Interviewer: Sifu, we’re continuing with part three of your ten part interview on the stages of gung fu and spiritual development.
Sifu: OK. Yes. Let’s do it. But let’s review stages one and two first.
Stage one is being aware that you want to find the true art – but don’t know what it is yet. Therefore, you don’t know what you don’t know.
Sometimes the seeker tries false paths, false arts that disappoint him, and follows false sifus who promise magical skill but are themselves unaware of the true art existing out there without their knowledge.
Essentially, the seeker may, at this stage, be a victim of the marketing hype of martial arts magazines, websites, books, DVDs, seminars and may also be a victim of his own ego. At the second stage, the seeker finds hints and may have glimpses of the true art. He may have a trial lesson and/or meet a sifu who rattles his perceptions. He may read something or see a You-tube clip or DVD that challenges his position. He is now more focused than at the first stage.
Interviewer: OK. I recall that you said that the second, stage was finding clues to the true art.
Interviewer: Your questioning your earlier arts must have been difficult, having put in so much of yourself – your time, energy, money, sacrificed opportunities, etc?
Sifu: To tell the truth it was painful. Yes.
Interviewer: Did you ever think of giving up?
Sifu: Only when I thought I was going to die in training! (Laughs). Or when I was exhausted from working, running my family, studying and training. That was often enough, in those days, trust me! We were very respectful of our teachers and loved them but were terrified of their wrath. No, I actually didn’t really never did think of dropping out. I often wished life had been easier, though! I always wished I had more time!
Interviewer: Can you recall that stage with clarity?
Sifu: (Laughs) I may be getting older but I’m not getting to a point of forgetting my past! Well, I don’t think so (Laughs). I guess if I was, I might not know, eh? (Laughs again). Look, it was about twenty plus odd years ago and I don’t recall a day by day inner struggle but I do recall the overall period during which I was asking myself lots of questions. I do recall thinking I’d have to adapt my arts as a personal art to have them working to my satisfaction. That was a dilemma as I had no intention of devising my own art to pass on to others. Nor did I want to buck my teacher’s teaching. I loved those guys! They were like big brothers or second fathers to me. So, yes, it was hard. Once I became more fully aware that most of what I’d learnt was, whilst the highest quality martial art, still sub-optimal – then it got hard! Bruce Lee – despite his ego and the stupid hype surrounding his cult – did one good thing in pointing out the “classical mess” and that got me thinking. I’d done Wing Chun since I was quite young so it wasn’t only Wing Chun questioning other arts. It was questioning the whole martial arts scene. Bruce’s statement unfortunately gave a lot of jerks a licence to criticise martial arts they hadn’t mastered or ever experienced, to hunt and gather bits and pieces of sundry martial arts like squirrels gathering nuts in the autumn, and to become hand and foot wavers and big talkers. He spawned a horde of big talkers with bigger egos with his plagiarised and often unacknowledged philosophies right enough, but he had a point on that score.
Interviewer: So, we’ve talked about searching for the true art and finding clues to the true art. Now you mentioned seeing the true art. Can you relate your experience of that stage, please?
Sifu: Yes. Well I guess there’s an interesting answer to that question. I saw the true art the moment that I first saw Sum Num perform. I’d previously seen a disciple of his uncle, Sum Jee, perform - and that was really eye opening, too. I trained with a student of his as a gwoon brother and he kindly showed me some Yuen Kay San Wing Chun. But seeing Sum Num, in the flesh, perform was an incredible experience. I recall thinking he was like, but better than, the gung fu movie super hero star. He was simply magical. So, that’s one “seeing”. Then, I must add that there was for me, and I think it still continues, an ongoing “Aha!” experience on a reasonably regular basis where I see something I hadn’t previously seen. So there was the physical perception – the “seeing the true art” and there was the awareness perception a “seeing” in the sense of greater awareness, overall. So, I had heard tales of a great – the greatest – Wing Chun master in China. Finally, I met people who had met him and, through them I eventually met and trained with him – Sifu Sum Num. So I had become aware in this stage of clues to a true art. Once I saw that art I realised I was seeing something beyond all I had seen previously. No-one whom I had encountered – and I’d seen most of the “names” and done some training with many of them – went close. He was simply a magician! I determined to learn his art and become like him.
Interviewer: And what of the spiritual meaning of this stage, sifu?
Sifu: It is explained as the thought and thinker become one. You have to think on that. The poem says:
“Gradually getting into harness the beast is now content to be led by the nose,
Crossing the stream, walking along the mountain path, he follows every step of the leader;
The leader holds the rope tightly in his hand never letting it go,
All day long he is on the alert almost unconscious of what fatigue is.”
This is essentially developing more discipline – at a higher level. The sentence that: “he follows every step of the leader”, means disciplining the mind but also can refer to following the sifu unquestioningly and following the path of the art. But the sifu knows the student needs more guidance so he doesn’t “let go of the rope”. The sifu has to be alert and the student has to be alert to ensure that the path is followed.
Interviewer: Someone can search for the true art, find clues to the true art, see the true art, yet still not be accepted into the true art. That’s the case isn’t it?
Sifu: Oh yes! True. Just look at our gwoon admission policy. Not everyone is automatically accepted. Also, once a student is accepted they may still not necessarily be “accepted” if they attend poorly, put forward inadequate effort, develop and express a poor attitude, or show a lack of ability or willingness to learn. They’ll have to change in order to be taught and to learn. I’ve had students, as have other traditional teachers, whom I’ve had to expel, too. Or those I’ve been glad to see depart. Fortunately that’s been rare. So, yes, what you say can be true. It’s always disappointing to me when I lose a student with talent.
Interviewer: And if a student is accepted?
Sifu: Then they ought to commit to the art, to the gwoon, their fellow students, and the sifu and train appropriately. Why would anyone bother with a half-hearted effort? Be all you can be! Do we get up in the morning and tell ourselves we are going to put in a half-hearted effort? No. Well, we ought not! The spiritual implication of this stage is that the seeker develops no-mind. In a way this relates to training with the mind not the ego. It’s no-mind, no-ego! (Laughs).
Interviewer: Having navigated these early stages we get to be learning the true art.
Sifu: Yes, we do. Mind you, as I have noted previously, there is a lot of luck – call it chance or perhaps it’s karma – in getting through these early stages to actually be in a position to learn the true art. A student has to have a lift in awareness to enter stage one. They have to have luck in finding clues to the real art. They have to know it when they see it. They have to free themselves from conditioned mindsets – cultural mindsets in some cases and mindsets deriving from their individual circumstances in other cases. They have to actually locate a practitioner of the true art who wants to show it to them. Such people don’t advertise, show off, brag or go about touting their art to Joe Public. Where would our group of students be: – If Sum Num’s father hadn’t died and his mother hadn’t decided to visit her mother in China from South America with him and been trapped there by World War II? Where would we be if Yuen Kay San hadn’t decided to ask sifu to become his disciple? If Sum Num had been killed in his many challenge matches and attacks on him? Where would we be if I hadn’t encountered the art and learnt it? Or, where would you be if I hadn’t come out of retirement from teaching martial arts to open a gwoon? If one of my prospective students decides instead to do another art, where would they get to? If the student was so brain-washed by another art they couldn’t see the true art before their very eyes? See? There are lots of points at which sheer chance occurs to determine whether a given person even becomes aware of the art and subsequently learns it.
Interviewer: And what of the spiritual meaning of this stage, sifu?
Sifu: It is that the seeker moves from realization to actualisation. Here the student thinks they have grasped a given technique one month but the next realise they didn’t actually have it at all. This goes on and on.
Interviewer: Yes. The comment you made about the sheer chance factor in encountering and deciding to study, and being accepted into our art is a familiar experience! OK, now the next big stage – mastering the true art.
Sifu: Yes, that’s a big stage, right enough! That’s the next stage. Mastery of the art is the art of mastery. There is a way to master any skill. This stage could be considered a spiritual experience in that the student gets to see his true self and feel the internal energy that is within him. The student’s objective will be to develop his commitment and his energy. The first sight is any encounter that stimulates the student to follow the path towards the true art.
Interviewer: Before we move on to stage four, can you summarise the core of stage three?
Sifu: Yes. In a martial sense, the student first encounters the true art. In a spiritual sense, the student has their first genuine spiritual experience. The student sees their true self and feels the energy awaken within them. Both physical and spiritual factors are involved here. The first encounter is any kind of encounter or unusual experience that stimulates the student to follow the path towards going beyond the mundane. In the old days it would usually have been seeing or hearing a true master in person. Today, in the martial arts world, it could be via the internet or in a DVD, for example. It is less direct now – and correspondingly often a little more difficult to verify one’s perceptions.
Interviewer: Is the student, the seeker, aware of going through these stages, sifu?
Sifu: Yes, indeed. Without awareness there can be no progress.
Interviewer: I see. Well, thank you for this, sifu. I look forward to chatting about stage four next time.