My Father - My Mother - My Awakening

To achieve a certain goal is not too difficult.  But to maintain the drive to excel is difficult, that is true Kung Fu.  I am still very amazed by my father’s Kung Fu.  Year after year for over 15 years he has been participating in and completing Marathons & Triathlons.  He consistently exercises and trains on his own.  It is his meditation.  He does not train in groups, he does not train with friends, he trains by himself.  He bikes15 miles to work and 15 miles back, sometimes even in the rain, and thinks nothing of it.  He swims at the Chicago Lake for leisure.  He runs 15 miles home from work every so often.  He trains at “LA Fitness” formally known as “Bally’s” consistently every week. 

He does not claim any titles, he does not claim himself to be a Sifu, Sigung, Master, Grandmaster, Sensei, or whatever.  He just simply exercises in meditation.  He is 61 now and looks like he is only 40.  He does not teach like a professor would teach, but rather he just leads by example, quietly, with little notice.  He does not boast about what he does, you would only know about his training if you really paid attention and asked.  He is a man of Tao.  The “World” does not know about him.  He does not use a cell phone, he does not use the Internet, he has no iPhone, he has no email address, he has no Facebook, he has no YouTube.  He lives a simple life, away from a lot of this excess technology that is making us all lazy and robotic. 

If I look back at my childhood & my upbringing, I really see that he is my Sifu.  He is a true man of Kung Fu, his Kung Fu is in my blood, and that is a big reason why I am who I am today.  Yes, Bruce Lee, the NFCMAA, Fighters United, Buddha, Lao-Tzu, Osho, and many others have contributed greatly to my development as a real human being, but I cannot forget about the contributions of my father and mother.  My father & mother carry the ancient Chinese traditions & culture within them and it is expressed through their way of life.  By my upbringing, it has become a part of me, that is why I notice that I am so different than many I encounter here in the States. 

They never told me: “this is the Tao.” “this is the way of Buddha.” “this is Feng Shui.” “this is Kung Fu.”   They simply lived life the way that was natural to them.  Being around them, taught me first hand by experience what the Tao, Buddha, Feng Shui, & Kung Fu was all about.  I never understood why I was so different than many people around me until I was a sophomore in college and began studying “Eastern Philosophy,” after being inspired by Bruce Lee to educate myself on Chinese culture.  Then I began to see and understand that I was born to be unique.  I was born to be me; I was born to be different.  And there is nothing wrong with being different; there is nothing wrong with being me.  When I finally accepted myself for who I truly was, that was when I became awakened, that was my time of enlightenment.