Knowledge is gained by adding something every day. Wisdom is gained by taking something away every day.
Becoming capable in any Martial art is not about being able to faultlessly perform certain movement sets; it is not about self-belief or being in the moment. As valuable as these traits are, they can be performed by a trained Monkey.
It is not even about knowledge, but without knowledge we have nothing.
It is about understanding; what we could call wisdom.
Without understanding, we are forever in the dark.
What do we need to understand?
Ourselves, nothing more and nothing less.
As simple as this may sound, it is one of the most challenging tasks any of us will undertake.
Especially as we begin this task from the position of not knowing, and of course; we are in the dark.
This is the role of Mind Boxing; it gives us an environment to begin ‘knowing’.
If we are involved in any training that requires a partner, we cannot work on ourselves.
Actions that are posed for us to understand how we operate, simply as a body in space, instead become about how to react/respond to this person or this situation.
Mind Boxing is a solo exercise.
First, we perform the task accurately and purposively, just like a trained Monkey.
The real work begins when we attempt to understand what we just did, how we did it, why we did it, how it can be used, how it can be adapted, how it relates to things we do outside of the Martial Arts, and most importantly how it relates to our styles fundamental philosophy.
Our philosophy is the light that drives away the darkness of not knowing.
Mind Boxing is how we integrate the philosophy into our way, DAO.
As a good starting place do you know, let alone understand, do you know what Wing Chun’s fundamental philosophy is?
If it was possible, I would teach this before any other aspect of Wing Chun, but I know from personal experience (meaning been there, done that) that this is just not what beginners think is proper, valuable training.
The problem of not understanding is that we are always in the orbit of “not knowing”, and because we do not understand that we are in the orbit of ‘not knowing’ we tend to think we know.
Most of us understand that for something to be “RIGHT”, it needs to be 100% “RIGHT” but what very few understand is that when we are 99% “RIGHT”, which is obviously not 100%, we are in fact 100% wrong.
Mind Boxing is not just FORMS, it is not even limited to Wing Chun specifics, below is an old video, this was something we did frequently when we rented a large training space, it is still something I do at least twice a week, it is obviously not Wing Chun, but once you begin to understand you realise it is as Wing Chun as Bong Sau.
There is a Daoist maxim that goes…
Knowledge is gained by adding something every day. Wisdom is gained by taking something away every day.
Wing Chun Sydney, Australia 