The Way of Martial Arts

Lesson 24

M O N T H L Y I N T E R A C T I V E L E S S O N S T O H E L P I M P R O V E Y O U R D A I L Y L I F E

B Y M A S T E R E R I C S B A R G E

As I hope is the case with my students, when I trained intensively as astudent under Grandmaster I felt a strong bond and brotherhood with myclassmates. One night, one of my “brothers” whom I hadtrained with for nearly five years showed up at class withtwo black eyes and bruises all over his face, full of stitches,and limping. Needless to say my other classmates and Iwere shocked and concerned.

He sat and watched class – he was too battered to partic-ipate – and after class a few of us took him out to eat so wecould find out what happened.

He began by declaring, “This kung fu doesn’t work.” Then he went onto describe how he had been attacked by several men, and he had felt com-pletely defenseless against their assault. A couple men held him down whileseveral others beat and kicked him, leaving him nearly unconscious.

After hearing his story, we asked him how the men were able to initiallyget him and hold him down. He said they had jumped

him by surprise.We shook our heads, sympathizing with what he

had endured, but we were also curious and pressed him formore details. When had this happened, where, who did it, why?

Between bites, as he slowly and painfully chewed his pizza, welearned more. It had happened at 2:00 or 3:00am outside an apart-

ment building. I’ve forgotten now if it was Mt. Vernon or Yonkers– it

It’s Not the Kung Fu That Fails…

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doesn’t matter. They were both rough places in New York to be out inalone in the middle of the night.

Why had it happened? Turns out he had just purchased a significantamount of pot from a dealer in the apartment building, and as he left thedealer’s cronies had jumped him from the shadows of the building andreclaimed the pot along with his watch, wallet and whatever else he had onhim.

Since he was our kung fu “brother” and a friend, we politely listened ashe moaned about how unfair it was. But I think everyone at the table wasthinking what I was thinking: The kung fu works, but you’re an idiot.

In five years of training, how had he learned nothing about awareness?Never mind any lack of wisdom – where was his basic common sense?Kung fu isn’t supposed to work for lone, skinny guys against gangs of drugdealers in bad neighborhoods – you need a posse and automatic weaponsfor that.

Anyway, this student quit his kung fu training shortly after that episode,perhaps permanently disheartened to find that his kung fu didn’t work.

I T ’ S A L L U P T O Y O U

I tell the above story to bring out a simple point: Kung fu can onlywork as well as its practitioner. Your kung fu’s effectiveness is entirely up toyou. Ask yourself, is your kung fu working for you?

To answer that question, you have to determine how you want your kungfu to work for you. Is it for fighting and self-defense? Is it for physical fit-ness? Is it to make you a more relaxed and peaceful person? Is it somethingelse?

Let’s take the fighting and self-defense. In the case of my classmate, hisself-defense skills didn’t work when he needed them. His strategy for per-sonal safety failed him, his awareness of his surroundings failed him, and Iwould argue his moral imperative failed him. He never really got thechance to “fight” to defend himself, but if he had, I think he would havebeen beaten just as miserably.

He would have been beaten miserably simply because he wasn’t a goodfighter. His forms and techniques were mediocre, his strength and speedwere below average, and his “ferocity” in sparring was non-existent. Why?

Because he didn’t practice hard enough to develop strong kung fu quali-ties. Maybe his choice of late-night recreational purchases mellowed himtoo much, I don’t know. But I do know he didn’t deserve to win anyfight in the ring or in the street, and he was lucky he was only beaten andnot killed.

Now let’s assume you train in kung fu for health and fitness. Is yourkung fu working for you? Easy to answer. Are you at the weight youwant to be at, or at least steadily getting closer? Do you have the level ofenergy and vitality you seek? Are you healthy most of the time, and ifyou do get sick do you recover quickly? If not, it’s probably due to thesame reason my classmate failed in his self-defense: You aren’t practicinghard enough to attain good fitness. Don’t blame kung fu. Kung furequires that we practice our forms, yogic stretching, qigong, condition-ing, breathing and more daily – whether we’re in the mood or not. Inreturn, it gives us the invaluable gift of health and fitness. Are you fulfill-ing the daily requirements to earn your good results?

Relaxation, peace of mind, spiritual growth, curing illnesses – whateveryou practice your kung fu for, it will be as effective as you train it to be.No more, no less.

My classmate got beaten because he failed to live up to the expecta-tions of kung fu training, plus he had unrealistic expectations of whatkung fu training can accomplish. Kung fu doesn’t make you immortal. Iwas a much better fighter than him at the time, but I only went to dan-gerous places like Yonkers during the daytime, and only if my workrequired me to go there. I always had my .357 Magnum with me (yes, Ihad a concealed weapon permit) and I kept my eyes open. I also recog-nized early on that it was my own poor karmic choices that required meto work in such bad areas in the first place, and I made different choicesthat eventually allowed me not to have to work in those places.

Unfortunately, fighting skills have limits, fitness has natural limits,maybe wisdom and compassion even have limits – Ghandi didn’t cure theworld’s ills, after all. Kung fu isn’t about magically or miraculously doingaway with nature’s limits – it’s about getting as close to those limits aspossible. Have you reached the humanly possible limits of fitness, combat

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and wisdom? Me neither. I don’t fault kung fu, though. I praise if for giv-ing me the tools and methods to continually inch closer to those limits.

And whenever those limits seem to get farther off in the horizon insteadof closer, I know who’s to blame. It only inspires me to train harder.

E X E R C I S E

Be alert and look left and right every three seconds the next time youmust purchase marijuana from a drug dealer in a bad neighborhood in themiddle of the night. Alternately, give up the marijuana and anything elsethat hinders, rather than forwards, your cultivation of health and enlighten-ment.

A S S I G N M E N T

List five reasonable and attainable expectations you have of your kung futraining provided you train hard and consistently. Next list five fanciful orunreasonable expectations that people might have of kung fu that will leadto discouragement or a letdown when these expectations remain unrealized.

Send your thoughts to me at lessons@thepeacefuldragon.com. Please put“Lesson 24” in the subject line.

R E C O M M E N D E D R E A D I N G

For reasons of history and lineage, I am recommending our late KenpoGreat Grandmaster John McSweeney’s book, Battleaxe: A Warriors Tale.A gentleman who was a true fighter and who gave his last public seminar atThe Peaceful Dragon, this book is full of anecdotes and stories of his real-life self-defense “battles.” The only bad news is the book isn’t available onAmazon.com, so I don’t know where you can find it. As the next bestthing, you can read two articles about Master McSweeney on Grandmaster’sweb site at http://kungfu.org/messagegm7.shtml and http://kungfu.org/messagegm28.shtml .

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SSSS234Every month a book or article will be suggested by Master Sbarge.

Reading about topics related to the arts you are training in will help you getthe most out of your practice. Just remember that reading can never replaceyour practice! Each month’s recommended reading is purely optional,though Master Sbarge may on rare occasion ask that you do read a particu-lar book.

For additional reading suggestions by Master Sbarge, go tohttp://www.thepeacefuldragon.com/books.shtml. For any book or otheritem you purchase through The Peaceful Dragon website’s link toAmazon.com, a percentage is automatically sent to The Peaceful Dragon.We appreciate your support of our school.

Note: All Peaceful Dragon students are urged to complete monthlyassignments because they are important for you to fully benefit fromyour training.