IMAGINE

The 36th Chamber of Shaolin

I want to share this clip from one of my favorite Martial Arts movies because it illustrates perfectly the path of an artist from student to master. So lets just breaknit down from an artist's point of view.

Up to this point the student had been learning all the fundamental/foundational stuff he needed to learn to qualify as a shaolin master. In this story, the student had risen in the ranks very quickly. He passed all his test satisfactorily for all his teachers except for one. The student must answer this maste’s challenge and beat him to become a master.

In their first duel, the master defeats the student easily. Why? Because the student ONLY used what he had been taught. He picked his best weapon from training and used all the best and proper techniques to fight him and was beaten. He showed the master he could fight, so the master allowed him to try again any time he wished.

So the student went back to training specifically for this duel and designed a plan. He would use a weapon that he's good with, a staff, and could counter the master’s weapons specifically, fighting swords. He learned the master’s techniques so he could use them against him. He choose a staff with a crescent moon shape hook for trapping/blocking swords and an axe blade on the other end for added power and intimidation. During the duel, the plan failed miserably. You see the master had chosen his techniques and weaponry for the same reason as the student. It was his best weapon with his most mastered techniques. There was no way the student would be able to beat the master at his own game. Those swords are what he is a master of and no amount of mimicry or counter intelligence bu the student could nake him better then the master. The student could only hope to be a exceptional copy of the master, but not a master himself.

So the student must again rethink his approach. Notice that he doesn't quit or get down on himself. He learns and moves on. The problen still needs solving and crying about it isn't the answer. So the student take what he knows and what he learned and most importantly what he can do and uses his imagination. He knows the staff is his best weapon, but he needs 2 weapons; one for offense and one for defense, so he takes what the staff can do and adds a way to use it as 2 seperate weapons. He designs a 3 segment staff. A staff that has 2 fighting sticks chained to its ends. When he and the master duel, the master is unprepared for the 2 handed offense/defense and the whip like attack that keeps breaking through his defense. Finally, the master acknowledges that the student has defeated him and grants him the title of Shaolin Master. The last lesson he needed to learn was how to be himself. Step number 1. Is to know the basics and be good at them. Step 2. Learn what the masters do but most importantly learn why they do those things. Step 3. Know that you know the basics, know what you are best at, and always apply what comes natural to you to solve the problem. Design everyting to your strengths and enhance them as much as possible. Don’t let a perfectionist mindset limit your creativity and drive to succeed. Just get the job done, because that is success. Thats what makes a master not how much you know but how well you know yourself.