good because he practiced harder than others. There was nothing of which to be proud. Thereafter, he became very humble and practiced even harder. When he reached his thirties, he was considered the best archer in the entire country and was honored to serve the emperor as a bodyguard. But in his late fifties, he disappeared from the palace, and nobody ever knew where he went.
Twenty years later, one of his friends heard that Yang, You-ji was on Tian Mountain in Xinjiang Province and decided to find him. After months of traveling, he finally arrived at the mountain and located his friend. He stepped into Yang’s house and they recognized each other. However, when Yang saw his friend’s bow and arrow on his shoulder, he opened his eyes and said: “What are those funny things you are carrying on your back?” His friend looked at him and with mouth agape and said: “You must be the best archer existing today, since you have already gone through the entire experience of archery.”
When I heard this story, I could not understand its actual meaning. Now, I begin to understand. Everything we have experienced before is just one learning process in reaching the spirit of our life. Once this learning is completed, the process of learning is no longer necessary and ceases to exist. It is just like the Buddhists who believe that our physical body is used only to cultivate our spirit; once we have reached a high level of spirit, the physical body is no longer important.
Learning martial arts is the same. You are using the way of learning martial arts to understand the meaning of your life. The higher you have reached, the better you experience the spirit which is beyond other martial artists. One day, you will no longer be able to train or perform martial arts. However, your understanding and spirit will remain, and you will retain your knowledge and spirit.
You should understand that the arts are alive and are creative. To Chinese philosophy, if an art is not creative, then the art is dead. It is also because the art is creative that, after hundreds of years of development and creation, there can be many styles of the same art.
One afternoon, I went to visit my master and asked him why the same movement was applied differently by two of my classmates. He looked at me and asked: “Little Yang? How much is one plus one? Without hesitation, I said: “Two.” He smiled and shook his head and said: “No! Little Yang, it is not two.” I was confused and thought he was joking. He continued: “Your father and your mother together are two. After their marriage, they have five children. Now, it is not two but seven. You can see one plus one is not two but seven. The arts are alive and creative. If you treat them as dead, it is two. But if you make them alive, they can be many. This is the philosophy of developing Chinese martial arts. Now, I am forty-two; when you reach forty-two, if your understanding about the martial arts is the same as mine today, then I will have failed you, and also you will have failed me.”
This also reminds me of a story I heard from Master Liang, Shou-yu a few years ago. He said he knew a story of how Master Zhang, San-feng taught the taiji sword techniques to one of his students. After this student completed his three years of taiji sword learning from Master Zhang, he was so happy and could perform every movement in exactly the same way and feeling as Master Zhang had taught him.
Then Master Zhang asked him to leave and practice for three years and then come to see him. The student left. After three years of hard practice, the student came to see Master Zhang. However, he was sad and ashamed to meet Master Zhang. He bowed his head down and felt so sorry. He said: “Master Zhang, after three years of practice, I am now very sad. The more I have practiced, the more I have lost the feeling I had three years ago. Now, I feel about a third of the forms are different from what you taught me originally.”
Master Zhang looked at him and said: “No good! No good! Go home and practice another three years and then come to see me.” The student left in sorrow and sadness. He practiced harder and harder for the next three years. Then he came to see Master Zhang again. However, he felt even worse than the first time he came back. He looked at Master Zhang very disappointedly. He said: “Master Zhang! I don’t know why. The more I have practiced, the worse it has become. Now, two-thirds of the forms feel different from what you taught me.”
Master Zhang again looked at him and said: “No good! No good! Go home again and practice another three years and then come to see me.” The student left feeling very, very sad. This time, he practiced even harder than before. He put all his mind into understanding and feeling every movement of the forms he learned. After three years, again he returned to see Master Zhang. This time, his face turned pale and he dared not look at Master Zhang’s face directly. He said: “Master Zhang! I am sorry. I am a failure. I have failed you and myself. I feel now not even one form has the same feeling as you taught me.”
When Master heard of this, he laughed loudly and very happily. He looked at the student and said: “Great! You have done well. Now, the techniques you have learned are yours and not mine anymore.”
From this story, you can see that the mentality of the arts is creative. If the great musician Beethoven, after he learned all the techniques from his teacher, never learned to create, then he would not have become so great. It is the same with the great painter Picasso. If he did not know how to be creative, then after he learned all the painting techniques from his teacher, he would never have become such a genius. Therefore, you can see that arts are alive and not dead. However, if you do not learn enough techniques and have not reached a deep level of understanding, then when you start to create, you will have lost the correct path and the arts will be flawed. It is said in Chinese martial arts society: “Sifu leads you into the door; cultivation depends on oneself.”10
When you learn any art, you should understand the mentality of learning is to feel and to gain the essence of the art. Only if your heart can learn the essence of the arts, then will you have gained the root. With this root, you can grow and become creative.
My master told me a story. Once upon a time a boy came to see an old man and asked him: “Honorable old man, I have heard that you can change a piece of rock into gold. Is that true?” “Yes, young man. Like others, do you want a piece of gold? Let me change one for you.” The boy replied. “Oh no! I do not want a piece of gold. What I would like is to learn the trick you use to change rocks into gold.”
What do you think about this short story? When you learn anything, if you do not gain the essence of the learning, you will remain on the surface, just holding the branches and flowers. However, if you can feel the arts deeply, then you can create. Feeling deeply enables you to ponder and finally to understand the situation. Without this deep feeling, what you see and what you are will be only on the surface.
Once there was a wise king in Korea who had a fifteen-year-old son. This son had grown up comfortably in the palace, with all of the servants’ attention. This made the king very worried, and he believed that his son would never be a good king whose concern was for his people. Therefore, he summoned a well-known wise old man living in the deep woods.
In response to this call, the old man came to the palace. After he promised to teach the prince to be a wise, good king, he took the prince to the deep woods. After they arrived in the deep woods, the old man taught the young prince how to find food, how to cook, and how to survive in the woods. Then he left the prince alone in the woods. However, he promised that he would come back a year later.
A year later, when the old man came back, he asked the prince what he thought about the woods. The prince replied: “I am sick of them. I need a servant. I hate it here. Take me home.” However, the old man merely said: “Very good. That is good progress, but not enough. Please wait here for another year, and I will be back to see you again.” Then he left.
A year again passed, and the old man came back to the woods, asking the prince again the same question. This time the prince said: “I see birds, I see trees, I see flowers and animals.” His mind had started to accept the surrounding environment, and he recognized his role in
