Ok... check this out.
24 = number of hours in a day
168 = number of hours in a week
8736 = number of hours in a year
698880 = number of hours in the average human life span ( see above )
If you are 27, like me, you have lived 235872 hours. You have 463008 left. That's only like 27780480 minutes...
How insane. I have more of less quantified my time left on Earth. How much time do you have left??? Are you using your time well? It's not infinite...
What is will? Have you ever thought about it? I hadn't really thought about it very much until lately. To start off in a cliche, I looked this up in Webster's online and found this:
These are alright... but not really what I was looking for. This is the word "will" as used in human language. What I am talking about here is your metaphysical will, or perhaps, better understood as your "heart".
Last weekend, at the Lui Hsing seminar, Grandmaster Sin told us a story about will. I think that, although it is somewhat silly, it defines what "your will" means:
Image two roosters fighting. One is very large and one is small in comparison to the large one. If you were to bet on this fight, you would surely pick the large rooster to win, however, you most likely did not take into account the will of the smaller rooster. As they fight, the small rooster just keeps on going despite the fact that he is hurt.
Ultimately, the smaller rooster dies there, however, the large one dies two days later from injuries sustained from the smaller rooster.
That is will or you might even call it heart. The willingness to keep on going in the face of not-so-great odds.
Whether or not you know it, your will is tested every single day, most likely multiple times daily. Tests of will do not necessarily have to be large epic tests. They can be small things that you might not even notice. The most common example that I can think of is a daily workout. Personally, many times, I have wanted to bail out. I think to myself "why do I do this to myself" or "why do I put myself through this pain". That little voice tests my will. I have make the voice that says "get up and fight" or "keep going" stronger. This is my will.
Your will comes through in your life as well. You are the controller of your destiny. You impose your will upon reality and thus shape it accordingly. Compare the lifestyle of a destitute druggy with that of a successful person that is doing well with their life and making progress and accomplishments. Look at how they react to challenges in their life. Most likely, the druggy will run or turn to some sort of coping mechanism to avoid dealing with the challenge. Conversely, the successful person might meet that challenge head on and crush it. His will is clearly stronger.
So where I am going with all of this? Well, I'm not sure exactly. This all goes back to the seminar that I went to last week. The forms that we learned are intended to "nourish the will". Then, I thought, for people who do not know martial arts, how would they nourish the will?
I have felt at times that I had no will. I was sad, depressed, lacked confidence, etc. This was way before I started at Shaolin. At times, what brought me back from that was partly internal and partly external.
Internally, a lot of this is in your mind. You have no will because you THINK you have no will. All you need to do is change your thinking. It's that easy ( and that hard as well ).
Externally, I had my family to help me. They helped me to see that I do have the ability to meet challenges in my life no matter what they are. The external influence helped to change my thinking to the point where I believed that I can keep on going. I can stand back up.
How do you keep your will going? How do you deal with challenges in your life? Are you more prone to dodging/evading them, or do you meet them head on?
Work has been frustrating lately. I have been working on the same freaking problem for like 4 days now. I know that this will pass, but it is very frustrating to be fighting that uphill battle all the time.
I'll get to a point where I think I've got it solved, but really, I just found a part of the problem and now... I have to do more... stuff... argh....
I finished 4-8 staff today. Smacked myself pretty hard in the leg. That sucked. But anyway, that is a very cool form. I like it a lot. Maybe I'll show you one day... if you are lucky...
I am tired today. I feel like I have no energy.
I work up early to get to work for a 7am meeting to find out that it is canceled. My friend who runs it cut his foot and needed to go to the hospital. I am not mad... just here really early.
Steph made dinner last night which was very nice. We started watching "Taxi Driver" also, but I didn't make it very far.
Today is going to be busy. I have to go to the bank to get money for Gary as well as to deposit, then I have practice at 11:30. I am going to class early to get some push hands practice in.
Later, Steph and I are going to do some Tabata sets together. She told me she wanted to start working out and that would be a great place to start.
This weekend was the last installment of the Lui Hsing seminars that I have been attending through my Shaolin school. Needless to say, the seminar was completely worth the time, effort, and money that it has taken over the past two years.
We left on Friday afternoon. After a short stop in Trinidad, TX for my friend's son's football game, we were on our way. There were 3 of us in a 7 passenger van. It was pretty comfortable.
We made good time and got to Lexington around 3pm on Saturday. After checking into our hotel, showering, and relaxing a bit, we went to dinner with some friends and then we were off to the demos at the Lexington school.
There were some really awesome demos. Some highlights include:
After the demos, Gary and I returned to our respective rooms and went to sleep.
The following morning (Sunday), the excitement finally hit me that we were about to learn the second half of Lui Hsing ( Meteor Fist ).
After some history from Grandmaster Sin, we finally found out what we were going to learn. Whoa... I am not sure if I can mention it, but it was completely amazing and actually something that I have wanted to learn since I started learning about Shaolin years ago.
We left around 5pm after the seminar and started on our way home.
As we drove home, some things occurred to me. Some things we discussed, some we did not. Most importantly, I thought about other schools I had trained in and whether or not we would ever be able to do anything even remotely close to what we did this weekend. Obviously, no. Where else can you pay not that much money and learn Shaolin forms that have not been taught to the public for years and years. Get that at your next Tae Kwon Do seminar.
Additionally, I thought about how far I had come in this system. When I went to the first Golden Leopard seminar 2 years ago, I was a white belt. I have come a long way and have made some awesome friends. Most importantly, I feel like I am a part of something that is really just, awesome.
This trip further reinforced how much I love this school and this art. One event that really drove this home was when I went up to Grandmaster Sin to thank him after the class. I felt that this was an amazing thing that he had done for us and I wanted him to know that. He response was not expected however:
Me: Grandmaster Sin, thank you so much for doing this. This class was incredible. Thank you.
GM Sin: Thank you so much for coming and showing interest in the class.
I love that guy...
Now, I am finally home, and have a lot of work to do. I have got to get 4 Golden Leopard forms and 4 Lui Hsing forms in good order. I do not want to lose these.
So, it's been about a week or so since I got my black sash in Tai Chi. After beginning to learn my new material, a few things have occurred to me.
1) I have only started to scratch the surface of the awesome stuff that is available to learn.
2) I thought that I would feel satisfied once getting to this point, but I am finding that the exact opposite it true. I want more. I want to know more. I want to do more. I am capable of more.
3) I will be doing this for the rest of my life as long as I am able... and there is NO way that I will run out of things to learn.
In every other art I have taken, black belt always seemed to be the destination. As if to say, when you get to black belt, you're done. Go learn something else.
I think that this mentality comes from so called "fish bowl" schools. You know what I'm talking about. Take Tiger Schulmann's Karate for example. I took one class at this place and never went back. Check the site out, go even take a class at this place or any others... if you know anything at all, you will see that they suck. They are mostly concerned about your tuition and churning out black belts.
It is this kind of karate "business" that has lead me to believe for the better part of my life that black belt is the goal.
Thank you... Shaolin for showing me that this is not a 2-4 year commitment. This is a lifelong thing.
Thank you for showing me that I can always learn and that I have the capacity to hold an infinite amount of information in the human brain of mine. It permeates into every aspect of my life.
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