WHY STUDY KUNG-FU: The Spirit of Martial Arts

by Alex Lamas

While watching a friend participate in a kung-fu lesson, I heard the instructor tell my friend that he rarely teaches the particular style they were studying. Instead, the instructor teaches a military self-defense system that is used by elite European commandos. He said that most traditional Asian kung-fu systems are stuck in the 19th century and that the techniques don't have much practicality for today's urban environments. The kung-fu forms keep people limited within the structure of the forms and inhibit free form street fighting. I believe this is one of the reasons why Bruce Lee created jeet kune do.

The instructor partially is right. Kung-fu systems like Shaolin long fist, praying mantis, hung gar, and wushu don't have much to do with getting attacked on a subway or at an ATM. Few techniques teach how to defend oneself while sitting at a lunch counter or against a knife attack in an elevator.

What the instructor doesn’t take into account is the fact that fighting opponents on the street is not the only reason one studies kung-fu. More importantly, I believe that almost all martial arts styles offer good and practical self-defense techniques. The style of kung-fu I practice, Fu Jow Pai, has a proven history on the insane streets of New York City during the turbulent ’70s and ’80s. In addition, a friend of mine who studies a northern style of kung-fu successfully defended himself in a subway attack utilizing the style he practices.

My friend’s instructor also doesn’t mention that for many people who study kung-fu, the only true opponent is the opponent within oneself. An individual may be able to fight and defeat anyone who crosses his path, but until that person learns to conquer himself, his mastery of a fighting art will be limited, and that individual will never be better than who he is at that moment. The point of kung-fu—the reason why it was invented (whether or not it was Bodhidharma who brought it from India to the monks of the Shaolin forest)—is to better oneself.

To be better today than yesterday, in all aspects of being—that is the point of kung-fu. If we don't constantly try and improve ourselves, and progress to a higher state of being, we'll become stagnant and officially begin the process of dying. The Shaolin monks easily accepted the challenge of kung-fu because of this principle of self-improvement. It was central to the core of their beliefs as Buddhists.

Self-expression is another reason to practice kung-fu. Like all movement arts such as dance, yoga, etc., martial arts can be used as a moving meditation to discover one’s inner being and in the process express oneself authentically. Honest self-expression can be as essential to living as breathing. The word kung-fu literally means an acquired skill, not martial arts (martial arts literally translates into wushu). Therefore, any hobby or skill can be a kung-fu, such as cooking, car repair, or pottery making, and in that skill one can find a form of self-expression, if done so with passion. In classic kung-fu terms we use the forms as our access to self-expression.

It may be true that in practicing forms one could inhibit formlessness. But to prevent this, I offer that we learn forms to forget them. Put simply: Know the rules so you can break them. If we practice our forms over and over again, we will know them so well that they will become a part of us. We internalize the form to the point that when we need a certain technique, it's there without having to think about using it. It comes out as a natural expression of our being, with intent and without thought. This is the Taoist notion of formlessness, and what I believe Bruce Lee meant when he said, "Be like water my friend." Although he was talking about jazz, Charlie Parker offered one of the best kung-fu comments when he said, "First master your instrument, then just play." That is kung-fu.

I believe that ignoring forms in favor of individual technique is not necessarily better—both are equally important. To learn a form so well that one can express it with feeling and without thinking is the highest form of knowing. I won a forms tournament because while I was performing, I lost myself (the "I") and became the form. I was inside the form and it was using me. This may sound fantastic or esoteric, but any individual who has practiced anything to a great extent will know what I mean.

Years ago in the old Fu Jow Pai school in New York City, the students would rarely spar. My Si-Boks and Si-Suks (elder uncles and younger uncles) mostly practiced their forms, sometimes performing the same routine almost a thousand times. In those days, instead of open sparring in class, full-contact tournaments would be held, inviting any and all challengers. Without question the Fu Jow Pai students would almost always win.

Martial arts is an expression of the self rather than something one has learned. It is that type of knowing that is the domain of the master of the art. This is also why the martial arts are an art. Art is an expression of the soul of the artist; this is the same for all artists, whether they are painters, musicians, dancers, or masters of a martial art.

Art is done with intension, and the art is the form of that intension. The forms themselves are meaningless; they are just the body. The true spirit comes from the intention of the artist behind the form. The spirit of intention is the source of our power, and the life force of who we are as beings. The spirit of martial arts comes from the intention of the practitioner, not the style or the form. We are all on the same journey through life, but the paths we take differ. If we don't walk with the intention toward improvement, then like the proverbial shark that stops swimming, we cease to be. Kung-fu for me is a quest to connect with the divine source of being, and we can only make that connection through our quest of self-examination and self-expression.

Copyright © 2007 Alex Lamas, All rights reserved.

Alex Lamas is an instructor at Kwan’s Kung-Fu Studio. For more information please go to http://www.kwanskungfustudio.com.