Train vs Teach

It is bad when one thing becomes two.
One should not look for anything else in the Way
of the Samurai. It is the same for anything that is
called a Way. If one understands things in this manner,
he should be able to hear about all ways and be more
and more in accord with his own.

—YAMAMOTO TSUNETOMO

I’ve decided I will no longer teach, per se.  It’s not like a lot of people come ’round these parts of the country to seek out some Gung-Fu guy.  Gung-Fu is dead as far as the masses are concerned.  So be it.  We have been delving back into the underground for some time now and there’s no turning back.  However, it is of no concern because concealment is power.

It’s not like things that I’ve learned won’t be taught, it’s more of a mental shift.  Words mean things – and they mean different things to different people.  I will take the back seat in making sure that everyone has the knowledge of the system and instead be more concerned with how they are serving everyone at that given time.

Another thing, modeled off of my mentor and friend, is that I will not charge for any time spent with me any longer.  This takes the burden of having to teach (read: sell a product) to someone.

Come.  Train.  Bring gear.

Monday, Monday, You Break My Heart

Gents came over on Sunday for photos and training.

Twice a week, before my family wakes, I do the same thing: forms, heavy bag, solo-Chi Sau with elastic band, sprints with burpees

Once a week, between gaps in my day, I do the same thing: hindu pushups, tabletops, crunches, burpees; all to a deck of cards

From time to time, I do the same thing: dynamic sparring warmup, punching drills, Chi Gerk, Chi Sau/Goh Sau, sparring

There is a reason there are only three techniques written in the curriculum after the punch: Tan Sau, Pak Sau, Lop Sau

I am a savage

Some Life Lessons Learnt from Chinese Boxing

What you put in you get out.

Stay the course.

You don’t know what you don’t know.

If you can get hit and keep rolling with it, life doesn’t pack such a punch.

Learn the lesson and then let it go.

You can find moments of personal glory somewhere between seeing stars and black eyes.

Memories; Temple Kung-Fu

At 14 years of age, sleeping in the basement of my home, and watching late night television, I saw a white-haired man beat up ninjas on a bridge.

The next morning I woke with such promise.  I had quit everything to date; soccer and piano made no impact on my life anymore.

Learning Chinese Gung-Fu was the beginning of my studies as I delved deeply into Taoist and Buddhist works, spending my free weekends in Calgary Chinatown drinking bubble tea and browsing the shops, returning home with trinkets such as the three wise men.

Need An Excuse

If you need an excuse to throw techniques like jabs, crosses, hooks and uppercuts -

simply play your forms,

and where you find palm strikes,

turn them into fists.

Teach Me Something

Wing Chun is a very streamlined approach to combat. One punch. One kick.

But there are levels and the Wooden Dummy form is divided into 8 sections.

There are three empty hand forms.  Pole, knives.  Coveted secrets of combat only to revealed in the high-level techniques hidden within thousands of years of Gung-Fu.  With hand and foot techniques, it amounts to over 20.  Would take a lifetime to master.

Wing Chun is a very complicated approach to combat.

The Formula

I used to think that there was a method of learning that would be the magic secret sauce to my Wing Chun.

I used to think that someone out there had the means to make me good if I trained with them – that some lineage/family/approach was the right way of doing things and would lead to my success.

Roll at the wrist, roll at the elbow, hips forward, hips back, more stickiness, more sticking, more control, more punching.

I was wrong.

The formula: adapt in the moment with the opponent.

The method: practicing adapting in the moment with the opponent.

I finally understand the statement The Sweet Science.

Love, Hate; Light, Dark; Tao

In forest dark or glade beferned

No blade of grass shall go unturned

Let those who have the daylight spurned

Tread not where this green lamp has burned.

Already Gone; Not Very Good

I’ve got an idea in my head.  I’ve got this idea of what I want my Chun to look like and where I want to take it – and I think I just want to master a few key things before I decide on whether I need to go in a new direction.  I do like the ‘look’ of some of the WSL Wing Chun because it seems to have an ol’ style boxing flavour.  I’m a sucker for boxing.

As I said to yesterday’s training partner, “I’m not very good.  But I’m not too bad either.  If I can get together with some of these folks and out-skill and out-gas them, then I very cautiously think I might be on the right path for myself.”

It’s also important to follow Rule #6.

Physician, Heal Thyself

I am very blessed to do what I do for a living – trading health for bread.

I am even more blessed that I can do what I do on myself.  I am currently nursing my shoulder which seems to pain at the most odd times – like shaking off my toothbrush.  Alas, even the jolt from a run is quite annoying.

So I’ve been pinning myself, burning moxa and cupping it daily.  Shoulders are tricky – right up there with hips.  I find it interesting that shoulders mirror hips according to image- and channel-theory.  It’s a pain the ass to try and treat my hip (pun intended), so I’ve just been using the ol’ maxim: ‘Where there is pain, there is a point.’

Unlike Skip, I didn’t start my Chinese medicine studies to keep my body in check because of the active lifestyle I lead, but it’s a wonderful benefit just the same.  Blessed, this one will heal himself.

CTK

Do Not Disturb

It was painted pink when we bought the house five years ago.  Used mainly for storage there’s a 10×15 area that I use for martial arts.  I never needed to paint it, I just hung my heavy bag and called it done.  Even the ceiling is just under 6 feet, so the heavy bag hangs low but it’s a non-concern – I just used the opportunity to practice aiming between the chains.

Put on some Krishna Das and while it’s not the angriest music in the world for hitting the bag, we’d be missing the point.  Pacing back and forth in the basement, making figure eights, swerving in and in and out with the music, inhaling the incense, kicking the bag, leaning on it, swaying with it, smashing into it with my elbows, shoulder bumping to a quick and short punch – in a trance seemingly not unlike Dervish Whirling.

I’m in the basement.  Do Not Disturb.

CTK

Dear Boss

Dear Boss,

I hate you.  I hate that you have me up so early in the morning the sun isn’t even awake.  You drive me so hard, working long hours in a day and by the time the week is finished I’m spent.  All I’m able to do is eat and sleep – I don’t even get to go to the boxing gym anymore over lunch as there’s work to be done.  My training is slipping in favour of your insatiable goal of reaping the mighty dollar and for what?  Because you have everyone coming after you for money?  That’s not my problem.

However, perhaps I should be grateful that I even have a job in today’s world with the economy the way it is.  I should be happy with all I have.  Still, I wonder if there’s someway you can change that hectic schedule of mine to include more of the one thing I have such a strong love-hate relationship with…sorry…my bad…back to work I go…

Sincerely,

Self-employed

Nobody Puts Baby In A Corner

Wing Chun shows that anatomically I can only defend 180 degrees of centreline.  I can make this more if I shift, but it shows the limitations of the limbs of the human body.

I prefer, probably due to the system’s way of embedding itself into my psyche, to have my back against a wall in a club.  I also prefer to be the one sitting in a booth facing the entrance.  I prefer the wall on my back.

If you give me a corner, even better.  It cuts down the 180 degrees to 90.  Plus, I don’t have to hold myself up – I just lean on the wall and the more force my opponent puts on me just gets eaten up by the concrete behind me.

This is metaphorical for life.  If for any second you feel like you can back me into a corner and have your way with me, you’ve got another thing coming.  I’ll just kick back and perhaps wait it out.  If I miss, I hit air.  If you miss, you hit concrete.  I might grab behind your head and spin you round, slamming your head into the wall.  I will use your false confidence as a weakness and take you to the grave.

“Forget about winning and losing; forget about pride and pain. Let your opponent graze your skin and you smash into his flesh; let him smash into your flesh and you fracture his bones; let him fracture your bones and you take his life! Do not be concerned with escaping safely- lay your life before him!!” -Bruce Lee

The Important Point

So the important point is to practice without any idea of a hasty gain, without any idea of fame or profit.

We do not practice Gung-Fu [zazen] for the sake of others or for the sake of ourselves.

Just practice Gung-Fu [zazen] for the sake of Gung-Fu [zazen].  Just hit [sit].

F*** [Thank] you very much.

Shunryu Suzuki

Perhaps

Perhaps it’s because I never tried hard to gain something from Chinese medicine and now it’s 5 years later and I’m really good; perhaps it’s because I’ve tried so hard to gain something from Gung Fu that I still feel lack.

A young man went to Gautama Buddha and sought the Master’s guidance to achieve Enlightenment, The conversation went as follows:

Young Man: Master how long will it take for me to achieve enlightenment?

Gautama Buddha: It all depends on you……

Young Man: If I put in ten hours of meditation every day how long will it take?

Gautama Buddha: Maybe ten years

Young Man: What if I put in fifteen hours meditation?

Gautama Buddha: Maybe fifteen years

Young Man; [getting irritated] What if I meditate for twenty hours?

Gautama Buddha: Maybe twenty five years

The young man was almost infuriated.

Young Man: I cannot understand your logic—the more effort I put in, the more time it will take—this is ridiculous, Please explain.

Gautama Buddha: As long as you are fixated and obsessed about your goal you will not achieve it. Just do spiritual practice without one eye on the goal. Let events take their shape.

Triple S

First, there was Remembering SEF.

Now, there’s the Triple S.

This morning, the two gents that came over drilled Wing Chun techs in the Chi Sau – the more useful ones if you will: Tan, Fok, Bong, Pak and Jum.  When drilled, it is important to keep the Triple S in mind.

Slow – Slow it down, as to not get so excited and overstimulated.

Smooth – Make it smooth, not so jerky.

Stay in the pocket – Two trains on the same track.  Stay with your partner.

We can play Chi Sau so many different ways: head shots only, body shots only, pretending to be drunk, etc.  I like the Triple S for drilling techs.  Then we can let ‘er fly.

Make it yours, CTK

Kung-Fu: Mastery of Life

My journey in Kung-Fu, little did I realize, started me on a path of humble life-long learning.  Looking back at those first few years where push-ups in the corner were punishment for talking in class, I learned that I get out exactly what I put in.  I also learned that the rewards were never immediate but I could trust that they were on their way.

Speaking with the acupuncture students yesterday brought something to mind – an idea that is often forgotten: mastery.  When I began on my Chinese medicine journey, at first all I cared about was finding the right acupoints.  As I moved forward in my practice, finding acupoints started to become second nature.  While I hadn’t mastered this, I felt that more work needed to be done in other areas.

I started to look at other facets of my practice.  I started to think about bedside manner and how it greatly affected the patient-practitioner relationship.  I put these thoughts to paper and published a book on Amazon on the subject.  I also asked if there was a better way to put certain needles in – the pinchy ones.  I looked at how I held my body in relationship to the patient – my groin far away from their hand or playing acupuncture like playing a sport: with bent knees to save my low back.

These mastery patterns have slowly filtered into my life because the next stage for me, and this perhaps might have been at the forefront for some although bedside manner and results still seems KING to me (in that order), is proper management of money.  Money and healing (especially the quirky-funny-esoteric-can’t-double-blind-study-this-type-healing) have a hard time getting along -sort of.

Lately, it’s been less about money management and more about lifestyle mastery.  We, as a family, have discussed and made our life choices and it stands to reason that all about all we can do is change the way we life our life.  Baker, author of Manvsdebt.com, has a tag-line that I most enjoy: sell your crap, pay off your debt, live your life.  And while it may seem quite extreme considering he did just that and travelled, it is a sign post that most of us ‘middle-class’ folks are taking a good, hard look at.

So, through the vehicle of martial arts, through Chinese medicine study and practice, comes Mastery of Life.  Just watch the most amazing documentary Jiro Dreams of Sushi.  Not only has this elderly gentleman mastered the art of making sushi, you can watch his mastery of the whole damn thing!  He prepares for the patrons that are left handed instead of right handed.  He watches the speed of how they eat and adjusts accordingly.  He’s not only mastered making sushi, he’s clearly mastered all the pieces of the ‘business’ that are associated with that.  He’s got good Kung-Fu.

Kung-Fu: mastery of a skill through hard work.

Vacuum Like You’re Playing a Sport

My job includes twisting, turning, putting my torso almost upside-down and bending over my patients.

These types of movements, from an occupational health & safety standpoint, would probably make those desk-monkeys quiver with fear.

But I play my life like I’m playing a sport.  Everything is Kung-Fu.

I enjoy bending my knees instead of my back.  Getting a good stretch out of a twisted, upside-down position while needling.  Using my whole body while performing Tui Na massage.  Even while vacuuming, it might look like I’m training my lunges.

So loosen up out there!  Enjoy all those mundane activities!  And wash the dishes like you’re playing a sport.

Dead

The kung-fu forums are dead.

Mailing lists are dead.

Facebook groups have been killed by ego-babble.

Youtube is an unfriendly place for us practitioners.

The days of old are…days of old.  It came from the underground shrouded in secrecy and it is there in which it will return.  Gung-Fu.

Forever

Friends come and go.  Relationships turned to shite.  Some days well, some days stress.  Money in the bank or sometimes waiting for the next cheque.

But Gung-Fu is forever.