Kung Fu: The Difference Between a Master and a Fool
"Daddy, why is he all alone?"
Uhhh.
Leave it to a six-year-old to bring out your inner moron right in the middle of Daniel Larusso's karate training montage (The Karate Kid, 1984). The question caught me completely by surprise. He's training, I wanted to say. But he didn't ask what Daniel was doing; he asked why he was alone. And that caused some serious and surprising reflection.
"A fool may live all his life in the company of a master and still miss the way." So says Buddha, and he's right. Even expert instruction from the world's most gifted mentor will never give us their skill. Kung fu's great secret is in the words themselves: it is literally "masterful ability that comes through the work of one, lone person." That person is you or I.
True, most of us begin by hoping for some dusting of the master's transformative magic, that sheer association with him or her will short-cut the process and atone for our own wavering commitment and lack of resolve. And while there is some merit in finding such a teacher, Nature does not so easily dole out her gifts to the half-hearted seeker. Everything has its price. True mastery requires action - lots of it.
Maybe that is why my undergraduate BFA advisor didn't give me technical advice when I asked how to paint with pen and ink. He just looked at me with that mischievous grin and commanded, "Well, go get some paper and ink and get started then." He wasn't interested in bogging me down with tips and tricks and tidbits of information when I didn't even have the materials handy. I was busy fretting about my firstpainting while he was wisely (albeit annoyingly) trying to get me to do my 300th. He knew that none of his answers would really help me until I gained my own concrete experience.
The same goes for every worthwhile endeavor. Step by sometimes-agonizing-sometimes-exciting step, a master tells you where to dig for your own mastery. The fool contents himself with knowing where it is. The seeker digs for it. And digging is what yields the reward: opportunities, experiences, and understanding that have always been there, but just beneath that first (or 400th) shovelful of soil. The sweat, the aches, the tears, the blisters, the sweltering heat, and, yes, even the need to keep digging when everyone else has gone home to bed or to parties - all of these are part of the price of mastery. Without them, all you can afford is a cheap imitation.
Of course, all of this rumination happened in the space of a few seconds with The Karate Kid theme music playing in the background. After which, I turned to my inquisitive son and told him, "If you really want to get good at something, to truly master it, you will have to practice on your own a lot. That's just how it works."
Not because solitude is required all the time, but because others simply cannot stick around for everything you still have left to do. And they certainly can't do it for you.
Robert Gardner stands ready to help individuals and businesses breakthrough their own limitations by giving them the gift of personal mastery. 25 years of diligent study in the martial arts, personal development, and inspired leadership have brought him to this point. Are you and your colleagues ready to begin? For more information or to experience a class with him at Chinese Shaolin Kung Fu, go to http://phoenixshaolin.com.
