STILL RAINING; STILL WORKING.

The biggest obstacles for us to avoid are the very things we think we are training.

Practical answers to practical problems.

Hi Guys, despite our ever-dwindling numbers, and a general fall-off in participation by those that remain, I am still working on the E-Book to try to shorten your journey.

Perhaps it is because of this that I persist.

We live in a new world, Covid 19 has F*cked with us all and often the question gets asked.

Why bother?

Covid 19, the war in Ukraine, Scott Morrison how much shit can one planet endure?

And yes, it is still raining here in Sydney.

But there is always a light.

In many ways I finished the e-book weeks ago, I just keep going back and finding ways to edit it.

Here is the prologue, hopefully putting it out there will mean I will leave it alone and with a bit of luck this IDEA will result in me finalising it.

A couple of zen koans that I find appropriate.

鬆.

“When we understand, things are just the way they are”.

“When we do not understand, things are just the way they are”.

鬆.

Te shan was sitting outside meditating. 

 Lung-t’an asked him why he didn’t go back home. 

Te shan answered, “Because it is dark.”  

Lung-t’an then lit a candle and handed it to him.  

As Te shan was about to take it, Lung-t’an blew it out.

Te shan had a sudden realisation, and bowed.

鬆.

Prologue

My journey is just like your journey.

The long time student’s experience of Wing Chun.

Sometimes the way was smooth, my mind was clear, I knew where I was, I knew where I needed to be and I knew how to get there.

But then there were those other times.

Times when the very nature of a ‘concept-driven martial art’ caused a mental fog to set in, and I questioned the wisdom, question the FIST LOGIC.

I doubt that just reading this E-Book will clear the fog but hopefully, it will give you enough light so that you do not crash into too many things.

Allow me to switch metaphors, imagine Wing Chun as a river, a deep river with many currents.

Some of these currents speed us forward but then some of these currents slow us down or even turn us around, we cannot influence these currents as they are beyond our control, but with a little help we can learn to see them and avoid them.

The biggest obstacles for us to avoid are the very things we think we are training.

Practical answers to practical problems.

It takes a certain amount of trust to move away from this, to be able to see the physical things as ways to explore the non-physical things such as intention, strategy and planning.

And as weird as it is, understanding the role that the Laws of Physics play, they make many things unavoidable and others unnecessary.

Most importantly however is discovering that the how and what we think, simply put our opinion, is what has the biggest impact on any violent situation, which is the end product of our physical training, much more so than anything we train.

Developing mental flexibility is the core of the work, we need to be comfortable with the physical/non-physical paradox.

The Core of the Wing Chun system is the Sil Lim Tao Form.

Sil Lim Tao translates to something akin to “The way of the little IDEA”.

The Sil Lim Tao Form is not the ‘Little Idea” but it is a vehicle for us to discover and explore “The Little Idea”.

The ‘IDEA” is not a shape, the “IDEA” is not a sequence of movements but the “IDEA” is there, lurking amongst the shapes and movements waiting to be found.

It is highly likely that the “IDEA” will reveal itself in different ways to different people, this book is an attempt to explain how the “IDEA” revealed itself to me.

MORE TO FOLLOW…..