I have the privilege of training in Bagua Kung Fu under Shifu Raymond Ahles, at the Blue Dragon School of Martial Arts in Bergenfield, New Jersey. Traditional martial arts provide important, common-sense life lessons and life skills, such as these:
* Meditate and work hard on yourself, so you can have inner peace. If you are at peace with yourself, you can be at peace with others.
* Avoid fights, both verbal and physical. Why bring more trouble into your life?
* If you have to fight, do only what is necessary to stop the fighting. Adding to the aggression would simply prolong the conflict.
Your combat skills are for self-defense and preserving the peace.
When I was a kid, my father gave me this direction in street fighting: “Don’t start the fight. Just make sure you finish it.”
I like the Martial Way better: “Don’t start the fight. Just make sure it stops.”
Big difference. It’s not a matter of winning. It’s a matter of Stopping the Fighting.
This is a crucial perspective for America today.
We are being invaded by foreign enemies. Imperialists from various corners – Communist China, Iran, and assorted globalists among them – want to cut us down to size, and take over our rich resources. Their prime target is our population – industrious, creative, enterprising Americans.
Their ideas have infiltrated our core institutions, from families to government agencies. Many of our children, parents, students, teachers, business leaders, and politicians have become advocates of their totalitarian ideas.
Because many of the “enemies” are “within” – among our family, friends, neighbors, and coworkers – we need to defend ourselves but not make the damage worse. We don’t want to fracture the country. We don’t want to break up families. We don’t want to divide communities.
We want to defend what is rightfully ours, and preserve the peace. The Martial Way will help us stop the fighting.