Kung Fu Zen

I couldn't help skimming through all of the "Kung Fu Quest" episodes last night. There are some good and bad effects from this. The bad effects are that watching people fight or even pretend to fight each other, has gotten me thinking about sparring again. To the point where when I saw an invitation to an "open fight night " a month ago, I ignored it. But now I can't stop thinking about it. Like it is some sort of drug or addiction. In my Mind it will be find if I show up and do my techniques as long as I wear big boxing gloves. Then it will be okay to do pows and cups right? Anyway so that's the bad.
The good comes mainly from watching the end f the Shaolin Epsiode. I liked how they addressed that SHaolin Temple's (the modern one) Kung fu is constantly being questioned due to commercialization etc. Like I said, I skimmed. The monk at the end, demonstrated some of his Kung Fu and it was different then what you normally see. You could vaguely see techniques, but he did it in a way that was like a highly trained person, doing moves as if they were somone who know longer knew Kung Fu. Liek they had "forgotten" technique. This idea is in various Kung Fu novels and also a part of our system and Bruce Lee talked about it as well. The technique of having no technique. But this monk really looked like he was doing what he was saying. In fact the only difference in the way I would do it, is that I would extend my arms longer. Then the real positive thing I got from him was his lecture on how to practice. And that is, the more you practice the happier you are (should be) That if you get sick or injured from practicing, then what is the point? It is supposed to improve your life, not make it worse. This is something I have struggled with for a long time and part of it can be summed up as "violence in the mind." In other words, he does his moves hard, but he is battling himself. Not battling himself but he is attempting to rid his mind of evil thought. I tried this today and found that I enjoyed my practice much more. It's not the first time I've done this, but I felt empowered by the monks words. (Btw he is practicing on a very nice mountain and I wouldn't mind practicing there all day at all.) Now I will admit too that violence still did creep into my practice at some points but I really focused on going away form that, while still putting power in my moves. It is difficult not to imagine an opponent. My goal, if I do spar with these ideas, would be to spar in a way that I was just doing my moves, but not sparring or fighting the other person. In other words, trying to maintain a meditative, even enlightened mindset, even in the middle of sparring or even fighting. So that sparring or even fighting is not sparring or fighting but a calm meditation. Much easier said than done.
I also really liked the Mongolian wrestling episode. A lot of the Mongolian wrestlers, like the monk, seemed to have this happy outlook on life in their martial art. It was a game they were playing. Never mind that there are know eye gouges and all that. Because when you think about the history of the Mongolian empire, real warriors, wrestled all the time, but real fighting took place on a horse with bows and arrows. So why Eye gouge or injure your fellow soldier when practicing?
Maybe it's because I was never really an athlete, and was never good at a sport and so never had that feeling of good clean competition. I always felt cheated and angry. The only physical activity I took to was Kung Fu and even then, when sparring I felt angered that others would either not let me do my technique, or would be doing dangerous things to me while complaining when I did the basic moves on them. In the beginning when I was learning and worse then everyone it was okay. But once I actually became good... that's when it became a problem. Maybe I need to pick up a new sport of some sort. But then I think about all my friends that have injured their knees and such from competing at things like basketball. Where as when I practice Kung Fu I am not competing. (though I used to compete against myself, and of course that does lead to injury.)