EVERY TELESCOPE CAN SEE THE SKY.

HOW MANY TIMES DO WE NEED TO ROLL A BALL DOWN HILL TO UNDERSTAND THAT BALLS ROLL DOWN HILLS?

As I get older, as the view gets clearer and the end is coming into sight my drive from an instructional point of view is to help you guys bypass the things that in my personal experience slow us down, things that, as important as they most certainly are, ultimately need to be jettisoned due to redundancy, to be thrown away.

It is not that these things were ever unimportant, it is more that we overestimate their purpose, just like the scaffolding that cannot be ignored during construction of a skyscraper, but is taken down once the exterior skin is completed, self-supporting, so the work of transforming the shell into a working building can ramp up and progress, be it an office, hotel, data centre, or mixed purpose building, the scaffolding is taken down and rarely thought of again.

It is beyond all doubt that the shell is essential, without it there is just empty space, but it is in every sense generic, look around there is a certain sameness to all buildings, it is only what goes on inside of them that gives them purpose, and frequently, all be it years later, the interior gets redesigned to change that purpose without a change to the exterior.

Now look at all the different Kung Fu styles.

On Thursday evening I used the metaphor of building a telescope, to study the cosmos, to do astronomy.

The more accurately we assemble this telescope, the higher the optical quality of the lenses, the better the reliability, performance and compatibility of the data chip that governs the C.P.U. to achieve perfect focus and the overall care with which we align all the working parts of this telescope will all contribute to the end efficiency of this instrument.

But even a cheap telescope will look upwards, anyway, it is not the telescope that does astronomy.

The Telescope, the shell of the Skyscraper,  both essential to the work, but they are not the work.

Obviously to be able to do the work we must firstly build the telescope, erect the shell, there is no short-cut here, but does it need to take so long?

How many times do we need to roll a ball down hill to understand that balls roll down hills?

How many times do we need to play the same FORM?

Even though it took me much longer, I cannot see why we cannot have all of the physical tools, the shell or telescope, in 2 to 3 years, depending on involvement and the type of help received or information researched.

I, like many others, paid too much attention to the wrong things. 

I focused on the Telescope and forgot about the Sky.

We all know that training is not fighting, we all know that what we wish to learn is not the Forms, or Chi Sau, or even the free-play pretend fighting, but we get seduced.

If we are using our training in anger, then we are involved in a violent situation.

No 2 violent situations are the same, but they can be looked at in 2 very wide generalities.

1. A violent situation that we know about, this can be a situation that we have started or a situation that we have agreed to participate in, which is either us attacking somebody with or without just cause or us agreeing to engage physically with somebody else, this last option is your classic “Fight”.
2. A violent situation we have no prior knowledge of, a situation where someone acts out violently against us, and we have no choice except to deal with it. This is a classic “SELF DEFENCE” situation.

In the first situation, there is a high probability that we throw the first punch, and our chances are at worst 50/50.

In the second situation, the “Bad Guy” always throws the first punch, and we are playing catch-up.

The situation that Wing Chun prepares us for is a Self-Defence situation; we will be second cab off the rank, playing catch-up.

Playing catch-up is reactionary and not responsive. What this boils down to is that we will not be thinking about what we are doing, only thinking about what we wish to achieve, such as not being hit, getting out of trouble, or escaping the immediate danger.

How our brain and body react will not be under our direct control; it will be reflexive, and there will be no thinking.

In this or similar situations, our Brain/Body will choose something it knows well and trusts totally; it will not choose an action it does not trust, no matter how effective or powerful that action might be.

This is how our Brain makes decisions, and it is not just about violence.

Would you buy a used car from a shifty-looking bloke that you know nothing about?

You have no evidence at all that the guy cannot be trusted, but do you take the punt?  How did you come to the decision?

This is not just about Wing Chun, it is not really bout Martial Art or violence, it is about any problem that needs us to make a choice.

We will not choose something we do not trust or believe in; we will, in fact, ignore obvious truths if we think otherwise.

So what is the real work?

The real work is TRUST.

An understanding of WHY what we do works, not how it works.

This is the meaning behind our saying that “WING CHUN IS A CONCEPT-DRIVEN MARTIAL ART”.

We do all the physical stuff so that we can explore the concepts that they use.

Once we see it and trust it, we can use those concepts in any way that is available to us.

EVERY TELESCOPE CAN SEE THE SKY.