Compassionate Honesty

Every teacher has their teaching methods. Likewise, every student has their learning methods. Since the teacher is teaching multiple students, it is impossible for them to find a teaching method that will work for each and every student. However if the students learn to be flexible and adapt their learning method to suit the teacher's teaching method, everyone progresses. It is no coincidence that one of the most common attributes of a black belt is adaptability.

Feedback, an essential element in teaching, is only effective if it is received openly by the student. If the student gets defensive and attempts to invalidate the feedback, the lesson is lost. Excluding the students who will always be impossible to reach, the way feedback is delivered is the biggest determining factor on how the feedback is received.

Most teachers are never lacking in compassion. We see ourselves in our students and we take responsibility for their progress. We spend a lot of time empathizing with our students and looking for ways to inspire them to open their minds and believe in themselves. Sometimes in all that compassion, the lesson can be lost.

A key component to compassionate teaching is honesty. I am my students' eye for detail. My experience helps me see their strengths, their weaknesses, and most importantly — their potential. My compassionate honesty is essential to open their minds to see what I see.

“If someone is able to show me that what I think or do is not right, I will happily change, for I seek the truth, by which no one was ever truly harmed. It is the person who continues in his self-deception and ignorance who is harmed.” - Marcus Aurelius (121 - 180 A.D.)

Connecting the Dots

Journalling has never been an easy undertaking for me. My thoughts and ideas tend to be very abstract in nature and I would describe many of my decisions and strategies to be intuition based. Obviously my intuition is based upon the sum of my experiences but that experiential knowledge resides more at a subconscious level making it difficult for me to provide logical explanations and justifications for the decisions I make and the value system that influences them. Hence why journalling is such and arduous task for me.

Rewind to six years ago. My friend and mentor, Tom Callos, convinced me to commit to a weekly journalling routine. Not something I wanted to do but my respect for Tom inspired me to go outside my comfort zone and trust his advice that weekly journalling is an important tool of mastery.

Fast forward to today. Weekly journalling is no easier for me today than it was when I started six years ago. In fact it is a little more difficult. I continue to struggle to find my voice and temper my postings so that they serve more than just a venue to vent my rage and frustrations. The world is not even close to being perfect but there are constructive and non-divisive ways of addressing the issues I am passionate about. I am learning and my progress continues to be slow but steady.

Despite the difficulty I face in journalling every week, the benefits I have realized by using this tool have been spectacular. I often talk to my students about expanding their vocabulary of motion and in that vein I have found weekly journalling has expanded my vocabulary when it comes to defining the benefits of kung fu.

A tool is only useful as such if you use it. I have used my journalling tool 299 times in the last six years. I have journaled about politics, the environment, mental health, kung fu, pets, and life in general. My postings haven't all been gems but each one served its purpose by helping me find my voice and learn what has gone into making me who I am.

“Words are the voice of the heart.” - Confucious (551 - 479 BC)

Perpetual Victims

Some people are difficult to help. These people tend to be perpetual victims of circumstance. Things are never quite right for them as they struggle, too focused on things that are not perfect to notice all the opportunities they have in front of them. It is easy to get trapped in a cycle of self-imposed helplessness where it is easier to find excuses than solutions.

There is a proverb that says - "He who cannot dance claims the floor is uneven." The difference between success and failure often comes down to honesty. If I look at myself in the mirror and see myself for exactly who I am, and take responsibility for that person, I will work diligently to fix those things I know about myself that I do not like. If I am not honest, I will only see what I want to see and blame outside influences when reality does not mesh with my ideal construct. In essence, I victimize myself.

"Ninety-nine percent of failures come from people who have the habit of making excuses." - George Washington Carver (1864 - 1943)

Ego

There are those who want to get a black belt and there are those who are a black belt. The difference is found in their approach after that black belt is tied around their waist.

Being a black belt is all about mastery. and mastery is more than discipline and hard work. There has to be a resonating purpose behind the efforts of a master because mastery is not the blind pursuit of knowledge, it is about understanding and awareness.

This is the time of year that I put a lot of thought into what type of black belts I am trying to produce. A person only earns that rank once so it is important that I get it right. I want my students to recognize that their actions can serve them or their actions can serve their ego. That difference in perspective will determine if the student gets a black belt or becomes a black belt.

“The Ego is not who you really are. The ego is your self-image; it is your social mask; it is the role you are playing. Your social mask thrives on approval. It wants control, and it is sustained by power, because it lives in fear.” - Deepak Chopra (b. 1947)

Boot Camp 2013

Yesterday was one of my favourite days of the year - Boot Camp day. It is a day of challenge, opportunity, and inspiration. There is nowhere else you could find a better bunch of people gathered together with such positive intent than Keephills yesterday.

Certain circumstances prevented me from attending every seminar but I could tell that everyone had a great time. My students are extremely fortunate that we have such a strong base of skilled, dedicated black belts to allow us to put this event together every year.

The real value of the boot camp is realized when the students are able to take the vast variety of knowledge they were exposed to and apply it, over the long term, to their training.

“Many of life's failures are experienced by people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up.” - Thomas Edison (1847 - 1931)

Spirit Versus Letter

Summer is almost half over. It is amazing how quickly the time slips by. There is a lot going on and when you get into only putting out fires, mindful living becomes difficult.

SRKF's annual Black Belt Grading is coming up fast and I am thankful for the great group of black belts that make up our grading board. We have a total of 28 degrees between the seven of us and I value the unique insights that each one brings to the table. Our grading process continues to evolve and improve each year but the last three years have seen the biggest improvement to the process because of the infusion of the fresh perspectives of three new members.

Grading someone for their black belt is not an easy process. Every requirement from white belt to black belt serves a purpose. Each requirement's purpose is that of a tool – a tool to be used to build the skill and experience necessary to create a quality black belt. The grading becomes a challenge when the requirements are approached as hoops for measuring achievement as opposed to the tools for which they were intended. The most limiting approach anyone can take is that of striving for the letter of the requirement as opposed to the spirit of the requirement.

What creates confusion for the student is when what is considered a pass for one student may not be a pass for another student. It is easy to think that way when you ignore the hoop versus tool and letter versus spirit approaches. Once you recognize and achieve the correct perspective in your training, comparisons lose their relevance.

In a nutshell, every requirement is a tool to achieve the six harmonies. It is the job of the grading board to help each student utilize every tool at their disposal to develop the correct skill that produces the necessary results.

"He kept explaining to us reasons why things can’t get done. It infuriates me." - Steve Jobs (1955 - 2011)

Form Versus Application

Form is an integral part of the martial arts, in fact form is the one thing that makes a martial art an art. There are the forms we learn, Kempo, Lao Gar, Da Mu Hsing — their practice give us the base upon which our style is built. But form is also found in the way we teach applications. The subtle movements of an application, along with the theory and thought process that supports the movement, make up the form of the application. This form is the base upon which every variation of the applied application is based.

Ego is a major interfering factor when it comes to approaching a martial art as an art. It is our ego that limits our understanding and limits our receptiveness to higher level learning. Ego-based practitioners focus on application first and form second.

An application is only an application for a very specific list of parameters. Opponent grabs me here, I shift my weight, turn their arm, and take them down. Voila, it works. Now if my opponent grabs me over there then I learn another application to respond. I keep learning new applications to address specific scenarios. If someone attacks me outside my learned defences, I am on my own.

Form is the idea and logic behind the application. Motions are exaggerated to reinforce the subtleties of the application so that it is technique and not brute strength that addresses the situation. A person who learns form is actually learning an infinite number of applications where they just have to adapt their core knowledge to the specific situation. Their defence is not based upon a set number of memorized responses but rather a single fundamental idea. Their response is a continually in flux as the parameters of the attack change.  A person who only learns application is very limited in their response because the natural flow from one application to another is not supported by a cohesive base.

Form versus application? The ego decides.

"A goal is not always meant to be reached, it often serves simply as something to aim at." - Bruce Lee (1940 - 1973)