Hearing an Asian actor say that in performance he “becomes the character” is a response very like what a Western actor might say. But in spite of the similarity, I've long been bothered by the fact that there has been little discussion in the literature of exactly what the Asian actor means. For the Indian kathakali or Japanese noh actor, “becoming the character” is a statement which epitomizes (1) the lifelong process of training and (2) the immediate psychophysical process of engaging in performing (doing) the acts which constitute a performance on any given occasion. The entire disciplined path is a gradual interweaving of external techniques and internal processes.

Over the past seven years I have been studying, practicing, and researching various “in-body” disciplines of Asian meditational, martial, and performing arts. These disciplines share many assumptions, principles, and details of practice. Primary is the fact that daily repetition of physical exercises and/or performance techniques encodes the techniques in the body. By daily practice all physical and mental obstacles in the way of correct practice are gradually eliminated. The goal of all such virtuosic systems is reaching a state of “accomplishment” (Skt., siddhi) in which the doer and done are one. Through such actualized practice comes both control and transcendence of “self.”