Transcending

You say you are not happy. But you were happy in sleep. What has transpired in the meantime that the happiness of sleep has broken down? It is the ego. And that arises with the waking state. There was no ego in sleep. The birth of the ego is called the birth of the person. There is no other birth. Whatever is born is bound to die. Kill the ego! There is no fear of death for that which is already dead. The Self remains after the death of the ego. That is Bliss that is immortality.
Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharshi

If they don't serve any other purpose, the martial arts should serve as a vehicle for true transcendence.  It's easy to conceive of this watching a lone practitioner performing his Taiji form in the park, or watching old Kung Fu TV series reruns.  But once we begin the practice, we can easily become bogged down in the technical details or consumed with latent or blatant competitive drive and miss the forest for the trees.  Sure, technical details are important but they shouldn't override the spirit.  And spirit is both the easiest and the hardest aspect of our practice to realize.  In essence it is always available, always with us.  Yet, we have to acknowledge it and nurture it.  The way to do that is to first destroy ego, then place your attention where you know it should be.

As O'Sensei said, "Heaven is right where you are standing, and that is the place to train."  The technical details only give us the how-to of training.  The rest is up to us.