- Be extremely subtle, even to the point of formlessness. Be extremely
mysterious, even to the point of soundlessness. Thereby you can be the
director of the opponent's fate.
- The softest things in the world overcome the hardest things in the world.
Through this I know the advantage of taking no action.
- He who knows does not speak.
Lao-tzu, The Way of Lao-tzu
- If training is hard, then winning will be easy, but if training is easy, then winning
will be hard. -Norman Harris
A Carrot, An Egg and a Cup of Coffee
A young woman went to her mother and told her about her life and how things were
so hard for her. She did not know how she was going to make it and wanted to give
up. She was tired of fighting and struggling. It seemed as one problem was solved, a
new one arose.
Her mother took her to the kitchen. She filled three pots with water and placed each
on a high fire. Soon the pots came to boil. In the first she placed carrots, in the
second she placed eggs, and in the last she placed ground coffee beans. She let
them sit and boil, without saying a word.
In about twenty minutes she turned off the burners.
She fished the carrots out and placed them in a bowl.
She pulled the eggs out and placed them in a bowl.
Then she ladled the coffee out and placed it in a bowl.
Turning to her daughter, she asked, "Tell me, what you see?"
"Carrots, eggs, and coffee," she replied. Her mother brought her closer and asked
her to feel the carrots.
She did and noted that they were soft. The mother then asked the daughter to take
an egg and break it.
After pulling off the shell, she observed the hard boiled egg. Finally, the mother
asked the daughter to sip the coffee. The daughter smiled as she tasted its rich
aroma. The daughter then asked, "What does it mean, mother?"
Her mother explained that each of these objects had faced the same adversity ...
boiling water. Each reacted differently. The carrot went in strong, hard, and
unrelenting. However, after being subjected to the boiling water, it softened and
became weak. The egg had been fragile. Its thin outer shell had protected its liquid
interior, but after sitting through the boiling water, its inside became hardened.
The ground coffee beans were unique, however. After they were in the boiling water,
they had changed the water.
"Which are you?" she asked her daughter. "When adversity knocks on your door,
how do you respond?
Are you a carrot, an egg or a coffee bean?"
Think of this: Which am I? Am I the carrot that seems strong, but with pain and
adversity do I wilt and become soft and lose my strength? Am I the egg that starts
with a malleable heart, but changes with the heat? Did I have a fluid spirit, but after a
death, a breakup, a financial hardship or some other trial, have I become hardened
and stiff? Does my shell look the same, but on the inside am I bitter and tough with a
stiff spirit and hardened heart?
Or am I like the coffee bean? The bean actually changes the hot water, the very
circumstance that brings the pain. When the water gets hot, it releases the fragrance
and flavor. If you are like the bean, when things are at their worst, you get better and
change the situation around you. When the hour is the darkest and trials are their
greatest, do you elevate yourself to another level? How do you handle adversity?
Are you a carrot, an egg or a coffee bean?
- The Master said, "I am thinking of giving up speech." Tzu-kung said, "If you do
not speak, what would there be for us, your disciples, to transmit?" The Master
said, "What does Heaven ever say? Yet there are the four seasons going round
and there are the hundred things coming into being. What does Heaven ever
say?"
- To put the world in right order,
to put the nation in order,
we must first put the family in order;
to put the family in order,
we must first cultivate our personal life;
we must first set our hearts right. Power of the Mind
Confucius
- He who wishes to secure the good of others has already secured his own.
- "What a gentleman worries about is to not leave a good reputation after
his death. If my proposal cannot be applied, what contribution do I have to
leave a good name for the society?"
- In his youth, Master Moo Kwang was returning home one night after practicing
with his bow and arrow. When he approached the entrance to the village at the
South Mountain, he saw a huge tiger waiting to attack him and his horse. The
Master thought, "The tiger is hungry and will kill us. Even if I run, the tiger will
chase us down. The only alternative is to shoot the tiger with my bow and arrow
before he attacks." He quickly pulled out an arrow and, taking careful aim, shot
straight towards the tiger. After shooting, he turned and rushed towards his
home. He arrived there safely and concluded that because he didn’t hear the
tiger chase him home he must have killed it with his arrow.
The next morning, at sunrise, the Master went to South Mountain where he had shot
the tiger the night before. There he saw a large rock shaped like a tiger with his
arrow embedded in it. At first he was surprised that his arrow had penetrated a hard
rock, and then his mind became arrogant and he believed that no one could match
his strength and skill with a bow and arrow. The Master tried to shoot an arrow into
the rock a second time, but it struck the rock and bounced off to the ground.
Last night, the Master was shooting from the level of the mind. In the life or death
situation, he determined that his arrow should penetrate into the tiger’s bone, no
matter how hard it was. The power of the mind was what put the arrow into the rock. If
the mind is in original mind, we can display the whole power of our techniques. The
ultimate aim of the martial artist is to reach this level of the mind-world. When this
level is reached, we can truly be called Masters.
- Tzu Hsia said: “Someone who day by day gains awareness of his deficiencies,
and month by month doesn’t forget what he has become proficient in, can really
be called a lover of learning.”
- Mencius said: “People are eager to comment on something when they
themselves are not in the situation of doing it.”
- Mencius said: “Only when someone refuses to do certain things will he be
capable of doing great things.”
The Woodcutter
The following old story is one of the best examples to understand harmony with
nature. A famous thief escaped from jail and to escape the authority he had to hide in
the woods. As he was running, he stumbled upon a lumberjack. This lumberjack had
worked in the woods since he was very young and was an expert with the axe.
The thief, feeling he had nothing to fear, let himself be seen by the lumberjack. The
lumberjack recognized the thief immediately because he was so well known. As soon
as lumberjack saw the thief, the lumberjack thought that “If I kill him and bring his
head to the authorities, I will get a reward and never have to work in the forest again.”
But the thief, being so good, had trained in reading people's minds and knew exactly
what the lumberjack was thinking and told the lumberjack, "You are thinking about try
to kill me now."
The lumberjack was so stunned he did not know what to do. So he started cutting a
tree again. He thought "How can the thief read my mind? I don't understand."
The thief again told him what he was thinking. "You have given up to trying to kill me
because you know I can read your mind now."
By this time, the lumberjack was so stunned he just could not think and so he kept on
cutting the tree. The thief started laughing, but suddenly, the lumberjack threw the
axe, catching the thief on his head.
The thief lived long enough to tell the lumberjack “I' could not I read your mind?"
Then he died.
The reason the thief could not read the lumberjack's mind was because the
lumberjack had lived so long in the woods cutting the trees with the axe, that he had
developed harmony between his mind, body and axe. He had so stunned by the
thief's reading his mind that he couldn’t harmonize between his mind and body. But
being in harmony with himself and his axe, before he knew what was doing, he had
thrown the axe at the thief, killing him. The thief could not read the lumberjack's mind
because the lumberjack did not know he was going to throw the axe until after he
threw it.
- "If you do what you've always done, you'll get what you've always gotten."
- "In order to achieve victory you must place yourself in your opponent's
skin. If you don't understand yourself, you will lose one hundred percent
of the time. If you understand yourself, you will win fifty percent of the
time. If you understand yourself and your opponent, you will win one
hundred percent of the time." - Tsutomu Oshima -
- "To spend time is to pass it in a specified manner. We are spending it
during lessons just as we are spending it now in conversation. To waste
time is to expend it thoughtlessly and carelessly. We all have time to
either spend or waste and it is our decision what to do with it. But once
passed, it is gone forever." - Bruce Lee -
- By developing an upright mind and a strong body, we will acquire the self-
confidence to stand on the side of justice at all times
- "Sword and mind must be united. Technique by itself is insufficient, and
spirit alone is not enough."
- Talk less than you listen. Say less than you know. Act as if you are less
than you actually are. Understand that what you know is far less than
what you don’t know and what you have to teach is far less than what you
have to learn. This will enable you to appreciate your own true worth and
the value of others from whom you can learn. It is the first step to being
real.
- Information well practiced becomes knowledge. Knowledge judiciously
applied becomes wisdom.
- "A black belt is nothing more than a belt that goes around your waist.
Being a black belt is a state of mind and attitude."
- 1. Allow your opponent to walk away with dignity.
Phil Miano
| FOOD FOR THOUGHT |
| Special Thanks to all who have donated their time, recommendations and material to help make this site the best website source on the Chang Huhn Patterns. |
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