Νοῦς ὑγιὴς ἐν σώματι ὑγιεῖ
“A healthy mind in a healthy body”
- Thales of Miletus
I’m here in Chinatown drinking my coffee, listening to music and training with one of my senior students who is feeling the pressure from the negative perception that has been built up by people and the media about the current panic over Coronavirus. Let’s just clear the air with a little good Kung Fu and some Stoic philosophy. I’m not a doctor, but illness of the mind is sometimes worse than anything else. People’s mindsets exasperate the situation. You have a choice of how to perceive things. You can go about it in a logical, orderly fashion and make things better, or you can make things worse. No matter what happens, the only modicum of control that you or I have is our reaction to whatever is going on externally. If your reaction is to freak out and panic, then that’s what you propagate. You got what you asked for; don’t cry about it later. Instead, step back take a good, strong look. Think with your so-called highly intellectual mind and apply reason. Let’s get ourselves together. Put your mind back on a positive track. Don’t be swayed, persuaded or moved in wrong directions by what is permeating the airwaves. It’s vicious in a sense; it’s an attack on logic and sensibility, and people are feeding into it. I want no part of it. The only panic that exists is the panic that you create. Be sane, not insane. Fight back against the insanity by living your life.
It’s a very unfortunate statement that the mass majority of people are ill-educated if not uneducated and just react on impulse. One example of this is all the racist things happening against Asians. Diseases don’t see color, creed or nationality. It is complete ignorance not going into Chinese establishments, restaurant, supermarkets and mom-and-pop shops. It seems like you’re more likely to be killed by a stampede of panicked people trying to buy toilet paper and Purel than by the virus itself. Is the virus something that’s attacking your immune system or something that is attacking your brain? I think the real virus seems to be more from within people’s mind than it is from the outside. Are people going to get sick and die? Yes. Unfortunately, that’s a fact of life. It happens every day. You didn’t know that? And I’m not saying to underreact; just don’t overreact. Be normal. Have a routine. Establish mental and physical discipline because otherwise you’re just running amuck. People need to understand how to control themselves. Life is a fight. It’s a constant struggle, so you have to get up and go every day. That’s your routine.
Having a daily routine and sticking to a daily routine regardless of what is going on is important. Whether it’s raining, snowing or sunny, hot or cold, you have to do your thing. Otherwise, you have nothing to do, and because you have nothing to do, anyone can prey upon your fears and terrorize you. When you don’t know how to fight for your life, individuals can prey on your lack of power, light and energy, especially in this day and age where information is easily attainable and dispensed but not necessarily validated and substantiated by fact. They sow seeds of fear in your mind and heart. You become fearful, and you become a slave without chains, a slave to the media, a slave to social perceptions, and you sold yourself for toilet paper. What did your ancestors do before toilet paper? Die? Take a few steps back and look at the situation with a logical mind. If we do this, we can see that our overreactions are fueling the chaos. It’s not the virus that is the problem; it’s our reactions to it. First, you have to control yourself, and then maybe you can exert some modicum of control over the situation around you. If it’s going to rain, it’s going to rain. I’ll deal with it. I’m not going to hide under a rock and wait for someone else to come and save me. You cannot live in fear. That is not life; it’s death.
I wake up every morning and do the same thing. I shower, brush my teeth, wash my face and I go to work. You work hard, you go to Kung Fu, you practice your routines again and again. You go home, take care of your family and take care of your business. This is your routine and this is your discipline. The problem is most people, in my opinion and because I’m a people watcher, are undisciplined, unruly and unwilling to take stock of themselves. What many people don’t understand is that civilization is based on discipline. Without discipline, you have chaos, and then the whole world burns. You must have a logical methodology for self-discipline. You must have order, but you must create your own order, not have order superimposed on you by someone else. Do your form. That’s your order. You create order because you practice every day. Many people are content to let someone else tell them where to go and what to do and how to be, because that’s easier than sitting there and scratching your head and figuring it out for yourself. But when you do this, you allow others to feed off of your fear. But when you’re disciplined, you fear much less because you put restraints and controls on yourself by yourself for yourself. That’s what Kung Fu gives you. It gives you structure.
The mind is the seat of sanity and/or disease, and the Kung Fu practice is the cleansing agent. It is the vaccine for all nonsense and stupidity, but like every real medicine it is bitter, but man does it get the job done. After you take it and you’re healthy again, you’re so glad you swallowed that bitter pill because now you see everything clearly and feel your own power and energy. That has to trickle into everything you do. When you step off the training floor, don’t leave it behind. Take it with you and empower every part of your life with it. Then you’re really training. If you’re only training in the training hall, on the mat, in the room, then it didn’t really take root in you. It’s a magical touchstone, but you have to know how to rub the lamp for the genie to come out. You can’t just knock on the door, and he doesn’t have a cell phone you can call. Work your Kung Fu like you work your life every day. When things sit sedentary, they rot and it stinks. You have to rotate; you have to move the mind, move the body, move your energy; move your heart, body and soul. That is Kung Fu. That is what it is to be a tiger. That is what it is to be at the pinnacle of human existence.
Once you get hooked into the sensationalism propagated by today’s media, you’re being bought and sold – your mind, your soul, and eventually your body. That’s really the truth. You may hate me for what I’m saying, but you hate it because you know it’s true in your heart of hearts. If you give into fear, then you’re not free. That’s why Kung Fu is awesome. Kung Fu gives you freedom. That’s why, generations ago, when our Southern Shaolin ancestors fought to rebel against the oppressive Ching Empire, they were marked as rebels, but in actuality they were freedom fighters. The establishment didn’t like that because you’re going against the grain. Don’t rock the boat; conform. No. I’m free thinking, and because I can think freely, this makes me a human being and it makes me alive. If I can’t think freely, I’m a cog, I’m a screw, I’m a nut, I’m a bolt. I’m a computer chip in your program. F*** you and your program. Either by default or by design, the current situation has the possibility to manipulate our human emotional responses. Everybody has emotional triggers, but it is up to us to respond logically instead of reacting emotionally and irrationally. If everybody just took a step back and did what they were supposed to do on a regular basis, everything would be more calm. But because everyone’s freaking out, everyone’s infecting each other with a disease of the mind. The panic mentality only creates more panic. Instead, we should strive not to allow our emotional triggers to be tripped and approach every situation logically. This goes back to the ancient Greek quote about a healthy mind and healthy body.
So, how do you energize your mind, your body and your brain? You as an individual are connected to the universe, so the energy that you make goes out into the universe. The pebble that you drop into the pond creates that ripple of energy, so make sure you throw in a positive pebble. Kung Fu is about expressing oneself, expressing one’s mind, spirit and body. This is the beauty and legacy of the Kung Fu that we’re learning. It is self-empowering. You’re expressing your heart and mind through the technique. This is unification of the mind body and spirit.
So, don’t buy into the BS. Put yourself on the program and train hard. When you train and you feel alive, it’s like the first cup of coffee in the morning. You feel awake, and there’s nothing better than to be awake and alive. I don’t want to cry. I want to laugh, I want to scream, I want to fly. I may have nothing, but I’m free to live as I want to live and free to move as I want to move. The whole idea of what we’re training is to be a tiger. In nature, when the tiger is left alone without human intervention, he is on the top of the food chain. Nothing eats the tiger. The tiger is there, solitary, alone on his mountain, king unto himself. Don’t you want to be a king on your own mountain? Move, breath, think and fight every day.
- Master Paul Koh 高寶羅