WU LIFE 302

WU LIFE 302


BACK TO BASICS

to paraphrase my dear brother sam tripp..

'rice is the foundation of every chinese meal; similarly, basic exercises are the foundation of traditional martial arts. without a strong foundation, all you have is flavor and no substance. just as there is no real meal without rice.. there is no real kung fu without strong basics.' ..word.

i love my basics. for those that have trained with me.. they know i can easily spend hours drilling the exact same basic movements over and over and over again. i really love my basics. it has been said.. 'i don't care about the ten thousand movements you've done once.. i'm worried about the one movement you've done ten thousand times.' ..or.. 'know a hundred movements, but master one.'

it's all about the basics.. so when shifu offered to teach me the basic fist set, i jumped at the opportunity. our basic form is really simple.. it has all the five basic stances, and it is a great form for developing timing, coordination, mechanics, control, balance, power, endurance, and flow.. everything you need for good kung fu. i managed to pick up the entire set within three days - approximately 15 hours of class time - which is very fast by my standards.. since then, i've been drilling the set intensively - bit by bit, part by part.. making sure each movement is crisp and defined. i love my rice, and i love my basics. i'm so motivated.


STRUCTURE

when i first came to wudang mountain to train two years ago, there was absolutely no structure to the foreigners' class - no warm ups, no conditioning, no group or partnered work,.. nothing. if you came to class, great,.. if not, then you just waste your time and tuition. students were driven by there own personal initiative and they trained at their own pace. personally, i enjoyed it a lot because it gave me a chance to develop self discipline.. but now, things are very different.

these days, every class is kicked off with an hour of basic exercises. this includes stretching, conditioning, kicks, and coordination drills - very structured. from there, the class typically breaks off into groups depending on what each click is learning. very, very structured. to make it even better,.. now, nearly everyone knows the basic sets - and when we get together to do them as a class, the energy is indescribable. structure is nice.

in just the two, three months that i have been away, i've seen tremendous growth in the students that have stuck around.. and in all my training, i have never seen students evolve so quickly - i'm assuming it's due to the new class format.. and if it is.. i'm looking forward to a powerful year of transformation. structure is nice - i'm so motivated.


BITTER WORK

midweek, i had an opportunity to take my master and two martial uncles to hot pot for dinner.. what a treat,.. and to share the bliss, my kung fu brother derek jumped in the mix too. they say, 'every moment shared with the master is an opportunity to learn,' so i was all ears when he started to share stories of his personal training..

'when i lived in the temple, we worked very hard. here, there are two classes each day, one class in the morning, and another in the afternoon.. when i trained, we had FOUR classes each day, two in the morning, one in the afternoon, and another in the evening! here, i give you one day to rest each week.. when i trained, there was no such thing as a day off - if the master was in a good mood, MAYBE we would get one class off to rest, otherwise, we trained.. no matter what.

'if you were sick or hurt, you trained anyway. if your legs hurt, you trained fists.. if your arms hurt, you trained kicks - my master accepted no excuse for missing a class. if you could open your eyes, you had to train. kung fu is HARD WORK, of course you will have pain, of course you will be sore - that means you are working.. so keep training!

'when the day was finally over, our master never worried about us getting into trouble.. we were too tired! now, students stay up all night, playing on the computer, flirting, smoking, drinking, and having fun.. when i trained in the temple - no one had energy to do anything else - we were too exhausted from training.

'these days, students do not know what it is like to 'eat bitter.' they are too scared to train real kung fu.. one moment someone's foot will hurt too much to train, but after class they are running around and playing ping pong. they don't have real pain.. they just don't want to train. kung fu is HARD WORK.'

the whole time shifu spoke, all i could do was listen - jaw dropped in awe. how dare i consider myself a martial artist, shame on me. it's time to step it up - i'm so motivated.


THIS CAN'T BE REAL

my body is transforming. my mind is evolving. my entire being is resonating at a different frequency now - i can hardly recognize myself anymore.

one especially cold afternoon, class was held indoors due to a snow storm. after the basic exercises were finished, we all practiced the five animal qigong set together as a group. for the most part, it was just an ordinary session, but my experience was far from ordinary.

with each breath, a fire grew inside me from deep within my belly. a serene calm came over me and my movements seemed to flow without a single thought or cognition,.. it was as if i was being moved by remote control, while my awareness simply observed - like a scientist, keenly observing his subject. as cool as that may sound, my words still fall short of the real thing.. the experience was beyond description. to add to the awe.. my entire body was pumping out steam! it was as if every single one of my pores was breathing - and the cold only made it that much more observable.. you could literally see steam coming out through my clothes! my hands and head gave off the most.. even the instructor took notice and said i looked like a lit stick of incense. wow. i was immediately reminded of the tibetan monks that meditate outside in the snow with wet towels wrapped around their bodies - is this really happening to me? this can't be real - can it?

i have to train more! i'm so motivated.


ALOHA ALL

thus concludes another week in the wu - where transformation and transcendence is common occurrence, and where hard working practitioners chew bitter to taste sweet. but before wrapping this round up, i would like to extend my heartfelt gratitude to all my friends, family, and loved ones for their continued love and support along this journey of mine. i trust that through my evolution, you will sew that seed of personal development within yourself and come to experience the joy of your own, individual transformation - only to ignite that same passion in others.. and so on, and so on, and so on...

may all beings fulfill their personal potential.
get motivated.


see you on the other shore,
-wei zi rong