Nov 18, 2020
Respect
seen from Malaysia
seen from United States
seen from Maldives
seen from United States
seen from United States
seen from United States
seen from Canada
seen from United States
seen from United States
seen from Netherlands
seen from Brazil
seen from Germany
seen from United States
seen from Mexico
seen from Germany
seen from Australia
seen from Russia
seen from Germany
seen from Venezuela
seen from United States
Respect
Thoughts on Revenge
“When you think that they’re your Brethren, they underhand your plans…” I. As many of you well know, there was a time not too long ago where I was on the verge of death. For years, literally. Your favorite Kung Fu Uncle was literal skin & bones. Somehow, I survived. By “pure force of will”? Perhaps. Out of spite for my enemies, known & unkown? Perhaps. In any case, a major factor that…
View On WordPress
The Xia were the Knights Errant of ancient China, the lone Heroes of Wuxia Novels & Movies. Here is their Code of Conduct. What principles do you follow as you live your life? #MartialEthics #KungFu #YouXia Every culture, every society, has its array of characters & personality types. In the World of Martial Arts, there are many unique characters.
do what others fail to do.
The last time I wrote about courage was four days before I earned my Red sash. Tomorrow I will achieve Red II. When I write about these big things: courage, endurance, trust... what amount to the ten pillars of Wu de, “martial morality,” I like to think the act changes me, as if putting them down on paper etches an attitude of them permanently on my soul, but that is not the case. Our souls are fluid, fighting entities that want to feel what they feel. Mine often feels fear, weakness, and mistrust. But I realize that instead of constantly talking about and trying to logic my way through to the other side isn’t what’s going to make me fearless, unstoppable, or trusting. No, when it comes down to being the person you want to be, it’s just in the act. No thinking, no rationalizing. Just doing.
A few years ago, on one of my many superhero kicks (Marvel’s first ‘Avengers’ film had come out and I themed my entire wing of the college residents I supervised as an RA around the idea), I went around asking people what they thought a ‘hero’ was. A lot of the responses were cliche, no doubt, but some of made me think.
A modest person who is silent about their convictions and doesn’t try to make everybody else into what they are, and who is not pushed into changing their values and convictions by others who are rude and persistent. [family friend.]
Someone that shows you how and when to sacrifice for the better of others. How not to be selfish, not because it will garner accolades, or label you as ‘humble,’ but because it shows the true spirit of brotherhood. But above anything, a hero is someone that can do all those things and lead by example, be vocal when necessary, and never need recognition for their deeds. True heroes are transparent, but transcendent - others will never know how much that person really changed their lives. [ex-supervisor.]
The short answer would be one who demonstrates great courage under duress. An English professor of mine once said that the original definition of a hero was ‘one who preserves in that which is worth persevering.’ [aunt.]
Navy SEALS. [senior English teacher.]
Someone who, when finding themselves in an unexpectedly dangerous situation, subsequently finds the inner strength to respond. [online stranger.]
Someone who is willing to stand in the gap when I cannot. Someone who loves me even when I fail. Someone who is not afraid of allowing tears to fall. [sophomore English teacher.]
Someone who remembers every day that they are here to self-improve by serving others without judgment or partiality, knowing full well that the good they do may never be returned and still finding joy in that state of awareness. [childhood karate instructor.]
A hero is patient and kind. He does not envy others or boast in his own ability; he is not rude or arrogant - he does not insist to have his ways. He holds no grudge - he rejoices in forgiving. A hero displays self-sacrificial love. A hero is a servant. [friend.]
A hero is someone who is courageous, focused, determined, and self-sacrificing. They stand out for being in the wrong place at the wrong time and not sitting there allowing the wrong things to happen. They rise to action when others either sit to watch or turn to ignore. The key characteristic is self-sacrifice. They have to be willing to put others’ needs before their own. Many people are brave, but they aren’t heroes. Heroes’ braver and willingness to risk their lives is always to help someone else. [freshman geography teacher.]
Someone who does what others fail to do. [local county defense lawyer.]
I think a hero can be a couple of things... one is what most would say a hero is: one who helps someone in a life-or-death situation without giving it a second thought. Similarly, what we hear most often when saying ‘hero’ are those who work in dangerous occupations. There are heroes and there are heroic acts but I think it’s case-by-case whether a heroic act makes a hero. Or a person who does it because he or she is intrinsically heroic whether they know it or not. Then there are heroes of the sort who do what they have to do their whole lives to keep others sheltered and safe when what they do is something nobody else would do, like steelworkers walking on beams eighty floors up during the Great Depression, or poor miners in a failing country. Then there is another type, the quiet hero - there would be all kinds of those. Someone who does his or her best to keep others safe and sheltered in their own minds. A selfless person who can be put through all manner of trials and tribulations and still hold their head up and not give up making others feel they are loved. [dad.]
I never offered an answer to that question, my own question - what is a hero? - even prodded by those who provided me with such eloquent responses (some more than others, but that is the glorious variety that is humankind). I like the simple one-liners. Short, sweet, easy to remember. I know that courage wasn’t absent from anyone’s answer, which is why I bring all this up on the back of that particular subject. I suppose I ought to apologize - if you’ve read to this point expecting a grand finale of sound logic and beautiful words to inspire and ignite, I have nothing of the sort. I’m writing this to tell you the truth of it: that I am more often confused than I am clear about these things. I’m trying to tell you that all I know is this: feeling fear and anguish does not make you any less brave or hardy. The courageous do not lack anxiety. It seems only that they understand, somehow, that despite all of that we are capable of incredible things. That fear can be fought through just as any comic book villain or devastating event.
I think about what I have to lose, and it’s a short list. And nothing on that list can be taken from me by what I fear, which really renders those fears sort of gratuitous, if you logic it out. This isn’t all about Kung Fu anymore, it’s not about being a martial artist. I was human first.
There will never be means to ends, only means. And I am means. I am what I started with, and when it is all over I will be all that is left of me. - Bruce Lee
It’s still important to have heroes. But after all this, all the years of keeping these folded notes of scrawled answers to this question in a box in my closet, I’m ready to answer it for myself. Heroes give you examples of greatness, behaviors to emulate, attitudes to mirror. I refuse to believe that they are always self-sacrificing or silent about their convictions, because sometimes self-sacrifice is in no one’s best interests and silence is deafening. The best ones are the ones who aren’t any different from you. Batman, Iron Man... their only weapon was human ingenuity and look how far they’ve come. It’s too hard to say you want to fly like Superman or control the elements like Storm. They’re heroes by definition, but that’s not what I’m talking about. Firefighters, policemen... they’re heroes by occupation, but that’s not what I’m talking about. I’m talking about people in your life who manage to speak to your fluid, fighting soul, past all the blackness and walls you built around it, as if none of that existed. People who pioneer a road through all of that and lead the way down it, too. People who reminded me that I was already strong and don’t see helping me grow as self-sacrifice at all. Heroes are people who make you believe in your own heroism. They are people who are trying to empower you, guide you into a place where, one day, you won’t need them.
And then you turn around and you find someone, someone like you used to be, and you return the favor. No matter how they fight it, you don’t quit on them. Courage isn’t an extraordinary act in the face of danger. It is not a comic book montage. It is not always a mighty roar - sometimes it is the quiet voice that says I will try again tomorrow. Courage is never, ever giving up.
the tradition of master & student.
Sifu strives to uphold Shaolin tradition wherever possible. Not only does it provide his students a more authentic experience in their training, it perpetuates the culture of excellence and respect that martial artists of any discipline should strive to achieve.
Shaolin Kung Fu has been around for thousands of years. Traditionally, a person wishing to study Kung Fu would first choose a school and after being accepted would join the myriad of other students studying there in basic training. Some schools had only a handful of students, some had hundreds. Each had a master, or sifu, presiding over all students but personally mentoring only a few, the formal or closed-door students. To reach this status a student had to be not only exceptionally diligent with their physical practice of Kung Fu [often for many years before even approaching the sifu] but adhere to the pillars of Wude, “martial morality.” Many famous practitioners of Kung Fu begged their sifus for years before they were accepted as formal students, and choosing to pursue such a path is what ultimately set them apart from the masses.
At the Shaolin Wu-Yi Institute where I train, the structure of learning is similar. In the modern-day Western world of immediate gratification, it is hard to maintain some traditions and attitudes our ancestral Kung Fu brethren had toward training, but the Institute’s learning format is one of the reasons I chose SWYI over the other schools I looked into. It goes basically like this:
Sifu heads the school. He teaches all childrens’ Kung Fu classes as well as adult Kung Fu class twice a week. To aid him with the rest of the workload, he has appointed instructors: often [but not always] black belts of considerable skill and unwavering loyalty. Four of these teach their own adult Kung Fu classes the other four days of the week Sifu does not.
Instructors personally appointed by Sifu to teach who have not yet received their black belts are awarded brown belts to designate their title until they do. Thus, one is not “a brown belt.” It is a title, not a rank. Some instructors were granted brown-belt status as green belts, others purple or blue. Some are never granted brown-belt status. It is all based on your individual merit.
In addition to helping with classes, instructors are required to teach private lessons. Every adult [and some of the children] training at the kwoon is on day one matched with an instructor who once a week trains them one-on-one for half an hour. It doesn’t seem like much time, but that half-an-hour rapidly becomes sacred, and more is learned in private lessons than a week’s worth of classes. Sifu teaches private lessons as well, but only to his “formal” or “closed-door” students. They are all black belts and most have asked for his personal tutelage directly. This small faction of students will all tell you the same thing: your ultimate goal should be to be trained directly by Sifu, because he is truly more skilled than any of us.
I spend anywhere from ten to twenty hours a week at the kwoon. I go to class and learn from a myriad of instructors as well as Sifu himself. My personal instructor, the Dragon, was appointed by Sifu to train me one-on-one in private lessons, but outside of that half-hour block he is a student just as I am. One day I hope to be an instructor, but I am at peace with whatever decision Sifu has made or will make regarding that path for me.
[originally posted 6 June 15]
the tradition of master & student.
Sifu strives to uphold Shaolin tradition wherever possible. Not only does it provide his students a more authentic experience in their training, it perpetuates the culture of excellence and respect that martial artists of any discipline should strive to achieve.
Shaolin Kung Fu has been around for thousands of years. Traditionally, a person wishing to study Kung Fu would first choose a school and after being accepted would join the myriad of other students studying there in basic training. Some schools had only a handful of students, some had hundreds. Each had a master, or sifu, presiding over all students but personally mentoring only a few, the formal or closed-door students. To reach this status a student had to be not only exceptionally diligent with their physical practice of Kung Fu [often for many years before even approaching the sifu] but adhere to the pillars of Wude, “martial morality.” Many famous practitioners of Kung Fu begged their sifus for years before they were accepted as formal students, and choosing to pursue such a path is what ultimately set them apart from the masses.
At the Shaolin Wu-Yi Institute where I train, the structure of learning is similar. In the modern-day Western world of immediate gratification, it is hard to maintain some traditions and attitudes our ancestral Kung Fu brethren had toward training, but the Institute’s learning format is one of the reasons I chose SWYI over the other schools I looked into. It goes basically like this:
Sifu heads the school. He teaches all childrens’ Kung Fu classes as well as adult Kung Fu class twice a week. To aid him with the rest of the workload, he has appointed instructors: often [but not always] black belts of considerable skill and unwavering loyalty. Four of these teach their own adult Kung Fu classes the other four days of the week Sifu does not.
Instructors personally appointed by Sifu to teach who have not yet received their black belts are awarded brown belts to designate their title until they do. Thus, one is not “a brown belt.” It is a title, not a rank. Some instructors were granted brown-belt status as green belts, others purple or blue. Some are never granted brown-belt status. It is all based on your individual merit.
In addition to helping with classes, instructors are required to teach private lessons. Every adult [and some of the children] training at the kwoon is on day one matched with an instructor who once a week trains them one-on-one for half an hour. It doesn’t seem like much time, but that half-an-hour rapidly becomes sacred, and more is learned in private lessons than a week’s worth of classes. Sifu teaches private lessons as well, but only to his “formal” or “closed-door” students. They are all black belts and most have asked for his personal tutelage directly. This small faction of students will all tell you the same thing: your ultimate goal should be to be trained directly by Sifu, because he is truly more skilled than any of us.
I spend anywhere from ten to twenty hours a week at the kwoon. I go to class and learn from a myriad of instructors as well as Sifu himself. My personal instructor, the Dragon, was appointed by Sifu to train me one-on-one in private lessons, but outside of that half-hour block he is a student just as I am. One day I hope to be an instructor, but I am at peace with whatever decision Sifu has made or will make regarding that path for me.
Wu De — English Version
(via Wu De | Slanted Flying)