considered the different situations which might benefit from different approaches to 'cognition' and better action.
The way I sort of looked at it was like, the difference between a living lightsaber duelist and a dead one was how fast they could detect, process and respond. So I thought perhaps there is two pathways to this end... 1. train constantly in all possible styles with a particular weapon to establish some reflex advantage, or 2. train perception and cognition to increase capacity based on circumstance. I chose the later as it applies to a variety of implements or platforms, and indeed to contemplation and analysis itself.
It also seemed to be more 'Jedi' to me as the concept of the Force to me had already formed a spiritual target to connect outwards and inwards in a more open and resonant manner. So its been an integral part of my time as a Jedi here at the Temple, and I've occasionally posted bits about it.
I'm lucky for at the moment some of my spiritual areas of interest are coming into unison, with a merging of things like Chod and Japanese sword styles. It's a bit exciting because its getting less about the spirit and more about the body - it only took about 4 years to get where I'm at but its good when disparite interests come together and reinforce each other
:side:
Which is good because when Bruce Lee said no form he probably didn't mean no knowledge of swinging, but rather transcending them. So perhaps I'm doing it backwards... mind before body, but it seems the right way to do it.
Anyway, so for me it represents a fundamental extra layer of projecting ones will beyond their body, being that line from the hand to a point (the tip). Thus its relevant to processing spatial information and determining courses of action, and exercising bodily action.
Therefore it seems more useful to consider it a short staff then a sword, which matches the edgeless concept of a lightsaber. The lightsaber being edgeless means its employement would not be so much like a sword which is all about using momentum and use of sharp and blunt edges to achieve effect, as the lightsaber could accelerate in any direction at any time and retain its lethality - but that would depend on how the technology existed of course, which it doesn't!!! And since swords are not longer realistic 'tools' for security it all sort of reinforced my decision to go with Lightsaber Form's instead being about systematic improvement to decision making and awareness, then systematic martial art drills. This also means then that it has more utility in the real world, because its usefulness is not limited/suited to a particular design of weapon.
Anyway, I could go on, but basically I did not pay too much attention to Form I and II and use them for simpler concepts like speed and precision to directly translate blade position. For me Form III is the main form, and focuses on processing spatial information in a spherical coordinate system, to detect and respond to multi-objectives in an open environment, and generally more defensive in nature being inside 'the bubble', in simple terms a defensive circle. Form IV is a more offensive approach, and is about moving outside 'the bubble' and in simple terms offensive projection. This might best be processing perception as a polar coordinate system. Of course the term offensive for a Jedi should be understood not in violent terms!! haha
The next two are specialized versions to suit changes in circumstance. Form V falls to the cartesian coordinate system, and is a faster mix of Form's I and II which like the fiction is suited to less mobile, heavier set or confined Jedi and has equal defensive and offensive utility.
Form VI again in the same way is a version of another Form to suit confinement (hallways, other people nearby etc), but differs in that it is a version of Form III and Form IV. Form VI uses the cylindrical coordinate system in operation, and benefits from Form III in its defensive application and Form IV in its offensive application.
Form VII gets a bit weird and instead might best use something like barycentric coordinate systems, but that is getting into what I delineate into darkside territory and a bit too removed from conscious processing to be particularly useful in anything beyond personal training.
So in this way they can apply to all sorts of things. For example, formation flying would be an example of Niman... as your attention normally flying solo would be better associated in a spherical manner, but once working together in formation your participating in an agreed mutual sharing of workload which could be better managed by a cylindrical manner of processing information (albeit aligned laterally with motion and not vertically like if you were standing on your 2 feet!).
Knight ~ introverted extropian, mechatronic neurothealogizing, technogaian buddhist. Likes integration, visualization, elucidation and transformation.
Jou
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Vlo
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Dis
TM: Grand Master Mark Anjuu
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