Namaste, thanks for the open and focused responses. Talk about the re-connection bell ringing. Didn't expect the Chung Moo Quan story to be coming out in my second post but here goes. pythagoreanfullotus, deep bow for your attentive and quick response. I count my time at the Chung Moo Quan studio to be rewarding, but not entirely positive. As a rule, I don't relish sharing dark stories about people, but I share when it is relevant to growth. I don't enjoy swimming in dark energies, though I don't shun them when they reveal themselves. I don't enjoy speaking of, nor to I celebrate the dark side of people, but in some cases, we meet people for no other reason than to know who we don't want to be close to us. Chung Moo Quan was my first experience in martial arts aside from Bruce Lee and the movies. I walked in off the street, with a swollen face after having been ambushed and beaten. I was a sophomore in high school and had recently moved to a new school. One morning at my locker I was kicked into my locker from behind. I was grabbed and spun around and within the first few seconds my eyes were swollen and having no knowledge of, nor real desire to fight, I had little response but to put my hands up and take the beating. Two days after the attack I walked into the Chung Moo Quan studio that was two blocks from my house and staring at the instructor, feeling like the elephant man, said. "I never want this to happen again." I studied at that studio for two years starting in 1985, until the experience that drove me away. This is the only 'negative' experience I have had in Martial Arts and even though it was my first, I knew it was an anomaly immediately when it happened. None the less, it made me gun shy to study again for some years afterward. Turns out it was one of the more beneficial lessons of my life. For while it is the teacher's prerogative to accept the student. Learning is an active process. The teacher does not open your head and pour in knowledge. The student must reach out, grasp the teaching and incorporate it. It is the student's imperative to choose his teacher with care and wisdom. The student teaches the master as well. Going into my second year of study, I excelled and was offered 'special' classes. To say these classes were intense is an understatement. I have never experienced any teachings like them since. Intensity is not negative in itself. The forms I studied were solid and beneficial, but something else was odd and it became very apparent not long after. To be fair and honest in retrospect, I benefited from the skills I learned in these classes and I was never physically hurt while studying this style. I still use one of the mental forms from time to time, for building Qi and opening channels. What drove me away was a bizarre encounter, not with Master Kim, but a secondary instructor whose name I don't recall. My classes had been getting steadily more expensive which stood out to me in the back of my mind, yet I was doing well and having no real knowledge of how this whole process worked, I trusted it. One day, I had just completed a solo class and was asked by my instructor when our next class was going to take place. When I responded 'next Tuesday at 4 o'clock' I found myself sitting on my ass with the wind knocked out of me. I had been double punched in the solar plexus. The instructor was standing over me saying, "You will never say that number in this place. You will say 3+1. That number is bad luck. We do not say that number here." I was dumbstruck. I changed into my street clothes and left. I never returned. It wasn't that I was physically damaged, but I knew that this teaching was not for me. The pure absurdity of the incident, sucker punched because I said the number 4? I knew in the anchor of my being that this was not for me. While Master Kim may be very skilled, his methods did not suit me. While I didn't seek out another teacher immediately, I did continue to use what I was taught to that point and and so I still honor the teachings I received for what they were... not suited to me, but still beneficial on a certain level. I hope this is coming across as I intend it. I bear no ill will nor malice to Chung Moo Quan. I recognized that this teaching was not compatible with me and I moved on. It was several years later when I heard about the story you posted pythagoreanfullotus. I was not all that surprised. It brought back my experience and cemented in me the deep understanding that undertaking study of this kind, entails a responsibility by both teacher and student. It was several years later, after moving to NYC that I began to study again. I would never again just walk into a studio and ask to be trained after that experience. I would have to meet my teacher through someone I knew, someone I trusted. That teacher was Sifu Richard Huang and based on following these instincts, I found a teacher who embodied that which I most admire in people... kindness, gentle nature and deep, calm power.
Like I said, I don't share this story often, but it's value is undeniable to me, so I share it with no malice and with an open heart.
Namaste.
