Nothing stays the same, everything is constantly changing
Nothing stays the same, everything is constantly changing, following the course of nature, so naturally classes at the temple have changed too.
I don’t have a large amount of experience with the classes at five Immortals, but from what I have experienced for myself, combined with the stories of other, older students I certain there has been a transformation.
It took me a little while to notice to new teaching format, it took a little longer after that for me to comprehend the purpose, and shorty after that, I saw the results and could see the usefulness of this style. It’s a common for the older generation (especially in martial arts) to look down on the younger and say how much, smaller, weaker, softer, less successful each new generation is. This hindsight bias exists in most circles, in all of life, the past was harder undoubtedly, but I think the teaching of our teachers has gotten more successful.
It’s not “easier” it’s different. “Where there is loss there is gain, where there is gain there is loss,” we have heard this a lot from Li Shifu recently. I don’t think he’s giving us less stress nor do I believe the training or living at the temple is any easier, but it certainly has changed. I think it could be described as having matured.
In the past, and I’m talking about in society in general, we trained very hard physically, labor was physically demanding, life itself was harsh on the body, dangerous and arduous. No life is very different, our lives are far softer, little has to be done with brut force and this has freed up energy for our minds. Now we think more, and life in society is tougher mentally than ever before, mental discomfort, depression, anxiety and existential loss, add and adhd are all (perhaps) at all time highs while athletes continue to get faster and stronger overall; only because society is getting softer.
Sprinters and powerlifters both have more time to think and their bodies are less broken down and they have far more available energy to think and grow mentally. Training in martial arts is changing in this way as well. Despite still remaining traditional at its core, the art has to be dynamic, adjusting to modern humans, modern life, and modern problems. So now we spend more time learning, we’re learning by leaps and bounds, our minds are digesting more than ever, but undoubtedly we perform physically a little slower. I am a firm believer though that with time, inevitably we could out perform those that burn bright in the beginning. Going slowly and steadily we advance physically slowly enough to manage it, remaining injury free and healthy, not breaking down from over and improper training.
It’s all in balance, we are as a species learning faster than ever before, more content is within early childhood education than was in all of higher education from just a few generations ago, knowledge is being continually distilled, refined, and it’s efficiency of transmission is growing almost exponentially.
Now it seems it is the time to push our brains more than our bodies, perhaps this is all part of the next great transformation of our our lives, or societies, our planet, and our consciousness…
Written by a current temple student: Alex Bechtold
