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 )