Food for thought…
Stumble on this Chinese idiom: 百忍成金. Directly translated: Tolerate a hundred times forges gold.
Ip Man prequel….?!?!
Stumble on this Chinese idiom: 百忍成金. Directly translated: Tolerate a hundred times forges gold.
I was asked that question by a sifu. It is a tough question, and it varies between people. I also believe it changes according to your progression. At my current state, martial arts is a vehicle to understand the limits of myself, to seek an expression of myself. There is only an x amount of ways to throw a punch- the arm only bends so many ways. How I chose to throw that punch is my expression. Marital art also bring forth discipline, commitment, tolerance- all are expression of character. My definition is still very rough, probably because my training is still in its primary stages. What does marital arts mean to you?
So lately I have been noticing that my wing chun is able to flow out more naturally. I was once told, early in my training, to let the opponent draw the wing chun from me. Never really understood the idea. Recently during practice, my blocks and attacks just come out. No thought necessary. It feels very natural and quick; its pretty awesome. This experience brings me back to the Tao of martial arts. When someone with no marital art background is attacked, he naturally defends it, whether he steps backs, parry the punch, or checks the kick. In the beginning of his marital arts training he is told to block a punch or kick a certain way, to step back a certain way. When he encounters an attack situation he may notice that the movements become very unnatural, probably worse than before his training. However, as he progresses, these same blocks he learn flow easily, blend naturally with his movement. He now reverts back to his pre- raining days, but obtains more structure and technique. His style has fused with the body’s natural movements. The style is no longer karate, wing chun, kemp, etc. It has become a personal expression of body movements. I hope I am embarking on a very similar track!
My favorite line:”Straight up owning bake sales with my cupcake skills”
All of a sudden, middle class white suburban families look cool.
If this was a black family instead, this commercial would just look ghetto and racist. However, its cool in everyone’s book when white people want to act “black.”
The Swagger Wagon does bring on the lols so I can’t hate that much.
LOL! This can be classified as pushing the limits of stereotypes. Gotta love it
P.S. this blog got some very cool reviews!
Here is my 2 cents on applying Bruce Lee’s idea of limits to life or self cultivation. Hope its not too confusing. The self we currently see (the one in the mirror) is not our true self. The mirror reflection is the self with a limit- body/ persona/ identity that is held hostage by society. By allowing our surroundings to dictate what is cool, abnormal, etc, we lose our true self. Even the “hipster” we see are not true; they are limited by what other hipsters think is trendy. However, this is reality, this is the superficial us perceived by others. How do we expand beyond that? Push beyond our comfort zones. You can’t or don’t like to dance, take a dance class anyways. I’m not saying to become great at it. The idea is to escape this comfort- a.k.a the limit we have given our self. During this course, something special might happen to you. We need to find our identity by having no identity. Only then will our “true” self emerge. We can then live accordingly to our fullest potential and express our self with honesty.
I was at borders reading some Bruce Lee book and stumble on this quote:
“If you always put a limit on everything you do, physical or anything else, it will spread into your work and into your life. There are no limits. There are only plateaus, and you must not stay there, you must go beyond”
What a wise saying, but very hard to live by. Take working out for instance. Sometimes our body is too tired or sore from previous session to push any further. I consider myself a pretty determined person. Occasionally there are days- usually after 8-9hrs of work- where my body can’t function at even 90%. Pushing the limits is tough. I guess I already failed Lee’s rule by saying it is tough.
I just finished watching Ip Man 2- definitely a must watch. I believe it captures the spirit of Chinese martial arts!
