What is going on in this picture? I’m the one on the right.
Well, I was having a special moment with Shifu Shi Yan-Ming, a master of the Shaolin Kung Fu tradition. Our conversation was part of the Rubin Brainwave festival. I was fascinated to hear about his life, from the age of 5, as a Shaolin monk, training in the most rigorous Kung Fu discipline. The title of our conversation was “Discipline as Art” and as was obvious from his demonstration on stage, his physical prowess is impressive and beautiful. You can sense the focused energy he devotes to his art, the discipline of Kung Fu.
In many ways, my conversation with Shifu (an honorific indicating a master in martial arts) was an action meditation, an illustration of how he thinks about his place and relationship with the world.
Me, asking about his feats of Kung Fu training: “Why did you learn to break a brick with your head?”
Shifu, with a laugh: “Someone asked me to!”
Me: “How do you talk to your students about overcoming obstacles in their life, about dealing with emotional challenges?”
Shifu: “I tell them to just do it!”
Like Kung Fu, his philosophy is action-oriented and full of focused energy. When facing obstacles in your life – just do it. Nobody changes you, you change yourself.
Reblogged this on 범천오피〔girlie〕밤전오피방 and commented:
good!
Thank you for the reblog!
Reblogged this on 평촌오피〔girlie〕밤전미러룸 and commented:
hehe
“I tell them to just do it!” How Fascinating.
good post, just do it! simple but effective.
Amazing!