01/01/2025
ONWARDS TO 2025
Many of you may have heard me observe, that our Shaolin Kung Fu System is a traditional one.
You may also have heard me go further to say that for us, Tradition is accompanied by its fellow travellers β honour, respect for others, compassion, and diligence in our studies.
In the final analysis, these are all just words unless your understanding is deep enough to fathom just how much I am actually relating when I say those words.
Any organism or organisation needs order and structure to survive, evolve and to grow.
We see this in our own frail human bodies and our troubled minds. We find that equanimity and a peaceful existence may only be achieved by quietness, meditation and a focused approach to living.
The same applies to any undertaking whether a commercial enterprise, a business, a sports organisation, a political party, a government or the conduct of a country.
This seems to be where we, and the world about us, are often making mistakes and being wrong-footed.
Think back to when you first began to train within our System.
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In your first lessons, you began to learn respect for your Teachers and Senior guides, and in turn you began to learn to respect yourself.
You learnt to value your actions and to realise that even if you failed there were valuable lessons in failure and that this stimulated you to correct your shortcomings and to try further.
This is a traditional approach to study, as old as mankind, and as well understood in both the East and the West in every aspect of our lives, and not just in martial arts.
From this sprang the revered British craftsman's tradition of Master and apprentice, by which method the apprentice in any craft no matter how simple, would learn and appreciate the intricacies and subtle shades of knowledge related to his Craft.
The same applies to any Art and indeed to an Art such as ours.
This method engendered mutual respect between Master and Apprentice.
One important aspect that the young apprentice would take away from this, would be that no matter how much he knows, there is so much more that he does not β as that can only come with time, practice, and diligence.
He or she begins to understand that when they have a question, it may be best not immediately to put their hands up to pose the question, as there is much to be said about knowledge gained by personal endeavour and understanding.
I believe that there is an old English saying which is to refer to someone as "a young man in a hurry".
I believe that the action I have related above is a good example of someone who is in such a hurry that he must have the answer here and now by asking his Teacher and not seeking to find the answer for himself.
He wants his Teacher or Guide to give him all the Teacher's own hard earned understanding and knowledge, on a plate as one receives at McDonalds or KFC.
This is the "vending machine" mentality that we have been brainwashed into by modern life and is inimical to our personal growth.
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Compassion is one human beingβs inherent feeling of pity and cohesion with other human beings. This is a natural emotion given to us so that we can operate as the more noble of creatures in this world.
However, others have managed to stifle this natural feeling as can be seen in so many examples during the last World conflict.
On the other hand, this natural compassion has been, and is being used by some others to undermine the wholesomeness of the World and National entity, and causes some of us to adopt an attitude of altruism without
consideration for practical real-world issues or survivability of one's own race, nation, and culture.
From this, one could conclude that without suspending our own innate feelings of compassion, one must β as a matter of mutual survival β approach the application of compassion, with a pragmatic mind and attitude.
That is what we mean by Compassion.
A Teacher may have to be firm and to be hard with his student to ensure that his student learns in a way that will give that student a valuable life experience which he or she can use as stepping stones when climbing their own mountains.
This is the tradition in Chinese martial arts.
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Diligence requires us to train hard and to drill and to do this for ourselves.
Just fetching up at one or two classes a week, and never making your own training at home, would mean that you are not really applying yourselves β and are just going through the motions.
None of us Teachers and seniors have got where we are by "soft-pedalling" our journey. You cannot climb a mountain on a bicycle by freewheeling it.
None of us Teachers and seniors have stopped doing that. We still continue in the same way as we have always done.
Start with devising your own home training schedule and integrate that with your formal lessons at the School.
Think of those formal lessons, as "study lessons", to learn from Teachers and to observe how other students function.
The Teacher-led lessons are not just mere practice sessions because you have neglected to self-reflect, and
to do your own training.
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I have left what I wished to say about Honour to the last.
Honour is something we should all know the meaning of.
If you don't know what it means, then chances are you do not have it.
We speak of Self Honour here β that deep understanding of what we must be as human beings, to say what we mean and to do what we say.
When I make a vow I keep it no matter what. Otherwise, I would not make the vow no matter what benefit I would lose by refusing to vow.
Sadly, there have been past students of the System who study with us and yet disclaim this very important attribute not only of our Shaolin System but of any Martial Art or undertaking.
Vows have been made and broken by those who forswear their oaths.
A Man without Honour is not a Man β that is what the Chinese have always believed.
In the Orient, there is a school of thought that whilst we are all homo sapiens, not all of us are REN (the Chinese word for MAN).
Thus, one of the greatest insults that one may use in Chinese is β δ½ δΈζ―δΊΊ
NΗ bΓΉshΓ¬ rΓ©n (phonetically)
The Chinese also believe that Honour cannot be taught but that everyone is born with it naturally and then it becomes a matter of nurturing by parents, guardians, Teachers and guides.
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So now I have taken time to explain to you the basis of our premise that we are a TRADITIONAL SYSTEM.
Please respect what I have done for you here by taking the time to understand and to cleave to the guidance and knowledge.
ALWAYS in SHAOLIN
Sifu Lai
December 2024
