HIDDEN BUT NOT SACRED KNOWLEDGE.

Etymology… The occult (from the Latin word ‘occultus’; lit. ‘clandestine’, ‘hidden’, ‘secret’) is “knowledge of the hidden”. 

Hey guys, let me start by saying that there is no side to be taken with this post, no need to agree or disagree, it is just thinking out loud, and thinking should always be free to wander where it wishes to wander, and land wherever it wishes to land.

If you have done even the lightest study of Sacred Geometry you will see Wing Chun in the diagram at the head of the post, and as such there is nothing more for me to say.

If not read on.

This post has taken me more than 30 years to write.

And to be completely honest it has only crystallised in the last few years with my re-engagement with drawing and building sculpture.

If it does not make any sense at this time that is perfectly fine, just do not discount it out of hand because you do not understand it.

Something that I have told you all, in one way or another, is that we cannot hope to understand Wing Chun if we only use Wing Chun to try to understand it by.

In Neuroscience there is something called Gödel’s theorem.

This IDEA states quite clearly that no system is able to comprehend itself fully.

In short.. the brain cannot understand the brain.

As deep, nerdy, and perhaps even fluffy as this sounds it colours everything we see and think.

Which on the other side of the coin colours everything we think we see.

Wing Chun is a ‘CONCEPT’ driven martial art.

A concept is essentially an IDEA.

An Idea is a fundament of the ‘MIND’.

It is THINKING.

If we hope to understand Wing Chun as it was meant to be at its inception, surely we should start by trying to appreciate how Dr Leung Jan saw his place in the world.

To get some measure of understanding of the science and philosophy that permeated the society that Dr. Leung Jan was a part of.

Wing Chun was not a unique creation, it was a deviation from normal Kung Fu, a different type of thinking, a modernisation if we would like to think that way.

But its roots came from and cannot escape from the classical IDEA of Kung Fu, which itself was influenced by the philosophical cornerstones of Chinese upper society.

This strata of society possessed knowledge that was not common knowledge.

To the general population, it was looked upon as hidden knowledge, even secret knowledge. 

When these IDEAS are translated into Latin-based languages they are termed as OCCULT.

Etymology… The occult (from the Latin word ‘occultus’; lit. ‘clandestine’, ‘hidden’, ‘secret’) is “knowledge of the hidden”. 

In today’s common usage, occult refers to “knowledge of the paranormal”, which of course leads in the direction of ‘magical thinking’, as opposed to “knowledge of the measurable”, usually referred to as science.

It is so important to not conflate the modern IDEA of ‘knowledge of the hidden’ which always slips into magical or spiritual connotations, with the IDEA of ‘knowledge of the hidden’  from 17th century China, which for its time was actually science.

The Geometry and Mathematics of Chinese Architecture would have been considered occult thinking.

Gunpowder was a product of occult thinking.

It was not possible for their language to avoid being cloaked in what is now looked upon as spiritual terminologies, and spiritual theorems.

Whether we are pro-spiritual thinking or anti-spiritual thinking it is detrimental to our progress because BOTH lead us in an unintended direction.

Our challenge is to be able to connect today’s training to the thinking of 17th-century China, ignoring ‘New-age’ explanations and bring it into normality.

An example of how the ancients could translate religious IDEAS into secular methodologies that resonate with Wing Chun can be found in the Buddhist Heart Sutra that reflects…

Form is no other than emptiness.

Emptiness no other than Form.

Form is only emptiness.

Emptiness only Form.

If we can step away from even the lightest religiosity, this statement could be about the Sil Lim Tao, which in one old-world translation becomes the ‘Way of the Shaolin’.

Spiritual people living in violent times would, without thinking, use spiritual language about non-spiritual things, because that was simply how they spoke.

We should work diligently to not be moved in the wrong direction by words.

What was hidden knowledge to the ancient people of our world, and was still thought of as almost sacred in the time of Dr. Leung Jan is now taught to schoolchildren as a part of basic education.

Physics, Geometry, and Mathematics.