Traveled Paths of a Martial Artist

By John F. Di Virgilio

After many years, the martial artist is very aware of his or her refined accomplishments and limitations. Having been properly coached, exposed, and seasoned, the poised martial expert can free play techniques with little effort. Without thinking, he or she can instantly create useful combinations for a range of situations. Much of this ability does not come from driven emotion but rather from an awake yet uncluttered mind with nothing more than the will to survive. At this level, the martial artist is no longer constrained to earlier learning principles and methods but can move freely. In a nearly sudden reality reversal, Wing Chun principles and ideals that earlier directed one’s actions now follow and support one’s actions like fitted clothing. The practitioner is now truly a free form kung-fu expert. Your teacher will smile at the moment, for it is birth of a new master and at the same time a rebirth for the old teacher.

With some advice from his or her old teacher, the mature free form stylist can now see that the path forward is divided three ways. It is the three-fold path that comes face-to-face with all mature martial artists. You must choose one of the paths, knowing that once a path is chosen it will very difficult to abandon. The dynamics of each path make it next to impossible to give any of them a clear description. With a good amount of vagueness, my advice for the free form list is to choose either path two or three. The following description starts inversely with path three.

In the third path, you return to your teacher to learn teaching skills and rediscover the many traditions of becoming a successful teacher. It is here, as a teacher, that you come full circle with your experiences. By returning to your roots, you see your can see your accomplishment from the ground floor and not from floating near the skylight. You see yourself in your students as they evolve and mature. It is a shared experience in which the teacher also relearns the same lessons. Hence, the old adage, teach once and learn twice, becomes self-evident. This path is best known to me because it is the path that I have chosen. In this path, your actions and teachings will live on for generations as example of successful teaching of the whole person (not brawlers). At this point in your life, your teaching methods are best served with good portions of traditional Chinese philosophy, those of Daoism, Buddhism, and Confucianism. These philosophies with help student see things in different perspectives, which in turn will enable students to find the needed balance in their thoughts and actions. Having the right mindfulness is the first step in learning any hobby, vocation, or profession.

In path two, the master greatly reduces his or her martial arts practice time. Instead, they turn their attention toward building a family, developing a business, and building a good community. These people make up the strongest part of society and know how to live life to the fullest. They know well how to mediate between the highs and lows in daily life. Peace and reasoning are brought to the community because of these types of people. Lastly, people who choose path two or three know with great certainty when enough is enough, and that pursuing the martial arts to the extreme without a moral purpose will be destructive.

Despite being taught such wisdom and learning under the guidance of a great master, there are many who will be drawn to path one, the dangerous path, almost all of them young males below the age of 30. In taking paths two or three practitioners will never reach 100% of their potential skill. Because of the demands of teaching or business they will only reach 80-90% at the most. In path one, they choose to chase the last 10-20% of skill through competition or brawling. This chase quickly transforms into a single-minded, self-serving, compulsive obsession. Few will survive the ugly and harmful effects found along this path. Indeed, the last bit of martial skill can only come from regular combat and hurting many people. It is a cold-hearted, lonely, and painful path with only a minuscule chance that one’s name will become truly legendary. A vast majority of people in this path will suffer terrible injuries to their minds and bodies. Therefore, it is my opinion that legendary figures like Achilles and Miyamoto Musashhi, despite their unmatched skill and heroic names, were nothing more than ugly, self-centered, and cold-blooded murderers. Others might say that they were just plain lucky to escape death. One thing is for sure, they were both soldiers who lived in a militaristic society surrounded by warfare. Neither of these legendary figures developed any notable students or reared a family. However, these men an be credited for helping society thin out the shameless, reckless and dangeous side of the population that traveled the same path.

There is yet another path that should stay nameless. Nameless and broadly defined, this last path can become deeply rooted in the person's psyche. In most cases this path becomes very destructive to the person but also to the people around them. This type of person is very self-absorbed, and wants the admiration of the surrounding people and community. Initially, they may seem to be good, but they are truly self-centered, so much so that they begin to nurture a growing self-proclaimed confidence, much of which (but not all) is contrived and false. Their world usually self destructs into internalized depression or outer-directed anger. Fortunately, there are a few people in this category. They usually have powerful, attracting, personal charisma, and because of this, they are the most dangerous to society. They tend to build strong cult following of misguided and insecure people. Not many martial artist fall into this path, but beware of bombastic and propagandistic religious, political, and business leaders when they are hungry for status and worldly power.

It is best to keep all things in life useful as well as small and simple. Few understand that over-refinement gives rise to over professionalism and unneeded bureaucratic hindrances.
--------------
This article is by my Sibak, John F. Di Virgilio of Hawaii. More can be found on him at wingchunkeun.com

Tweet

By John F. Di Virgilio After many years, the martial artist is very aware of his or her refined accomplishments and limitations. Having been properly coached, exposed, and seasoned, the poised martial expert can free play techniques with little effort. Without thinking, he or she can instantly create useful combinations for a range of situations. Much of this ability does not come from driven emotion but rather from an awake yet uncluttered mind with nothing more than the will to survive. At this level, the martial artist is no longer constrained to earlier learning principles and methods but can move freely. In a nearly sudden reality reversal, Wing Chun principles and ideals that earlier directed one’s actions now follow and support one’s actions like fitted clothing. The practitioner is now truly a free form kung-fu expert. Your teacher will smile at the moment, for it is birth of a new master and at the same time a rebirth for the old teacher. With some advice from his or her old teacher, the mature free form stylist can now see that the path forward is divided three ways. It is the three-fold path that comes face-to-face with all mature martial artists. You must choose one of the paths, knowing that once a path is chosen it will very difficult to abandon. The dynamics of each path make it next to impossible to give any of them a clear description. With a good amount of vagueness, my advice for the free form list is to choose either path two or three. The following description starts inversely with path three. In the third path, you return to your teacher to learn teaching skills and rediscover the many traditions of becoming a successful teacher. It is here, as a teacher, that you come full circle with your experiences. By returning to your roots, you see your can see your accomplishment from the ground floor and not from floating near the skylight. You see yourself in your students as they evolve and mature. It is a shared experience in which the teacher also relearns the same lessons. Hence, the old adage, teach once and learn twice, becomes self-evident. This path is best known to me because it is the path that I have chosen. In this path, your actions and teachings will live on for generations as example of successful teaching of the whole person (not brawlers). At this point in your life, your teaching methods are best served with good portions of traditional Chinese philosophy, those of Daoism, Buddhism, and Confucianism. These philosophies with help student see things in different perspectives, which in turn will enable students to find the needed balance in their thoughts and actions. Having the right mindfulness is the first step in learning any hobby, vocation, or profession. In path two, the master greatly reduces his or her martial arts practice time. Instead, they turn their attention toward building a family, developing a business, and building a good community. These people make up the strongest part of society and know how to live life to the fullest. They know well how to mediate between the highs and lows in daily life. Peace and reasoning are brought to the community because of these types of people. Lastly, people who choose path two or three know with great certainty when enough is enough, and that pursuing the martial arts to the extreme without a moral purpose will be destructive. Despite being taught such wisdom and learning under the guidance of a great master, there are many who will be drawn to path one, the dangerous path, almost all of them young males below the age of 30. In taking paths two or three practitioners will never reach 100% of their potential skill. Because of the demands of teaching or business they will only reach 80-90% at the most. In path one, they choose to chase the last 10-20% of skill through competition or brawling. This chase quickly transforms into a single-minded, self-serving, compulsive obsession. Few will survive the ugly and harmful effects found along this path. Indeed, the last bit of martial skill can only come from regular combat and hurting many people. It is a cold-hearted, lonely, and painful path with only a minuscule chance that one’s name will become truly legendary. A vast majority of people in this path will suffer terrible injuries to their minds and bodies. Therefore, it is my opinion that legendary figures like Achilles and Miyamoto Musashhi, despite their unmatched skill and heroic names, were nothing more than ugly, self-centered, and cold-blooded murderers. Others might say that they were just plain lucky to escape death. One thing is for sure, they were both soldiers who lived in a militaristic society surrounded by warfare. Neither of these legendary figures developed any notable students or reared a family. However, these men an be credited for helping society thin out the shameless, reckless and dangeous side of the population that traveled the same path. There is yet another path that should stay nameless. Nameless and broadly defined, this last path can become deeply rooted in the person's psyche. In most cases this path becomes very destructive to the person but also to the people around them. This type of person is very self-absorbed, and wants the admiration of the surrounding people and community. Initially, they may seem to be good, but they are truly self-centered, so much so that they begin to nurture a growing self-proclaimed confidence, much of which (but not all) is contrived and false. Their world usually self destructs into internalized depression or outer-directed anger. Fortunately, there are a few people in this category. They usually have powerful, attracting, personal charisma, and because of this, they are the most dangerous to society. They tend to build strong cult following of misguided and insecure people. Not many martial artist fall into this path, but beware of bombastic and propagandistic religious, political, and business leaders when they are hungry for status and worldly power. It is best to keep all things in life useful as well as small and simple. Few understand that over-refinement gives rise to over professionalism and unneeded bureaucratic hindrances. -------------- This article is by my Sibak, John F. Di Virgilio of Hawaii. More can be found on him at wingchunkeun.com