Since the very beginning of my life, I used to spend a lot of time in an inside world, using my mind to explore everything it can reach. What happens when moving at light speed? Is there a life after death? Does love have an end? What the f*ck are these UFOs?!
All my life, this questioning/imagining state of mind became a help, sometimes a gift, often a shield. Protecting me from loneliness and pain. This is the good side. There’s also a dark one: I was never really in the present. Somewhere in the middle of all these questions, one comes with a beautiful hope : do super-humans exist?
Meeting Super-humans
And one day, I saw this thing the common human would not believe. I saw an old skinny man dealing with a guy 2 times bigger in size.
One move and the big guy flew!
It was made so effortlessly, that it broke something in my heart. Something like the third law of Newton. And I knew immediately that this old Chu Shong Tin was holding an incredible power, exactly such as super-humans! I had my answer. And like all these superhero stories, the message was the same : it’s for everyone.
Wing Chun in my life
So I felt Wing Chun in my life. And it came with his little idea and the words of the dragon Bruce Lee ‘‘water can flow, water can crash, be water my friend’’. I discovered a truth I had already met before, especially with love, soft can bit hard. What a wonderful world.
So here is Siu Lim Tao. And yes, my life has changed because it takes a huge amount of my wakened hours! I am still travelling in an inside world, but the inside is my own body now. Every time I can. When brushing my teeth, playing badminton, painting a bench, cooking, lifting anything, I always repeat to myself ‘‘relax, rise up, relax, rise up..’’. I also try to use hands and feet at the same time, for instance to close a door, pushing it slightly with my foot, when actionning the handle with my hand. Actually, I use my feet far more than before, trying to keep balance. Each morning I have the perfect test to my Wing Chun stance; the subway!
Finally, the most important thing that has changed is my state of mind. And when I forget all of this, making an uncomfortable motion like hitting a table accidentally, I automatically complain « Wow, this was not Wing Chun at all!
Before, I was crazy because I was always talking to myself. Now, I’m crazy and strange, because I’m standing. Just standing. It’s not rare to find me in a small piece of corridor, when the rest of the world is dreaming, in the middle of the night, looking at some imaginary point, standing there without moving for a long amount of time, in silence like a vampire in the dark. In the present.
Finally, the Nim Tao state is such as love. So difficult to reach, so difficult to keep, impossible to fully understand unless you live it, and containing one of the most beautiful and deep knowledge of life. Expressed by Musashi Miyamoto, the swordman poet from 500 years ago; “There is nothing out of yourself”.
Everything comes from inside.
Such as the heroes and super-humans!
Lou Chevry
Wow, well done Lou! There are some golden nuggets of experience and lessons in your writing and some areas that I know many of the CST and other martial art practitioners will connect and again insight from. Thank you for sharing!
For your efforts you will be sent a Chu Shong Tin gym bag, Vol. 1 Book, Idea Erect DVD and will also be invited to book in 3 private classes with one of our Sifu’s. Congratulations!