The Master and His Son

There was once a great Kung Fu fighter… as years went by he learned much not only about his own system but about the systems of other fights.

He realized that many techniques, qi kung, ideas about fighting, energy and the like were held in common, but there was not a single form that was the same from one style to the next.

One day the fighter had an epiphany; that forms were nonsense, styles were nonsense, and even adherence to techniques were nonsense. So many different styles had developed so many different types of techniques – after the method of any animal or anything to be mimicked – that any part of the body could be used as a striking surface. This reality was in fact a great secret that the most advanced masters guarded from their disciples; believing that knowledge of this would cause them much trouble before they attained the highest levels of understanding with wisdom.

The fighter began to teach this way and though he had been heir to a great system of Kung Fu, he taught his own son this method of formlessness.

…but this reality, while true, was unattainable to the son who did not have the years of form that his father had as foundation. He believed his father, that all of this was unnecessary, until he found himself in need of martial skill. Yet the teachings of his father failed him because he did not have form as a foundation.

…the father too, over many years, came to see all of his top students – those who originally learned form, styles, techniques, and so on – diminish in skill. In the past he had scoffed at the old fools who gathered together in the parks and ran the same form over and over, every morning; who did the same qi kung exercise over and over in ma bu, for one hour every day.

But as the man got older he learned much about the nature of fighting itself, but never developed the high level of skill that those repetitive old men developed. He came to learn too late, after squandering many years without form and system, that had he fused his understanding of formlessness with the framework of form then he would have attained completion. This is because formlessness without form is useless and form without formlessness is a prisoner. Yet merely understanding this was not enough to produce any accomplishment. He then, at the end, imparted this to his son, but he son would no longer listen to him or trust in his advice; seeing as how it had failed him in the past.

Let us learn the lessons upon hearing the story of this man, so that we do not walk in his footsteps.