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!!!!




 

Is This Thing On??

   My world through a video screen. TV, Desktop, LapTop, IPad, IPhone. The new normal. Social distancing, self isolation, Pandemic, ventilator lottery, Covid-19. The new reality. Never in my life did I think this would be the world we live in. As an Asthmatic, this worries me, a lot. Every sneeze, every cough, every ache and pain, mild panic grips me. It seems at times like we are living in a Hollywood movie or Epic novel, the stuff of a twisted writer's mind. The book I am reading right now,  "The Stand" by Stephen King, chillingly close to our new now, what a stupid choice by me to be reading right now.
   The reason I am writing about this is because of an casual encounter I had yesterday while shopping for groceries. My wife ( Deb ) had me on a mission to find her some flour so she could do some baking ( mmm, banana bread ), and someone had said that Superstore had flour. Well they did,  I went there and I grabbed 1 bag , all we needed, and headed for the cashier. Well on the way, I ran into Sifu Melanie Beckett. At first, my mind couldn't process that I know this person and that she was actually here in person and not just some video call. I was at a loss for words at first. I didn't have time to plan what I would say, you know, the new norm. I had to go "old school" and just chat. It felt like a bubble popped around me. Suddenly, the world was back in all it's colors, smells, and sounds. It was almost overwhelming. It was liberating, I wanted to let loose the verbal diarrhea monster and release all the pent up "isolation" that the new norm has been stockpiling inside me. Luckily for her, I remembered that no one, especially someone with a small child at home, wants to spend to much time in public right now so I shut myself up, said "goodbye" and re-entered the new norm.
   Now don't get me wrong, I am extremely lucky in my situation during this time. My son is at home from school safe, my wife is being very smart about having to work in the public (no choice - banker), other members of my family are either safe at home or as safe as they can be, none of us sick. I get to see some or most of them every day  ( lucky them, LOL ), and I know that not a lot of people have that kind of luxury. I am still working so I am one of the lucky ones. Financially we are good, heath we are good, connecting with love ones ( phone and face time )we are good, online Kung Fu ( thank you thank you thank you ) we are awesome, so all in all, I can't complain because things could be SO much worse.
   What I am getting at is that I hadn't realized how closed in my world was becoming. I was starting to get used to living through a video screen and didn't even realize it. The small talk ( my favorite ) is gone, it's get in get out. Almost everything is on the phone or a computer screen, very little outside personal contact. I understand the importance of this right now but that doesn't make it any easier.
   How to adapt? I don't have the answer, sorry. Everyone must find there own way through this. Just remember to lean on friends and family whether it is video, phone call, email ( mail if you want to go old school ), or stand out in your backyard and talk to your neighbors, etc. They are going through this with you, just not "with" you. If you need me for any reason, call, text email, whatever, I'll answer - I promise.
780-970-3590
donbjorkquist@hotmail.com

  
   Now to Kung Fu. Oh wait, that was about Kung Fu. "How so" you ask? Silent River Kung Fu Online. That's how. As close to being on the mats as we can get right now. The first online class came out on Friday, I have watched it twice already, going for a third later today. Going to book my 1on1 later today when I have a better idea of some pertinent questions to ask. While it is still not 'being there" at the Kwoon, isn't the real question, "where am I and what am I doing?". If I am doing Kung Fu, does it matter that right now it is in my living room. Isn't it important that I am just doing Kung Fu, location be damned for now. Seeing the participation of fellow students during this time via Zoom warms my heart. I hope everyone keeps it up, I know the Bjorkquist clan will be there every step of the way. The new norm may stink, but just like my chance encounter yesterday with Sifu Beckett, when the new norm becomes a thing of the past, just think about how awesome - no, check that, awesome doesn't go far enough, just think how supercalifragilisticexpialidocious everything will be. The world will be awash with old sensations made new again. This isolation will hopefully have made us better humans, able to understand what has happen and make some positive changes for the future.

   Just think how those mats will feel the first time you set foot on them again, gives me chills. Every break fall, every slide step, every bow in bow out, new again. Seeing your fellow classmates, for real, the Alter, the pictures on the walls, the smell of the wood, all of it. I will savor it all like never before.

Miss you all.....

Are You Proactive or Reactive

  Are You Proactive or Reactive?


   I debate this all the time at my work with my boss, are we reacting to a situation or have we planned well enough for it that we are prepared? Most of the time it is reacting not pro-acting to a situation because predicting consumers wants and needs is almost impossible because of an infinite amount of outside factors ( weather, trends, supply chain, etc ). By reacting to a situation and not being prepared fully for the "needs" of the situation, profit is lost, manpower is wasted, customers get frustrated. Definitively not the best way to do business, but it happens everyday and is unavoidable in most cases. Now to step back and look at this personally.
  
   Am I a reactive or proactive person? Do I plan ahead or do I knee jerk and run out in fear because I am afraid of shortages or running out of something? I like to think I am proactive. I like to believe I have thought about my family and their/my needs and planned accordingly. With what is going on in the world right now, that is being put to the test.
   Today I got a little bit of a shock. I use spud.ca for some online ordering of food for home delivery. It's a great service, delivered to your door weekly, fresh local ( when possible ) produce and bakery goods. Works great, good quality products, very friendly people, helps local producers ( when in season ). Well I went online this morning to place my weekly order and BOOM, this weeks delivery trucks are all full! My weekly order is now 2 weeks away. At first I was annoyed, then I wasn't. It occurred to me that more people are using this service than ever before because of this current crisis and that is a good thing, people are trying to stay at home as much as possible to slow the spread of this virus. Again I say, that's a good thing. It has adjusted my thinking a little because that tells me more people are finally taking this more seriously. Good!
   Now I sit back and think to myself, if need be, how long are we good for in our house before we start to run out of some of the essentials? Hmmm, time to do an inventory, I guess I am not as proactive as I had hoped.

   "How does this relate to my Kung Fu" I ask myself. Well, Kody ( my son ) started Kung Fu at Silent River in September of 2008, Deb ( my wife ) and I started in March of 2014. So for the last 12 ( Kody ) and 6 ( Deb and I ) years of our collective lives, Silent River Kung Fu has been an intricate part of our lives. The people, the training hall ( Kwoon ), the joys and challenges faced in class, the triumphs and defeats, all of it, woven into who we are and who we have become because of Master Brinker and his absolute super human drive to bring this treasure to us. And now the new reality sinks in.............
   Online classes. This is a reality I never thought would be necessary. Luckily, Master Brinker was proactive enough to not only be prepared for this, but up and running IMMEDIATELY! That is proactivity ( made up word ) at it's best. Since the school's last class on Tuesday, I have already seen 3 info meetings and 1 I Ho Chuan class. That level of preparedness by Master Brinker and his top notch instructors is amazing. Thank you for that!
   Now, am I prepared to use this new powerful tool?  Doing as checklist, audio/video, check, space to do Kung Fu, small check ( there a 3 of us doing this in a 12'x8'ish area ), time to do this, HUGE CHECK, and most importantly, willingness to attempt to put at least as much effort into this new reality as Master Brinker and all of our awesome instructors have put into this, INFINITY CHECK!! While I will miss the interaction and comradery that the in-person classes bring, I am intrigued and excited to switch to an online format. Time for this old dog to learn some new tricks, arf.

   So back to my initial question, are you proactive or reactive? Are you the hand extended offering help, or the hand reaching for help? Asking for help is not a bad thing if you learn from it. Offering help is only good if it needed and wanted, not forced. Be your best right now to others, and most importantly, be safe.

See you soon

A little this, a little that...

   By my reckoning, this is day 51 ( 7%ish gone, 93%ish left ) of the Year of the Rat, day 51 on a year long journey, day 51 towards reaching my "goals" set forth by Master Brinker and myself, so where am I now? Well, my numbers seem to be moving steadily along ( summary at the end ), of course they are not where I would like them to be, but are they ever?


   Mania.. We are all being affected by the current mania about "COVID-19", I call it mania (Mania is the Greek word for madness. It is derived from mainmai, to rave in anger) for a reason. So many people are so quick to take the latest media blitz as "the Truth". So quick to overreact ( toilet paper ), so quick to panic, so quick to believe the latest social media "dump", without taking a breath and a moment to step back and understand what is truly going on.  Yes these are troubling times indeed, but more because of the Mania being caused by the uninformed or misinformed. If you haven't read Master Brinker's post on this, do it. A calm educated voice in a storm like this is what we all need.



   Stepping up... a couple of really positive things are happening because of all this. If you haven't read my wife's post , you should. She talks about a person in our neighborhood who posted on our local site that if anyone is self isolated or unable to go out and needs anything from the local stores, they would be more than happy to do this for them. WOW, that's what this world needs more of right now!!
   Second, cleaning of the training hall. This really concerned me that in order to stay open during these times, the training hall would need to be cleaned constantly and thoroughly like never before, and that only a handful of people would step up to do this. So far I am happy to say my fears where unfounded! Between the mopping, sanitizing, sweeping and general cleaning, we actually seem to have more people willing to help than jobs to do!! Way to step it up fellow Kung Fu'es, it makes me feel more that ever how awesome the people at Silent River Kung Fu truly are.



   On that note, did we as a school what to start an initiative, like my neighbor did, and offer help to those who need someone to pick up some groceries ( or other things ) for them? I know this opens up Pandora's box, there would be many details to discuss, but I wonder if the time is right to do something outside of box so to speak. I would love to hear people's thoughts on this, it feels to me like the right thing to do at this time. Please think it over, or at least think what you can do personally to help those who need it right now. It doesn't necessarily need to be school related, but I wanted to put this out there because I would rather be part of the solution instead of doing nothing and being part of the problem.




Now the Numbers... dun dun dahhhhhhh ( insert ominous music here )

Push ups  7080/50000

Sit ups   7125/50000

Sparring   220/1000

1609KM   453.2km/1609km

1000 AOK   235/1000

Hand Form   192/1000

Weapon Form   194/1000

Personal

Kicks   760/10000

Many more are weather dependent ( -24C this morning )