commentary: the (a)morality of kung fu - lessons from endurance sports

this is a cross posting from my Ironman blog:

http://jonathaninthedistance.blogspot.com/2007/05/athletes-in-other-countries.html

you should read it before reading the rest of this post, especially the LA Times article included with it about Chinese athletes. some of the stories are horrific, and they tell a cautionary tale about how sports are used to further the darker side of human nature.

while my statements in the post are addressed to sports, i think they're relevant to kung fu. i know kung fu is not entirely a sport (even though some people treat it that way), and i know kung fu has a far more encompassing approach to life. but i think a large part of what i said translates well to kung fu, and how it relates to morality and life.

i've read that historically, kung fu instructors often made great pains to investigate potential students before accepting them for training, and that even after inducting them instructors would continue to observe them closely. they weren't doing this just for education purposes (i.e., gauging their potential to master a style or ability to learn). nor were they doing this purely for charity (i.e., as a matter of compassion and concern for the well-being and development of the student). they were also doing this to ensure that the power and skills being taught weren't being given to personalities who might use them for questionable purposes.

in some ways, such efforts were because instructors felt a responsibility to their art and their society, and so wanted to be sure to produce students who would preserve and protect both--and if possible, make them better. in other ways, however, such efforts were preventative measures to avoid sanctions, since ancient China had laws which punished families and teachers for the actions of the student, with the punishment sometimes being death.

this leads me to believe that belief that kung fu is amoral. that is, it has no intrinsic values regarding good and evil. i believe that kung fu only has whatever values are imbued within it from its practitioners. as kung fu was--and is--a reflection of life, then it is a reflection of the people who practice it.

i say this in my other post about sports. i think it's the same for kung fu.

and what i say there i also want to say about kung fu:

if we want kung fu to be about improving the human condition, if we want it to be about the better side of human nature, if we want it to be about being noble and uplifting and empowering, then we as kung fu practitioners must take it upon ourselves to exercise those qualities within ourselves. it's in this way that kung fu will be used for good and not evil; it's in this way that kung fu will help the rest of the world. because kung fu begins with us.