There is always a time to give back. That include knowledge and little things we have collected along the way.
In learning, we must always strive to improve. This was exactly what my Si Gong meant when he autographed and presented me his book “The Nucleus of the Wing Chun System”. It is dim now my memory of those heady days in Hong Kong with him but somehow the message that he imprinted in my mind remains clear. He said one must continue learning and improving – akin to a boat going upstream for if we stop rowing…
Now that I have come to teach Wing Chun again, it is a sort of pay back. It has always been a philosophy to not let what was learnt be lost with the last breath. The trainings, analysis, tinkering with theories and techniques become meaningless if eventually there is no one to hand it to. To do so sometimes require a letting loose of self imposed values and requirements from both the giver and the recipient.
Wing Chun is a very good art of self defense. Simple principles applied efficiently make it a wonderful system for both the strong and the not so strong.
Why would any peace loving person want to learn a martial art? Some may take the training and study as a form of exercise while others may take it as a social recreation. Others may harbor thoughts of bashing people yet others may be captivated by the glamour of martial art flicks and movies. I like best how one friend puts it. He says that it was like being part of a culture and legacy, a sense of belonging and self worth.
Ultimately every warrior learns humility. From the hard, we learn the soft. That differentiates the one who knows from the one who does not. In the old days, I had for company some very tough people, karatekas and other martial artists. They like most of us were filled with much bravado and often felt that it was macho to go around destroying things and other peoples bones. Many of them are old now and hopefully they have come home and now see things with different eyes and heart.
