The secret of becoming the invincible warrior

So after all the troubles, anticipations and build-ups, the secret technique written in the holy dragon scroll has finally been revealed. Po, Master Sifu and the furious fives held their breath, anxiously waiting for the most powerful technique in all Martial Arts to be the only hope for defeating the unstoppable Tai Lung. They only found themselves awestruck after a beam of metaphorical light radiating as the scroll opened, then vanished into the thin air as if the enlightenment was only a sweet lie.

The movie Kungfu Panda has had many inspirations that came from eastern philosophy. The best martial art technique is when you let go of the thought of 'techniques' and start to just be in the moment, setting free from any physical forms of styles and techniques. The dragon scroll was just a blank scroll with nothing written on it conveying the message that the best technique is 'no technique'. It is beyond any thoughts of having to physically do something when the reality is really in the head.  In other words, the reason why Mr Ping's noodle tasted so good wasn't because of any secret ingredient that he invented, it was his belief that the sauce was special. Hence, everything else he did was given a new meaning. It is to let go of thinking what to do and just start being and let the action takes it's own course. 

What does it take to become a truly invincible warrior? Martial Art skills are definitely a very useful tool, yet it can never make anybody invincible. We can search all we want trying to come up with new techniques and new systems. There are a lot of good street fighters out there who can own anybody in a no holds bar street fight. Practicing techniques and getting stronger and more fearless is one path of becoming invincible. It is also a long difficult path that no one has ever succeeded in. You have to go through each and everyone in the fight, then go through each and every scenarios. It will just take forever assuming you don't age nor get injured in the process of doing it. Needless to say, you still have to work on how to catch bullets after you are done fighting bare hand. 

What if there is a different pathway to become truly invincible? It is short and easy yet most of us don't see it while trying so hard on other pathways? The true invincibility isn't relative, it is absolute. Therefore, you don't need to win any fights to prove you are truly invincible. Truth invincibility is becoming a master of your own life. It is about creating a reality that there is no opponents, no enemies to fight. There is no need to win anything, therefore there is no such thing as losing.

During the warring states period in ancient China, The king of Wei Kingdom came to Meng Tze asking for advice in such a difficult time. He said "Our kingdom was once very strong, but now in my time we are going down. We lost to Qi kingdom on the east side. I even lost my son there. On the west, we lost lots of lands to Qin Kingdom. Chu Kingdom from the south keeps harassing us too. This is so shameful. I want to avenge all of my losses, what can I do? Please help me, teacher!"

Meng Tze replied "All you need is only 100 square miles to call yourself king. If you are kind to your people, love them as if they are your children, reduce taxes, encourage all the young people to make time to do more act of kindness to one another, to respect the elders and to be happy, then they will fight for you even if they have to make their own weapons." Meng Tze continued "The other kings are doing the exact opposites now. They are all about conquering, exploiting and killing. Look at how miserable the lives of their people are. Who wouldn't want to overthrow their kings? So if you are kind and passionate, fill your heart with love and kindness, you are the invincible king."

Hence, it is where the idea comes from. If we are kind to others, accepting ourselves and other people, always ready to learn and share with others, we are going to have only friends. The might of one person is limited no matter how strong he is, but if he has friends on his back, he is much stronger. We don't have to do anything to manipulate others into liking us, we can simply just be a kind person who treats others with respect and seeks nothing in return. Such people, whether they know martial arts or not, are truly invincible.

In fact, martial arts aren't about fighting and physically dominating other person. A true martial art master will teach discipline, respect, honor and compassion before teaching any physical techniques. It is no surprise that meditation has always been closely tight to martial art's training traditionally. It helps transforming ourselves to let go of our desire to compare, to create mental chaos in the event of setbacks. It helps us to become the person who shares and offers freely without asking anything in return, to focus on what we love without needing to impress others,  and to have the strength to stand by what we believe in. 

It is the purpose behind every action that creates the world that each of us lives in. When martial arts become it's own money making industry, it starts to change its flavor. There is judgement based on trophies and sales revenues, hence lots of politics have been created in the martial arts community. It is taking us further away from the path of becoming truly invincible because we start looking for it in the wrong place --- our egos.

Be truly invincible, let go of our egos and practice the art with an open mind and a kind heart. Make martial art a way of life, not a way of fulfilling the ego.

May we all succeed in the path towards becoming a true warrior. 

True learning occurs only when empty the thinking mind

Throughout my journey in learning and acquiring experiences in this life time, I have always been bound by my ego, my own emotion. My parents had been telling me about that ever since I was a child. I never took failures well, and I filled myself with pride and ego. This was something me and my grand mother had in common. Although I was able to see all of the pain and suffering that she brought upon herself until her last days in this world, I couldn't see that I was doing the same thing to myself.

Walking the martial art's journey under the control of my ego was a very long hard road. I was exceptional at doing what I could do, but it wasn't enough according to my ego. I needed to make sure that I was the best among others. I liked to size people up and trying to analyze about who would be a stronger fighter. I was constantly in my head trying to prove my greatness. I was good at doing it because I was faster and more technical. However, I couldn't handle setbacks. I am not talking about losing a match or a sparring fight. I mean I couldn't even handle being hit once or twice in the face. It not only made me look bad, but also made me want to get even. My head would instantly be filled with thoughts and ideas that my opponent was laughing at me, others thought that I sucked after all. When my head was filled with negative emotions, there was no way I could be learning anything. There was simply no space for the learning to occur. A simple practice drill would turn into a brawl because my ego took things too personally. What's worse was that this negativity wasn't over after the practice. My ego would view other people as potential competitions instead of training partners or friends. Not only I wasn't learning when I could've, I was also creating potential competitions and getting rid of potential friends in all of my social interactions. 

The ego doesn't just control one area of my life, but it controls all. I filled my head with the same kind of ego training martial arts as well as my relationship with people at work, with friends and love. 

Being a big fan of Bruce Lee, I admired his martial art skills and his spirits, but I never understood his philosophy. His famous phrase 'Empty your mind!' sounded just like craps I used hear all the time watching Chingese Kung Fu Fantasy movies. Admiring Bruce Lee simply became another way to satisfy my ego. 

I came across it from an old friend who carried such a loving energy around that I just couldn't help wanting to be with him. He was the channel for my venting. Though I wasn't aware of it, I wanted to experience the peace, specially that calmness that came right after I finished my venting. The secret of living such a peaceful life starts with doing meditation, according to him. Ever since then, it has been a big help in my life. By being able to just sit quietly for 30 mins per day, seeing all of the things that have been going on inside my head without getting attached to it has given me a brand new prospective about life that I was completely blind. It has been making me more aware of myself, my inner world. After all, the world that I am experiencing now is merely just a reflection of the world inside of myself. 

One day, the idea of 'Empty your mind' just seemed to make sense all of the sudden. Every moment, every interaction in life is an opportunity for me to learn something. Ego prevents me from doing it because my ego 'knows everything better'. In reality, it only gets in the way.

Now, I approach martial art training with a brand new prospective. Others are no longer the competitions that I had to go through, they are all there to help me learn and get better. That is all. Surprisingly, with the new attitude in mind, I get hit more often, I get choked, submitted more often than before. From time to time, my ego awakens to make me feel terrible. The old desire of wanting to get back on other reappears. Meditation has helped me to watch the emotion and let go. This is how I empty my mind. Be an open book, let go of the identity that I was supposed to be better. Then, magic starts to happen. Not only I enjoy more in my training because the potential setbacks are no longer a problem, I was also having better relationships with others. We start to learn from each other. I was amazed that there are so much more out there that I don't know about but didn't care to know. 

This is the real shift that I have noticed from within myself. I feel more generous, more genuine and more opened. The external world that I am perceiving starts to shift too. Having more friends, more career success, better network of people and more martial art improvement are just some of the byproducts that comes along.

It starts to make sense why traditional Asian martial arts have always incorporate forms of meditation in their training. It is designed to empty the mind, set free from the ego, this is the only way to achieve the true mastery in martial arts and in life as well. 

It is a long journey, but a journey we are all going through. Therefore I quote Bruce Lee once again: "Empty Your Mind! Be Water, My friend!"