Interviewer:
“Sifu, a lot of people are impressed with your main motto: “Training with the mind not the ego”. Can you comment for us?”
Sifu Zopa:
“Yeh, sure! It’s true - apparently folk like it. I get a lot of comments on it. I think that thoughtful people think - correctly - on reading it, that we aren’t a group of muscle-bound, aggressive thugs with cauliflower ears, broken noses and facial scars from regularly being beaten around the head, but rather intelligent and humble people who train without ego aggrandizement going on. I think a catchy motto is important. But it has to honestly reflect the organization. I think this motto is certainly reflective of our Yun Hoi gwoon. I hope it is anyway!
Our other motto: “real self defense for the real world” also reflects what we are as a group. Both these mottos can hopefully be seen in all our training sessions. They’re the key benefits we offer our students. Together they also reflect the type of student I will select to teach. Someone who is serious about learning genuine Wing Chun for real world self defense without any egotistical nonsense. There’s no focus at all on distractions from the business of real world self defense - no sport martial art, no martial art on special sale, no tournament games, no cult stuff, no social get-together, no alternative to aerobics, no teaching children a dangerous martial art - the focus is simply on traditional Yuen Kay San and Koo Lo Pin Sun Wing Chun for actual self defense. Sure, our students want to be fit and our training certainly achieves overall fitness, sure we have close social connectivity in the gwoon - but they’re subsidiary by-products not a main aim of our Wing Chun.
This is our market image and our reality. I really want all my students to free themselves from ego bonds, because unless they do, they won’t be able to maximize their potential. I have a special interest in this because as you know I’m not only a gung fu sifu but also a Tibetan Buddhist who is interested in helping dispel the poisons in mind, speech and action. As you know, I select out prospective students with inappropriate attitudes. I simply won’t teach people with poisoned minds!
Some will likely hold the erroneous attitude that they already know something when they actually don’t. I’ve met many martial artists suffering from this illusion! Of course, they never realize this is the case! A good example is that often people hear the term “Wing Chun” and have been exposed to the overly large-ish and ever growing variety of versions of modern Wing Chun and assume that they know what our art entails. They think it is what they‘ve seen or heard about. In fact it isn’t. Of course those of us who train in Yuen Kay San and Koo Lo Pin Sun Wing Chun know this is a very incorrect view. The misleading and politically motivated notion, from Wing Chun cults and egotism, that “all Wing Chun is the same” leads to this view. There is the old story about the frog in the well seeing the piece of sky revealed by looking up through the well and thinking he knew all about the world. This applies here.
I derived the motto “training with the mind not the ego” to honestly reflect what we do. I’m not teaching martial art to bully, to show off, to boost my ego, to pose as being “tough” or knowledgeable or whatever to impress my students. I don’t have to. I’m not interested in all that - I’m interested in teaching top quality Wing Chun to the appropriate persons. Sometimes people have experienced the negative results of egotistical thought, speech and action in martial arts. People who have encountered these results know they are unpleasant and impede the proper formation and maintenance of family-like relationships in the gwoon and respectful relationships beyond it. Egotistical thinking and it’s manifestations in speech and action result in arrogance and a lack of courtesy, lack of respect and lack of empathy. The really interesting thing I find is that those from the most questionable lineages are the most arrogant! There is a saying: “See the student, know the sifu” and I think it’s unfortunately fairly true. A pompous, arrogant, aggressive sifu produces students the same as him - or worse!
There is genuine courtesy and mock courtesy, of course. People will often feign courtesy to a sifu to gain information and once they have it - or think they have it - revert to their normal morally unsophisticated behaviors and likely simply dump that sifu and move on to try to steal the art of another without paying the appropriate price of commitment. These are the people who use others in a transactional fashion rather than in a respectful relationship. They only value people from whom they think they can gain something. They often try to con a sifu, or buy him or obligate him so he feels he has to give them the art rather than that they have to commit to learning it and earn it.
A couple of types of students we don’t want, for sure. We don’t want those who only want to make a limited commitment - who only (I always die laughing at this - because you really simply can’t do it) “learn a little Wing Chun”! Well, if it’s not good enough to respect this fantastic art by wanting to learn it fully and properly - don’t bother. Of course, modern commercial thinking, the arch-nemesis of genuine traditional martial art fosters an eclectic approach to martial art and fosters a lack of commitment or sincere effort. If you won’t work hard enough to master an art, simply ditch it and try another, and another - and another. In fact, don’t actually commit to anything - just keep shopping around in the martial art supermarket! Collect a little of this and a little of that and build your own Frankenstein martial art. Feel good - because you sip a little of bits of dozens of arts but drink deeply of none! Funny attitude! Some guys in the US are really into this in a big way and build “styles” and businesses on picking up those folk who lack the capacity for sustained commitment to master any one art. The seminar circuit thrives on it. So, they help this type of student become collectors. They know a little about a lot and not a lot about anything in any depth. Some even become martial arts magazine columnists in the US. The funny thing is when you actually get to see these guys, even the gurus who promote this approach aren’t actually particularly skillful martial artists - but they are apparently great promoters and successful businessmen. And they can talk up a storm!
Also I don’t want to be bothered trying to teach those who only respect those they fear - those who are stronger, those who can beat them or bully them. As a psychologist I can say this reflects a very dangerous type - the authoritarian personality. We all know this type has given rise to some very unpleasant things in history. I don’t want any of my students to fear me at all - but I hope they respect me - not for what I am necessarily but because I am their teacher teaching them to be as good as they can be. So, training with the mind means we have to employ logic, not blindly submit to some cult of beliefs, some fictitious lineage history or ego worship. It means we ought to train intelligently using both tradition and modern analysis and scientific knowledge. It means we need to avoid becoming ego-invested. It means we have to be honest about our training - we don’t do it to be able to bully others, we don’t do it to brag, we don’t do it to show off our knowledge or skill, we don’t do it to add to a soup of bits and pieces of other martial arts. Such reasons are less than worthless! We do it to become better people and in time to pass on the correct traditional attitudes to learning gung fu. We do it to master our art. As the modern saying goes; “It’s not rocket science!’