Topic: Toughness

[FastGuppy]

I do Martial arts so i think it would be useful to achieve this ability. Punches to the ribs, chest and face in particular would be nice to be a little tougher in.

Just doesn't sound smart to get kick yourself in the balls every other day to achieve iron nuts though. I mean these Buddhist monks had to start somewhere. . .

[Dan Frank]

As far as natural vs supernatural phenomena goes, or the idea of mind over matter, or will power, or any other like phenomena; I have found it to be very unproductive to try and draw neat little lines around things. Discussing ideas in isolations means you ave to make a base set of assumptions and this necessarily limits the application of that argument.

To be plain, it's not only your physical being and all its minute biological components that is real and constant; you also have a consiousness and experience through which you operate. These two things affect each other constantly. They don't exist in separate universes and they certainly don't operate in isolation from each other.

The basic idea at hand in this thread seems to be; not so much how to explain these phenomena, but what is humanly possible. Most people disagree alot on this subject, and I can't answer this with certainty. What I can say is that many of us got into parkour to test these very limits in ourself; and parkour tests not only the body, but the mind. It requires you to be mindful of both.

My advice, if you want to achieve anything, is to be mindful of both the internal and external forces that surround and permeate you (however you make sense of them) and then progressively overload yourself until you reach your goal. Be slow and steady. Be mindful as your responses adapt. Try also to be specific, don't expect the resilience of your palms to carry over to your stomach. Most are suprised at what they are capable of when they become truly aquainted with themselves for the first time.

Do you study Zen Buddhism or Daoism? I draw much of my philosophy from such sources, and I was going to say almost exactly the same thing that you did.

[Mark Lewis]

Not specifically, no. I am a student of many disciplines. You are certainly correct that my philos is in a similar line though. :^)

[Dan Frank]

Not specifically, no. I am a student of many disciplines. You are certainly correct that my philos is in a similar line though. :^)

By study I didn't mean exclusively; it's just that I saw this and was reminded specifically of Daoism and Zen Buddhism and the principles of oneness and awareness.

[Mind Reflections]

i want to believe that if i can concentrate my chi hard enough i can do a kamehameha

[Spencer B]

i want to believe that if i can concentrate my chi hard enough i can do a kamehameha

You have to train and build up your power level over many, many years of practice and hard work to do that.

 

[Newby]

This is similar to the leather skin thing, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hard_body_training 
This is used to be able to give and recieve harder attacks. This can also be used to toughen skin. Bruce Lee would thrust his hands into barrells of gravel to make his hands tougher.also strenghthening of  muscles can help absorb blows. Muscles create a shell to protect the bones.
\ also the more pain you recieve the more pain you can withstand.  it is much the same as building up tolerance to a drug.

[tombb]

This is similar to the leather skin thing, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hard_body_training 
This is used to be able to give and recieve harder attacks. This can also be used to toughen skin. Bruce Lee would thrust his hands into barrells of gravel to make his hands tougher.also strenghthening of  muscles can help absorb blows. Muscles create a shell to protect the bones.
\ also the more pain you recieve the more pain you can withstand.  it is much the same as building up tolerance to a drug.

That's what I discussed earlier, bones getting stronger, so not related to skin (of course you can grow calluses on top of skin, even just by playing guitar, but it's nothing too special).

But just to answer more conclusively the original post and skip over any new-age myths, the answer is that if you are doing martial arts you should mostly worry about first dodging hits, and then if you really have to take hits there are ways to lear to minimize the damage from the impact mostly from partially dodging or contracting, relaxing and moving your muscles at the right times in response to a hit.
But again dodging is much more important because even minimizing impact is not ideal, there can still be very serious cumulative damage you can do to various soft tissues, so for example there is no such thing as a "leather brain" or "iron brain", and you can see the damage that can show up years laters in professional boxers like C.Clay/M.Ali.  Thinking that whatever doesn't kill you makes you stronger is wrong, because there are plenty of things that will not kill you but will leave you crippled for life.