2018: Compassionate Hunter of Weakness

Happy New Year!

I thought I would continue the tradition of writing a little something that Kung Fu has taught me as one year ends and another begins. Since Cambridge Kung Fu began I have felt that the key thing that is important in life is to focus on being happy. This year I have understood that my understanding was incomplete, and it almost certainly still is, but I do feel that I have moved forward in an important way in this essential idea. As the American Constitution states it is self-evident that we all have the right to pursue happiness, but that is different from being happy. Being happy is something to be enjoyed fully when it comes along and there are ways of thinking, speaking & acting in the world that promote being happy, that is for sure. However life is tough and challenges will forever be faced. It is in this space that a deeper concept than happiness is found. The best word I have for this is meaning. Focusing my life towards living the most meaningful life optimises the amount of meaning I have in my life & where happiness escapes us in our dark times, meaning is still there. The meaningful thoughts, speech and, above all, actions that we engage in cannot leave us, they are our shield in the darkest times. One of my favourite books, which I read years ago but which I have understood more fully this year, is ‘Man’s search for Meaning’ by Viktor Frankl. This is a short and very accessible book written by a man who survived the Holocaust and who suffered far more than most have in their history. The principle conclusion he comes to in his book is that there is only one thing that it is possible not to have taken from you, and that is how you respond to what happens to you. He also concluded that our ability to respond with compassion regardless of what the challenge we face is directly related to the level of meaning we have in our lives and whether we are orientated towards an ever increasing amount of meaningfulness.

This year I have realised that far more important than any perceived level of attainment (whether truly attained or not), is whether as an individual we are directly challenging ourselves to be moving towards living a more meaningful life. I have realised that a meaningful life is achieved through voluntarily challenging ourselves to know ourselves better and better. To truly become aware of our strengths and our weaknesses and to understand that in any sort of competitive or combative environment we will fail at our weakest link. Focusing on our strengths is of course a great message and if you want success of any sort in your life than this is without doubt an important part of the puzzle but like happiness that fades away in the face of tragedy & malevolence, you will not fail because of one of your strengths, you will fall down because of one of your weaknesses. Choosing to become a ‘Compassionate Hunter of Weakness’ is the path of the Kung Fu student because we understand that we are only as strong as our weakest link. Being brave enough to take on this challenge takes tremendous courage, courage that must be honed so that it can be focussed where it is most needed – the integration or perhaps the shedding or burning off of our greatest weaknesses.

Kung Fu comes into play here as it is nothing more or less than a structured approach to becoming ever more courageous at taking responsibility for the weakness within us. Responsibility has nothing to do with blaming, one of my biggest weaknesses is looking to blame others, as I have become more aware of this I have found that I react to many negative situations with blame. Often realising only moments later that the person I was blaming was in no way responsible for what just happened, it was me. But again blaming myself is not helpful as it disintegrates, it does not help integrate. These ideas are of course in no way unique to Kung Fu, Yoga means Union, the goal of Yoga is become a unified person because an integrated or unified person is nothing more or less than the best version of themselves in the moment, and life is a series of moments and in each one we have the opportunity to respond in a strong compassionate way or react in a weak & fearful way.

Kung Fu means success achieved through hard work. The hard work which is being spoken of is the work that each individual must do if they want to live a meaningful life. The hard work is the work of becoming aware of our weakness and being resilient enough to stick to the weakness long enough to understand what needs to change within us to move forwards and not being continually contained by the same patterns which bring us down. I can only write this because I have so much weakness and that is so abundantly clear to me that it holds me back every day. I am certainly not writing this from a perspective of having attained something more than anyone else. However, having practised Martial Arts for 25 years now and having made their study my passion and my vocation, I can say that one of the paths that can provide the scaffolding needed to support our journey towards a more meaningful life is Kung Fu. Kung Fu allows us to incrementally face challenge over and over again so that we become skilful at facing and overcoming challenge and when these principles are applied to the individual challenges that we all face we have a chance at least of living a life of meaning, enabling us to face the challenges that stand in our way in the most courageous way that we are capable of.

As I am writing this, yesterday was the first day of our Christmas break, but because I am fortunate enough to love my work I was at work at 7am training in the country park near my house in Trumpington. When I am training I use this as an opportunity to practise an integration practise. For me this is picking up other people’s rubbish. My goal for next year is to focus more on taking responsibility for my environment and less on feeling angry with the world for containing people who drop rubbish.

Thank you for reading this & thank you for being part of Cambridge Kung Fu, either as a student or as a family member who supports our students.

Wishing you a successful 2019!
Best wishes,
Ross