Responsibilty of Conduct - part 2

Benevolence
Confucism or Taoism?

    This week I thought I would ponder the word and concept of Benevolence. Little did I realize just how much thought could be spent on self analysis on this one word. It is such and important word and philosophy that Silent River has it in it's charitable name, Silent River Benevolent Foundation. Why? What makes this word that important?

Let's start with the word itself.

   Benevolence, simply put, is one's responsibility to others. Sounds simple right? Not until you try to apply it to yourself and your daily action and thoughts. What are your responsibilities to others? The more you think about that, the deeper your understanding of yourself will be. Even trying to write this Blog has sent my mind all over the place just trying to put this into words, so to simplify it for me, I am going to list some of my personal responsibilities to others in my life.

Family
By far the most emotional one for me. I love my family and I try everyday to express that love through my actions and deeds. I feel it is my responsibility to provide for their health and safety, to be supportive of their choices, but to also voice my opinion if I think these might have negative effects on them. To encourage without pressure, to love without condition, to be a good dad, husband, son, uncle, grandfather etc.This one could go on and on but you get the idea.

Work
Fairly simple, right? Show up on time, put in a full days work, do my best to do my job to the fullest of my abilities. Use my decades of knowledge in my field to do my work as efficiently as possible. Pretty basic right, or so I thought. So much more I could be doing, now that I think of it, but I'll cut this on short.

Myself
I didn't realize that my responsibility to others must also include a certain level of responsibility to myself. If I am not kind to myself, how can I be kind to others? If I am not responsible for my own actions, ideas and thoughts, how can I expect to have responsibility to other peoples actions, ideas or thoughts? This is one that I think I really need to dig deeper on, a work in progress. Time to explore "Me" a little deeper.

Kung Fu
I kind of hope I am opening a can of worms here. I hope this will cause at least one person to explore the idea of Benevolence a little deeper. Master Brinker and the Benevolent Foundation have laid out an amazing path for us to follow, a "Foundation" if you will ( maybe that is why it is in the name?). Our charities are there for a reason. As martial artists, we must think beyond ourselves. We must give to those who need, because it is necessary, not for self gratification, not to make you feel better about yourself. So fellow students of Silent River, I will endeavor to do the right thing for the right reason from this point forward, will you?  

Responsibility of Conduct - Part 1?

   So this last week I was going over the Silent River Kung Fu Code of Ethics and something grabbed my attention and demanded that I look further into it. In the 2nd paragraph, there is a passage that reads "As Black belts we must accept all the responsibilities which the rank requires including the responsibility of conduct, the spirit of which is outlined by the three main philosophies of Kung Fu: Confucism, Taoism, and Buddhism".

   So this caught my eye, and my mind. It is one of those thing where you "know"ish what these things are but in reality, you actually have no idea what they truly are. So that has started me down the path of finding out just what these three ideals/philosophies are as well as why and how they apply to Kung Fu. Well let me tell you, after a week of googleing, wikipediaing and some reflection of things already learned, my mind is seeing our Kung Fu in a very different light.

   Let me touch on what I am currently thought bombing in my brain. Keep in mind, this is a work in progress and while I am comparing these ideals, I am not favoring one over the other, just contemplating as new knowledge becomes available. I also know a lot of my thinking will be flawed on these ideas but I will be working towards a better understanding over time.


Confucism and Taoism ( pronounced Daoism )

Flow of form with intent
Structure with Spontinaity

Confucism ( Chinese philosopher Confucius  [551–479 BCE],  Master Kong )
Benevolence - one's responsibility to others
Self-cultivation
Emulations of moral exemplars
Attainment of skilled judgement rather than knowledge of rules
Reciprocity - "do not do unto others what you do not want done to yourself"
Do the right thing for the right reason

Taoism ( Daoism ) ( Laozi? [6-4th centery BCE] )
Harmony with the Dao ( the way of the universe/existance )
Effortless action ( Wu Wei )
Action without intent
Qi ( Chee )
Compassion, moderation and humility
Qi - condensed, becomes life, diluted, it is infinite potential
Yin Yang

   Any one of those those lines could and should be analyzed at great length but I am currently thinking about "Action without Intent". I am using breathing as my path on this one.

   Breathing, we all do it, it is life. We can do it with thinking or without thinking. By talking about it right now, you are thinking about it. Did that change your breathing, probably. You are probably thinking about length, depth, clarity, duration, etc. But the funny thing is, in an hour from now when you are making lunch or doing laundry, breathing won't even be on your mind, but it is still happening. We can consciously control our breathing if need be but we really don't need to most of the time, our body will do that for us, automatically, no thinking involved.
  In my mind, this is like our school forms. I will use Lung as my path. Slow, deliberate, deep stances, deep breathing. Every one of these takes a certain level of thought and control. But if you have practiced this form enough so that your body knows the motions, it sets your mind free to enjoy the "feeling" of the form. Your body will automatically do the motions for you, just like breathing, and your mind can explore the feel of the form. Sure you can think about every motion, every step, every breath, but if you truly know the form, you don't have to, you can be "in the moment", flowing, energizing, enjoying.
   I think I went off in a direction I wasn't intending to but I will leave this as is and see if it was intentional or not, hmmmmm.





Buddhism ( I have not started reading about Buddhism, soon though )

Push and Evaluate

   So we did a mini fitness test this past Saturday, ( apr 11 ). What a gut check. While my numbers were not too bad, they were no where near what they would need to be to pass grading day.

We covered the following:

1 - Front thrust punch while in a horse stance
2 - Push ups
3 - Horse stance
4 - Lateral Jumping
5 - Sit ups
6 - Front thrust kick

   This is but a small portion of the overall test. We did this all in about 40 minutes. It was awesome. It was exactly what I needed and wanted. This was a progress test for me both physically and mentally. It was also a great honesty test. Am I being true to the "form" or am I just going for numbers? I like to think I was fairly honest with myself when it came to counting my reps, if it wasn't a proper kick/punch/stance etc, I didn't count it. While I was disappointed with my overall numbers, I know that these are a true representation of where I am actually at.
 
   Doing this as a group was the best motivation I could have had. It not only allowed me to challenge myself but to challenge myself against others. That gave me the extra push I needed to try a little harder, to push through the pain and exhaustion, and I was amazed that even though I thought I was done, there was a little gas still left in the tank if I just looked for it. For those of you who were there, thank you for this much needed push. For those of you who weren't there, you missed out on a golden opportunity.

   Sifu Ward and Mr Thomson have put together a great program that is keeping me engaged in a way I didn't think would be possible over the internet. The conversations, the banter, the insights from others, the satisfaction of just doing it, all priceless. I find myself practicing other Kung Fu related things both before and sometimes after the class. My daily routine has almost doubled in the amount of training I am getting in, and it feels great. I hope more students find time in their day to try this out for at least 1 week, it is worth the time and we would love to see you "there". I am at the end of week 2 and looking forward to week 3, bring it on!!!

Numbers update time 19%

   This blog is a numbers update. Very necessary for me to do this several times a year so I can be held responsible for my progress or lack there of ( by you and me ).

   The year of the Rat started Jan 25, 2020 and ends Feb 21, 2021 ( correct me if I am wrong please ). That's 384 days long. Today ( Apr 5, 2020 ) is day 72, or 19% of the year gone, 81% remaining.


Mandatory requirement numbers

1 - No Quitting - check

2 - 50000 push ups
10145/50000 = 20% - on track but needs improvement

3 - 50000 sit ups
10290/50000 = 20% - on track but needs improvement

4 - Master 2 forms ( 1000 reps hand and 1000 reps weapon )
Hand ( Lao Gar ) 214/1000 = 21% - on track but needs improvement
Weapon ( Tonfa ) 215/1000 = 21% - on track but needs improvement

5 - 1000 rounds of sparring
320/1000 = 32% - on track, looking good

6- 1609KM Journey
600.9/1609km = 37% - on track, looking good

7 - 1000 Acts of Kindness
316/1000 = 31% -  on track, looking good

8 - Mend a relationship. Tough one, not sure who or why that applies to right now. Pondering the people in my life and the way I treat others to look for room for improvement.

9 - Journal once a week - check

10 - Make at least 3 public appearances .Obviously this will happen later in the year, and when it does, I will be there for every one of them.

11 -  Lion Dance. See #10

12 - Compete in the Tiger Challenge. May 2,2020 - cancelled. Maybe a small abridged version when this all passes would be fun, informal, on a Saturday during open training, part outside, just saying.

13 - Miss no meetings - check

14 - Excel in core curriculum - not for me to judge my progress but I do practice regularly.

15 - Organize, lead and participate in school projects. Trying to stay as involved as possible, see #10 again I guess for now.

16 -Memorizes Mastery - I have this in print and recorded on my phone, I do listen to and recite this fairly regularly, I'd give myself a 4/10 for completion.

17 - Participate in all school initiatives. So far that is Adopt-a-driveway, more to follow as the year progresses - check

18 - Personal requirements - see below.


Personal requirement numbers

1 - Continue with juggling. Still enjoy this but I think I have plateaued, trying to add more balls and increase duration of sets and juggles ( hand to hand - 3 ball classic style). So for I have tried to add a 4th and 5th ball, no dice, total disaster. Next I am stretching the amount of time and number of "juggles", my current record is 97 juggles in 1 minute. 

2 - Continue with weight loss and size reduction - total disaster, I have actually put on weight since the start of the year. Totally on me. I am trying different approaches but what I really need is for spring to actually get here so I can go outside!!!

3 - Continue with Spanish. I have some basic words and can understand small amounts in listening to a conversation but what I really need is structured classes ( not online ). I will be looking for continuing education classes shortly once Covid and time permits.

4 - Complete more projects around the house. Again I say, come on spring!!! All my projects are outdoors and I need the snow to go away.

5 - Continue with being neater. Proud to say I have come a long way on this. I am continually checking my "work" both at home and at work to see if the quality of completed tasks is "thumbs up" or needs a redo.

6 - Work on flexibility. While I will never be Gumby, I am making some good advances in this. I bought a "flexmaster" for home, use it frequently. 

7- Kicks , speed, height, accuracy and power. 4 basic kicks, front thrust, round house, side heel, spinning back. Making some advances, having a hard time with spinning kicks, I seem to be regressing not progressing. Come better weather I am moving the heavy bag outside so I don't have to worry about hitting walls and damaging anything.


Well, there is a summary of where I am at. It feels good to self analyze and see where I am at. Shows me where I am and where I need to be. I do these 3 or 4 times a year for good reason, if I don't self analyze to see where I am at, I will never actually know if I an doing good or not. This round I see too much yellow and even a red. Yikes!!!!