The truth cannot be held back. Many organizations and individuals in the past tried to keep people in ignorance, but nowadays we remember only the people who resisted.
Whatever you do, do not allow that history and previous knowledge to block your innovations. Always remember that many people died in fire because they claimed that earth turns around the sun, and nowadays no one doubts that any more.
It is the same with Tang shou… Do not except everything that it is told to you as the truth, the only truth, and nothing else but the truth. Think with your head, use your mind, respect your Sensei (the man who was born before you), learn from him and be grateful for all knowledge, correct and incorrect, that he gave to you, and do research and investigate, because knowledge has no limit and there is never only one truth. Be a good Uke (Student) and surpass your teacher because this is the way of progress. If you only repeat things given to you by your Sensei, you will slowly, like your Sensei, lose small fragments and through the generations, knowledge will be lost. Kata Bunkai is not immune to that process, either.
During my work and research, I followed Confucius (551–479 BC).
Teacher, editor, politician, and philosopher who wrote:
- Choose a job you love, and you will never have to work a day in your life.
- You cannot open a book without learning something.
- If I am walking with two other men, each of them will serve as my teacher. I will pick out the good points of the one and imitate them and the bad points of the other and correct them in myself.
- I hear, I know. I see, I remember. I do, I understand.
- Faced with what is right, to leave it undone shows a lack of courage.
- Wherever you go, go with all your heart.
- The object of the superior man is truth.
- Life is simple, but we insist on making it complicated.
- The will to win, the desire to succeed, the urge to reach your full potential… these are the keys that will unlock the door to personal excellence.
- I will not be concerned at other men’s not knowing me; I will be concerned at my own want of ability.
Dr. Edvard Sefer