Well back home and back to reality. While I was away I started my training regime on Febuary first much like the rest of you. I started with Qi Gong on the beach first thing in the morning followed by push ups and situps. I managed to get in some form reps and some running. Although the numbers aren't where I wanted them to be, the quality is there, and to me that's all that matters. This is due to the fact that as long as you are doing things mindfully, but not mind fully, ( practicing Wu Wei, which I will give my perspective in a bit ) it is automatic, and you are becoming stronger and stronger everyday and your endurance is getting longer and longer everyday. Flexibility, stances, muscle memory, techniques, kicks, punches are all going to improve, so stay cool and roll with it all. You will reach your goals, they are already completed, you just have to get where they are. This applies to all your Kung Fu. Therefore doing make up sets will be easy, which is not something you should bank on but something that will come involuntary. I found in the past getting all wound up about numbers and reps stress a person out and in a sense your setting yourself up for failure or unnecessary stress. You lose the whole essence of your Kung Fu, you are travelling in parallel, not as one. Your Kung Fu should not stress you out. You have to look at as a stress reliever, and an escape from everything else. Is it not part of your daily challenges and should it not coincide with everything? Of course, it has too, but it should be treated as an escape, a personal journey of cool excitement. A life tool that installs tranquility and a potent health and physical enhancement. The most important part is to remember, THIS IS YOUR JOURNEY. All though we will all travel in parallel with each other on our paths to mastery, we are all different. Worrying about where others are, and where you are not, frustrations and bad attitudes are ego based. Toss your ego in the garbage, it's a detrimental contribution to contaminating your Kung Fu. It will grow like a bad weed and it is highly contagious to others around you. Concentrate on your Kung Fu, but have a strong supportive hand out to help others on the team and kick your ego to the curb. One more very important action required is to have fun, and enjoy your journey, it's a gift, not a sentence.
Erica bought me a book for Christmas that I read extensively on my trip. In fact I read it twice. Bruce Lee's; The Toa of Gung Fu. I have already installed some of the things I have learned to my daily Kung Fu and was reminded of some things that I used to do, but some where along the way have let my ego fog my thoughts and discipline. That was then, this is now. One of the many things that struck me that I want to share, was a section on Wu Wei. Wu means "not" or "non" and wei means "action," "doing," "striving," "straining" or "busyness." It doesn't really mean doing nothing, but to let ones mind alone, trusting it to work by itself. Wu Wei, in Kung Fu, means spontaneous action or spirit action, in the sense that the governing force is the mind and not that of the senses. I have heard Sifu Brinker speak of this practice but never really understood it until now. I have the tendency to have an all are nothing approach to things. I tend to over think a lot of my techniques and forms while doing them. Which, under this definition, has thrown wrenches into my training gears and has impaired my advancement. Although I am the type of person that requires a "blue print" to all my Kung Fu, I like to get good before I get fast. I need to achieve a correct form and know it is being done properly before I will continue. To just roll into any aspect of Kung Fu that you don't understand or are performing incorrectly as fast as you can with no knowledge as to why or a solid base is stupid and I refuse to practice this way. However, once I have a correct base and form then I can apply Wu Wei. It really does work. To give you an example. As I was running, I was thinking about my strides and what I need to do to "fix" them so they feel better. My brain was telling me to stop because of the burning fatigue I was feeling. I thought of this discipline and just let my mind wander and let my body do what it wants. When I finally came out of it, I was running along smoothly, nice even strides, and I felt no fatigue as I travelled at least a mile. Way too cool man! So now that I know I am capable of this, let the practice of Wu Wei commence. See you at the Kwoon.
