Summer came and went with the School continuing to grow.  We added a Parent/Child class on Tuesday evenings that has really taken off.  It is so fun watching families, parents, and their kids interact as they learn kung fu together.  As I have said before, with years working in youth ministry, social work, and child protective services, I wonder how many widespread and far reaching social, legal, and spiritual problems could be avoided if parents and kids sweated, punched, kicked, and grew together like we see at our School on a daily basis.  To all parents who take an active interest in their children and are willing to get off a couch and get on the mat, my love and respect go out to you. 

In much of the Christian world, this is the time of Lent, a time to reflect on certain Truths and perhaps to give up some luxuries as a way to help us focus on more spiritual goals and things more important than the everyday stuff we do.  I was reflecting how in kung fu (and doesn’t almost everything in some way reflect back to either spiritual growth, kung fu, or both?), we give up certain luxuries, such as coming home from work, eating a large triple cheese burger and settling on to the couch while the latest reality show keeps us interested.  In kung fu, we choose to consistently go against inertia and gravity, knowing that if we just make it through the door of the School, the collective energy will take over and we’ll be OK.  We give up certain foods because they are unhealthy and we know that a few extra pounds will make our forms slower and our stances higher.  We give up some social functions in order to go to the School during class times and work out.  We give up (or never start) smoking, excessive drinking or late night partying because we know that it will effect our overall kung fu.  Maybe more importantly, we give up or learn to control things such as ego, anger, envy, excessive pride and over confidence.  We learn to be more humble and how to defer to other students.  We learn to care more, give more, listen better, take feedback, give feedback, take sincere compliments, and we learn, simply through applying the ShaoLin principles in our daily lives, how to be more spiritual, caring, healthy; we could hopefully even say that we become better people all around.  In that light, “giving up” things for Lent or for kung fu isn’t such a burden after all. 

Sifu Bob Cummings

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