"When posture (shi sei, form and force) is perfect, the movement that follows is perfect as well...a beautiful posture, an inner solitude, a free mind, energy (ki) balanced between cosmos, being, and strength of body, right breathing concentrated in the hara, and the consciousness attentive, clear."--Taisen Deshimaru, The Zen Way to the Martial Arts.

"If we concentrate on posture we forget to think and the unconscious can show itself."--Deshimaru, Ring of the Way.

We express our emotions through our behaviors, and emotions or feelings are also the consequences of our behaviors. One example is the fact that facial expresssions both express and cause the feelings they exhibit. Smiling is the cause and effect of positive emotion. We can infer that a person who smiles is happy, and it also turns out that the smile will cause happiness by relieving emotional tension and increasing oxygen, endorphins, and immune components. We smile because we feel happy, and we feel happy because we smile. We frown because we feel dejected and start feeling down because we frown. Scowl and be angry for relative reasons. Chicken or the egg? A paradoxical example of cause and effect more pertinent to martial art is the relationship between your internal states and your posture.

"A good stance and posture reflect a proper state of mind."--Uyeshiba. In the same way that facial expressions cause and engender their corresponding emotions, stance or posture expresses and produces either a confident or fearful state of mind or emotion. A confident, poised bearing induces self-assurance and empowerment, and a slumped posture discourages the mind, causing it to slouch into weakness, defeat and victimhood.

Perpetrators select victims largely based on weak posture or bearing so you can also say that behavioral posture causes feelings and behaviors in others as well as in us.

A good stance or posture should be your normal or routine stance since it has so much to do with whether you're in plus ki or not. Miyamoto Musashi wrote in the classic Book of Five Rings that in martial art "it is necessary to maintain the combat stance in everyday life and to make your everyday stance your combat stance."

Execution of any movement requires that you pass through a configuration of structural balance before you can lift a foot to step.

Since you must stand or pass through the balance point of your posture before you can dodge an attack or execute a technique, the advantage definitely goes to the one who doesn't need to stumble to the balance point before he can move. Therefore, the combat stance should be your everyday stance.
Copyright 2004 by Jack Livingston