commentary: the saffron revolution

okay, this doesn't have a lot to do with kung fu explicitly. but it has some cultural relevance (Buddhism...albeit Theravada, contrasted to Mahayana, the dominant form in Chinese society). and i think the life lessons apply to kung fu just as much as they apply to life.

i don't ever want to hear somebody complaining about things not being possible:

http://jonathaninthedistance.blogspot.com/2007/09/saffron-revolution.html

once you've joined the club that is Ironman, you start to understand the attitudes held by all Ironman athletes towards people who complain, whine, moan, gripe, belly-ache, and cry about things being too hard and they being so weak and life being so unfair. you kind of get annoyed with anything that smacks of self-pity, laziness, surrender, or negativity. at the very least, your patience tends to run a little short.

but it's not so much because of snobbery or elitism. it's sometimes tempting. but the process of becoming an Ironman is the kind that pretty much beats out any sense of ego, narcissism, or hubris out of you. all that's left is humility and a willingness to accept reality for what it is.

it's rather that in becoming an Ironman, you have to go through suffering. not just a little. but a lot. and you have to go through it with the constant seductive knowledge that you chose to do it, and that you don't have to, and that you can quit at any time. despite this, you stayed with it, and accepted the suffering, so that you could become something that people believe to be special.

because of this, you develop a respect for suffering. and for people who experience it. especially those who choose to do so. like Buddhist monks who take the action of non-violence in the face of soldiers armed with guns.

nobody has to suffer. nobody should suffer. nobody (well, okay, maybe not nobody...but you know what i mean).

but sometimes, to enact change--in this world, or in yourself--you know you have to do so. because it's the only way, or the right way...or at the very least, your way.

and it seems comical, absurd, and incredibly offensive to complain, or whine, or belly-ache, or moan, or engage in self-pity or negativity or pouting, when in the rest of this world there are people who willingly accept the guarantee of suffering so great that it may end in their own death without any meaningful result whatsoever.

it's something to keep in perspective.