KUNG FU: SOMETHING FOR EVERYONE

The discussion about Kung Fu is a difficult one and brings up a myriad of possibilities and options, because the word Kung Fu itself doesn’t denote martial arts in general, but rather, acquiring a skill in any art form or endeavor.  Understanding that the literal translation of the word “Kung Fu” means, “a skill acquired through hard work and perseverance,” in this blog I will be strictly talking about Kung Fu as related to learning and practicing Chinese martial arts.

There are many types of Kung Fu.  Not all Kung Fu is created equal, but that doesn’t mean that one type is better than another.  Different kinds of Kung Fu are put together to do different jobs.  Kung Fu is a broad umbrella – covering everything from fighting to health to entertainment.  People all around the world believe that the term “Kung Fu” is exclusive to what they’ve witnessed in movies, social media and magazines. This isn’t so. Kung Fu is an extremely broad term that covers a huge spectrum of the Chinese martial arts. Over the thousands of years of the existence of Chinese martial arts, the nature of Kung Fu has been shaped and changed tremendously due to the needs and desires of the practitioners.

Kung Fu as an art form most likely started in its most practical form, for one individual to protect themselves or their family from harm. We’re talking about prehistoric times, when there was no real record, no system, no technique, just one guy picking up a rock or a stick to defend himself against another guy.  That’s the genesis of real Kung Fu.  But as the centuries passed it divided itself into more specialized types of Kung Fu or skill sets. This hearkens back to the real meaning of Kung Fu – an acquired skill.

The history and development of Kung Fu has been shaped by topography, the weather, the terrain, the social environment of that particular region, the mindset of the individuals, and the economic and social climate of a given area.  When looking at any particular style or system, you have to ask yourself, who was the guy that made it?  What was his purpose?  What was his background?  What was the philosophy and psychological makeup he used to create this particular system of Kung Fu?

If you’re talking about social and economic diversity, Kung Fu that was played by affluent people is going to vary a lot from Kung Fu played by those that were impoverished and downtrodden.  If you were rich and well taken care of, your need to protect yourself would be a much lower priority than it would be for someone who’s coming from a rough and tumble hand-to-mouth existence.  If you’re a farmer, your Kung Fu is going to be different than that of an aristocrat or a courtesan.  Even though these individuals are both practicing Kung Fu, they are practicing different styles with completely different mindsets.  One is going to be more esthetic and pleasing to the eye.  The other is going to be more rough around the edges and about getting the job done.  The philosophies of these two types of Kung Fu are already in stark contrast to one another just based on social economic ways and means.

Another difference would be the actual region where you come from – the weather, the topography. Different regions in China have different weather and different types of land.  In the south where it’s warm and humid, everything was farm land and a rice paddy.  Your Kung Fu is going to be different from a style practiced in the north where the weather is much colder and you have to wear heavier clothes.  Kung Fu is transformed and modified by those who practice and teach it. The art form changes and morphs depending on the needs, wants, desires and capabilities of its practitioners.

For example, the Chinese opera is famous for its acrobats and its martial artists.  The Kung Fu that is used in Chinese opera is theatrical and dramatized.  The same is true with martial arts in many movies today.  That’s entertainment Kung Fu.  It’s very pleasing to the eye, and is an amazing skill which not everyone can do, but it doesn’t necessarily equate itself to a fighting system.  That’s not to say you can’t modify it and use it, or that all the Kung Fu in the movies isn’t real. Many martial artists in the entertainment industry have backgrounds in opera Kung Fu as well as more traditional fighting based arts.  Some have been able to transition back and forth. That’s actually one of the beauties of Kung Fu itself.  Because of its broad spectrum, you can run the gambit from being visually pleasing and entertaining, to being down and dirty and fighting for your life.  I feel this is one of the most amazing things about Kung Fu; it’s not pigeon holed to only be one way.

That being said, if that’s the case, the skill of the practitioner to be able to transcend from one end of the spectrum to the other has to be of a much, much higher level. Just doing one thing right is not easy, let alone being able to display several different understandings of the same art form. All of the aspects of Kung Fu exist simultaneously.  It’s the choice of each individual practitioner what you want to accentuate.  The health, regenerative, energizing and medicinal aspect of Kung Fu exists.  At the very same time, the fighting aspect, techniques and theories exist.  And simultaneously, Kung Fu can be entertaining and pleasing to the eye. None of these aspects can be separated from Kung Fu. It’s just what the practitioner wants to portray and what’s important to him.

Kung Fu is a lot like life.  You can live your life any way you want, and you can play your Kung Fu any way you want.  If you’re not a street fighter, it doesn’t mean your Kung Fu is good or bad.  Because one practitioner may like the entertainment aspect, or another practitioner only practices for the health benefits, doesn’t mean he’s good or bad either.  It depends on what you want, on your purpose and your goals.  It is up to the individual practitioner to choose those goals and choose their focus.  It’s like in college when you choose your major; if you try to major in ten subjects, you won’t be able to master any of them.  If you choose one major subject, you are more likely to achieve some level of success.  The same is true in Kung Fu and all martial art training.

Kung Fu is an amazing art form that everyone can partake in and learn from. This is why Kung Fu has existed for so many thousands of years and has continued to exist regardless of what trends are happening in the martial arts.  The educated individual that understands the broad spectrum of Kung Fu cannot stand by and say there’s nothing there for them.  If you want to fight all day and night, you can.  If you want to break bricks, you can.  If you just want to stretch and move and breathe, you can.  No one is stopping you; it’s all there for you. Chinese Kung Fu is an all encompassing system.  You can enjoy it because of its esthetic, because it gives you a means to defend yourself, or because it’s a physical and mental exercise.  This is why it has been around for so many thousands of years, and those who have the insight to see beneath the surface will understand that it has all of these benefits.  The broadness of the art of Kung Fu means that everyone, regardless of their status, their makeup, their ability, their capabilities, can come away with something by practicing Kung Fu.

CAUTION: “I KNOW” IS A DANGEROUS STATEMENT

知道不知道 只有天知道
“I know that I don't know… Only Heaven knows.”
-Old Chinese Saying

Inevitably when I’m teaching class, someone will say, “I know” to a technique, a movement, a comment or some bit of philosophy.  I feel that statement, “I know,” is extremely dangerous.  Not only is it dangerous, it’s incredibly naïve.  Many people will say, how do you see that?  Well, after almost 40 years of training martial arts and training with and under some of the pioneers and best Kung Fu masters on the east coast, I still question myself.  If I’m still questioning myself after 40 years, then a less experienced practitioner definitely shouldn’t say, “I know.”  It may be a slip of the tongue, but we have to be careful about that. This is not so much because of what other people might think, but what you actually might think when you say, “I know.”

The phrase, “I know,” limits the scope and breadth of the ability of the individual to learn.  Just by making that simple statement, you shut yourself down because you presume that your experience is more than adequate to flesh out the entire issue of what you’re learning.  Now, as I practice, decades into the art, I find myself learning more than I ever did before and actually practicing more and more in depth than I ever did before.  For example, I like to use the Tiger Crane Double Shadow form (虎鹤双形) as a basis for all my up and coming black belts.  Now, after teaching that form for so long, I still am able to glean more from it every time I teach it.  I don’t know how long I’ve known this form.  I don’t remember the first day that I learned it.  But somehow it always has more to give me.  Every time I teach it to a student, even though the student may not grasp what I’m teaching them, I’m able to derive more out of it.  And I think that’s primarily due to the mental state of not saying, “I know.”

Yesterday, I was training with my Sifu, and he was telling me to change things.  I’ve been training the weapon we were working on for at least a few decades, but I still will not say that I am a master of it.  I think that I am not a master of my art.  And many masters much, much higher in stature and ability than me would also say the same thing.  Other people call them a master of their art.  I look at all these weapons, forms and techniques that I’ve learned and I think to myself, “Still not good enough.  It could be so much better.”  This is not coming from a place of negativity, but from trying to critique myself and help myself gain insight and inspiration into becoming better.  There’s always more to learn.  As you go back and play your forms and weapons again, you need to revise everything.

This is the inspiration that I draw from my Sifu, whose experience is vastly larger and deeper than mine. He’s able to take the same old information and transform it, modify it and make it grow each and every time that I train with him.  It’s the same thing, but it’s never the same thing.  He has mastered the art of making it come alive by never pigeon holing himself into one way of perceiving.  Circumstances change, people change, ideas change, and the way you view things must change accordingly.  If you can do this, you can see so much more.  You have a limitless horizon.

Otherwise you will learn ABC, turn around and say, “what’s next”.  When you say this, you put parameters on yourself.  Everyone wants to feel good.  No one wants to feel bad or feel stupid.  No one wants to be perceived as lacking in knowledge or depth, but in order to truly learn something and know more of it, you have to come from a point of openness and, for lack of a better term, deficiency.  If you already know it so well, then you’re done.  Put your ego down and open yourself up to the learning.  Otherwise there’s no point.  This is all to do with the attitude of the individual.

The true knowing is in not knowing.  Your knowledge and experience may be very deep, but I think the source of that knowledge and experience is even deeper than you.  Why stifle yourself by uttering phrases like, “I know,” be they verbally said or mentally said?  It is a dangerous phrase that kills inspiration, knowledge and your ability to move forward.  The fastest way to start learning again is to adopt that attitude of, “I don’t know, and I’m open to the information.” When you take off the trappings of what you perceived before, you’ll be able to see more almost instantaneously.   

At the end of the day, it’s your state of mind that we’re talking about.  It’s putting your mind in the right gear to learn.  “I know” is like driving in reverse on the highway.  It’s dangerous.  Making that change in your mental state and perception will allow the flood gates to open.  Truly knowing anything begins and ends with understanding the self.  True knowledge can only be gained by first opening one’s mind and heart.
 

Kung Fu: Find Your Inner Strength

“Knowing others is intelligence;
knowing yourself is true wisdom.
Mastering others is strength; 
mastering yourself is true power.” 
― Lao Tzu, Tao Te Ching

At some point in our lives, all of us face challenges and frustrations that feel insurmountable, that we feel powerless to deal with.  We encounter situations that knock us down and test our mettle.  They test our resolve and our powers to keep ourselves together, from challenges at work to family crises.  Life presents us with obstacles time and time again, and we are continually tested as every decade goes by. 

There are only a few major events in life – being born, having children, and death.  These are huge, life-altering events.  How do we deal with them?  In these times, where do we draw our strength from?  Some draw strength from friends and family, others from their religious convictions.  These are all good roads and methods, but sometimes they are not enough.  As I’ve grown up, I’ve realized that these external reservoirs of strength are not always as solid or permanent as I believed.  I’ve learned that you have to find some kind of inner strength. Ultimately, in order to overcome obstacles, you need to rely on yourself. 

You have to have a way, a mechanism.  The way that I’ve found to learn to rely on myself is through my martial art training.  There are many mechanisms in life, but martial art training is the one that I have experienced that is fully balanced and well-rounded, because it challenges you in mind, body and spirit. When you are challenged in mind, body and spirit, you will have your training to fall back on. Training gives you a way to refocus your mind in difficult times, so you’re not totally consumed by what’s happening. You build up strength so that you can deal with any situation.

You may say, “Well, it’s just a punch and a kick. You’re just jumping up and down. It’s just exercise, right?”  And I have to say, “No.  It’s far more than that.”  Those who are not active participants in the martial arts may not understand this.  Only through active participation can you see what martial arts training is really about. It’s really about enriching yourself, fortifying yourself, making yourself strong enough, resilient enough and pliable enough to withstand the storm that we call life.  That’s what training in Kung Fu is all about. 

From the very first day that you step on the training floor, your inner strength will be tested.  Your body and mind will scream, “Get me out of here!” because the rigorous training is not pleasurable.  I’m not having a drink or going out for an ice cream cone.  I’m doing knuckle push-ups on a concrete floor, sitting in rigorous stances for minutes at a time, being asked to throw hundreds of kicks and punches. My willpower and resolve are being tested.  No one likes this at first, until you do enough and you overcome yourself. Then you start to gain that pool of inner strength. You find an energy that you’ve never had before.

Challenging yourself through training in Kung Fu actually provides you with a basis for the inner strength to face the challenges of daily life.  When you’re challenging yourself, you’re making yourself grow. You may perceive it as self-torture but it’s not; it’s self-preservation. Kung Fu training becomes your survival mechanism, much as it was a survival mechanism for our ancestors.  They had to use Kung Fu in a physical fight for survival, but now it has become a spiritual tool for us to learn how to survive.  

Everybody has stress, regardless of their age, regardless of their socio-economic background, regardless of their education.  Everyone needs a way to deal with this stress and work through it. One of these ways is through Kung Fu, because you’re challenged physically, mentally and spiritually.  The practice gives you a valve to release the pressure. It makes you happy from the inside out.

The student may not understand why they feel happy after training, but they do, because Kung Fu touches your soul in a way that nothing else can. Through the practice, we turn inward to help ourselves grow, training ourselves to become stronger and better than we ever were in the past. This is the true gift that we give ourselves by participating in and practicing this art that has been passed down to us from our teachers. As time passes, and you continue to strive and put in hard work, you will see even greater gains. Even through times of challenge, you will be able to surmount all that is put in front of you and rise up to a higher plateau.  You will be able to see far beyond whatever you had imagined before. The challenges and adversities in front of you are actually helping you to move forward and higher than anyone else can see.  That’s the real gift that Kung Fu can give to you, and that you give to yourself through your training.

Empower Yourself Through Kung Fu

For centuries, the Chinese culture has used Kung Fu to train people in mind, body and spirit, yet many of today’s martial arts schools overlook the mental and spiritual aspects of training.  They sell only the “look” and the “kick-ass” part of martial arts but ignore the philosophical and disciplinary component.  Because of this lack of education, and saturation by the media with other forms of martial arts, people today don’t understand what Kung Fu is. 

Many teachers and students get caught up with the physical and forget that Kung Fu is a pathway to self-empowerment.  The physical aspect of the art is actually a very small part of Kung Fu.  It’s an art of the mind, of the body, and of the soul. When you play Kung Fu, you touch your soul.

Kung Fu has many philosophical and spiritual benefits that other physical exercises don’t have.  Some of these benefits include increased focus, self-awareness, self-confidence, self-respect and self-discipline.  So many of these benefits include the word “self” – why?  Because your Kung Fu practice forces you to come face to face with your “self.”  This is not always easy, but it is always worth it.  The self-knowledge that you gain through your practice allows you to become a better version of yourself.

Kung Fu pushes you, challenges you and focuses you so that you can empower yourself.  While everything else in our modern society tries to deflate you and bring you down, Kung Fu practice elevates you to where you’re supposed to be, where you deserve to be, so you can enact your true potential.  Find the best version of you, through the practice of Kung Fu.  What are you waiting for?

Put in the Time, Reap the Benefits

It’s a gorgeous, sunny day. Don’t forget opportunity cost.  You might say, “What? What is that?”

With every action that you take there is another corresponding reaction. This happens in every aspect of the universe, as well as your own life. Each decision that you make, and the endeavors that you choose to embark on, have a direct impact on the outcome of everything that you do.

For example, today is the first gorgeous, warm, sunny day in many months. And many individuals will think, “Hey!  Wait a minute, let me take the day off and go to the park, or go to the beach, or go for a drive, or sit in an outdoor cafe and enjoy my latte.”  And that’s great, and you should.  But keep in mind the opportunity cost. 

And you might say, “What do you mean?  It doesn’t cost me anything to go to the park, and I am free to do whatever I want.”  And so you are.  But be careful the choices that you make.  Nothing in this life is truly free.  In the end, you have to pay.  You pay with your time, your effort, your energy and your mental focus.  This is what is meant by “opportunity cost.”

What am I doing right now? I’m sitting on top of the rooftop of my school, enjoying the sun, and I’m preparing my lesson plan for this evening. I could easily call out. I could easily cancel my privates and ask my top instructor to cover my classes, but I’m not going to do that, because I know that by teaching my classes, I’m going to benefit and my students are going to benefit.  We will learn from each other.  There will be many more sunny days when I can take off, but right now I make the choice to stay focused and stay with my training.

When talking about training in martial arts, it’s a continual process.  You can’t take a 6 month crash course. There’s no special technique that you can learn in a seminar that’s going to make you an unstoppable fighting machine or a grand master.  It’s a matter of consistently putting in the time.  If you choose to take that day off from your training, that’s already taking you one step back.  If on the other hand, even though it’s a “beautiful day” you choose to continue and maintain your training, not only will you benefit directly at that moment in time, but, you are also accumulating knowledge and skill that will be paid back to you at a later point in time. And, you still have plenty of time to enjoy the beautiful day. No one trains for 24 hours straight. Just spend an hour or two on your training every day, regardless of rain, snow or sunshine, and over time, you, too, will understand the concept of opportunity cost.

In every endeavor, including martial arts training, the concept of opportunity cost comes into play. That means there’s a trade-off; you get what you pay for.  You put in the time, and you’re going to reap the benefits.  

Kung Fu Is For Everyone

The reason why Kung Fu is so amazing is because everyone can do it.  When I say everyone, I mean everyone – from little kids to soccer moms to business people to captains of industry. Kung Fu is not restricted by age, gender, background or physical or mental capabilities.  It’s open to everyone. It’s so broad in its spectrum that anyone who practices it can come away with something that’s good for them.  When you practice Kung Fu, you feel like, “I did it, and I feel good about myself.” 

I can’t promise that you’re going to become a Kung Fu master in 90 days, but if you train only two or three times a week, after a few months you will feel happier, healthier, more aware and more focused than you ever have.  You will become more toned and fit.  You will become stronger in both mind and body.  You will be challenged and feel happy with what you’re doing.  The Kung Fu practice is a vehicle for you to better yourself.

Whoever you are, Kung Fu is for you. 

The Hidden Benefits of Kung Fu

In today’s martial art industry – and I call it an industry because it has become a huge business – many people are concerned with learning everything under the sun including “the kitchen sink.”  They are asking what the latest craze is in martial arts today and are merely floating from trend to trend.  Unfortunately, people have basically passed over Kung Fu because it’s not commercial enough for the general public to latch onto.  In stark contrast, another ancient exercise form, yoga, has become very mainstream because someone found a way to market it.  Kung Fu also has many benefits for the mind, body and spirit, but no one has found a way to market it commercially.  Kung Fu is the best kept secret in the martial arts industry.

It’s not only because of its lack of commercial appeal that Kung Fu has been kept a secret; many of the Chinese immigrants that came to this country didn’t want to teach it to outsiders for fear that it would be used against them.  An ancient culture kept this art form secret for many centuries, and not because it wasn’t good enough, but rather because it was so good that they didn’t want to give it away freely to just anyone. You had to earn it, honor it and respect it.  There are reasons why it was kept secret and why monastic orders and scholarly warriors have practiced the art of Kung Fu for centuries.  The art of Kung Fu goes far beyond a system of fighting, but rather is a method and pathway to self-growth and empowerment.

Training in our Kung Fu takes you to a whole new level of yourself. If you get involved with us and practice Kung Fu with us, it’s impossible for you not to become better as a person overall.  The training touches every aspect of your life. You become more productive at work, you develop better relationships with family and loved ones, you gain focus and energy and feel less stress throughout the day. It doesn’t matter how strong or how fast you are, or how well you punch and kick. All you have to do is come and partake and you’re going to grow. This is the hidden secret of Kung Fu.