Let It Be.

 

A bit of a tenuous link actually, if I’m honest.

 

Over the last week I have had the greatest pleasure in giving seminars over in Pennsylvania, at Lancaster Wing Chun (oh, and if you are in that area, I do recommend you get make contact).

 

There, I met with a wonderful group of practitioners, all training with the same goals in mind and all enjoying their journey, mostly encouraged (of which I am certain), by the guidance of their teacher, Nick Stephens.

It was a joy for me to meet with faces I had seen MANY times before, but only through our livestream classes at WingChun.Online having not yet had the chance to link arms with them in person, and it was so good to see that the online program really works!

 

We had students coming from Philadelphia and New York, and even flying in from Chicago, and an old student who had trained under me in the UK when he was just seventeen years old, he flew in from Utah, and to be honest, I think he enjoyed telling me that he is now forty-five years old and married with a family, thanks for making me feel old, Ben.  🙂

 

A nice question was asked when I was being driven to the school one day, probably because I’m from the UK (and probably because of my working-class upbringing), I was asked if I liked the Beatles (Yes, I do, by the way), I only mention this because, how ironic that this thought had come to mind in writing this blog, ‘Let it be’.

 

So, now we get to the main bit of the post…

 

I was playing Siu Lim Tau one morning in my hotel room, as I waited for collection to spend the day training/teaching, I started to think of questions that may be asked of me during this trip.

 

Much of the usual stuff came to mind:

‘How/where should the weight be distributed throughout the foot when in your stance?’

‘What amount of bend on the knees?’

‘How about the rotation of the hips and engagement of the pelvis?’

‘Where should I be thinking with regards my overall posture?’

‘Where should we be looking?’

So on and so forth…

 

And with this in mind, I started to play the Form while asking these questions of myself, and I must admit, I played the Form beautifully, not to any spectators (as there were none there), but to/for myself, and the reason for this was that I had just, Let it be.

 

The weight share in my feet was neither on the heels or in the toes, it was shared, likewise for my overall balance and posture, I was happy, I was balanced, I had also stopped asking questions of the Form and, as I said, just, Let it be.

 

I remember my Sifu (GM Ip Chun), telling me that in Chi Sau, there are, Three stages of learning:

Stage 1. When a new student first walks into my school, they have no knowledge of Wing Chun and therefore they require no thought in using it as defence.

Stage 2. The second stage is when you begin to learn your skills, and this is the dangerous stage as you will make lots of mistakes (a little knowledge is a dangerous thing), but you keep practicing, and each time we learn something new, we return to this second stage, repeatedly.

Stage 3. The third stage is when you begin to react naturally, defending effortlessly, and once again without thought, just as you were when you first walked through the door.

 

This third stage is the very thing we should be searching for when training, to get to a point where no thought is required and we just let it happen (or, Let it be), and not just as a Chi Sau reference but for Forms too, and in fact, as a guide for life in general.

 

In life there are so many things we let upset us, even when we have the ability to let go of these things, we do not.

 

I recently read something from Charlie Chaplin I found very interesting, this is what I read:

 

Charlie Chaplin once told a joke in front of an audience.

Everyone laughed so he told it a second time, this time only a few laughed.

When he told it for the third time, no one laughed.

Then he said something beautiful.

If you can’t laugh and laugh at the same joke, why do you cry and cry at the same pain and sorrow?

So, enjoy every moment of your life – Charlie Chaplin left a great legacy without saying a word or hurting anyone’s feelings.

We remember these phrases that touch the heart.

Nothing in this life is permanent, not even our Problems.

I love walking in the rain so no one can see my tears.

The day you waste the most in your life is the day you don’t laugh.

 

 

My thanks to all at Lancaster Wing Chun

See you again next year.