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Kung Fu East and West, and Batman
Author: Antonio Graceffo
Chinese philosophy and kung fu in particular teaches you to devote yourself to training, and to train for a lifetime.
The goal of Buddhism is to clear your mind completely and think nothing. One way of doing this is to concentrate on exactly one thing.
For martial arts monks kung fu is that one thing. They live it, breath it, dream it and never allow anything else to enter their minds. And they do this until they die.
Monks live simple lives, concentrating on their development to the exclusion of everything else. Thai Buddhism even goes so far as to teach that the world is an illusion, and we should reject it. Chinese Buddhism teaches that attachment to the world prevents us from being able to leave it, and we will be reborn as ghosts, tortured spirits trapped in the world.
But in the West, we live very complicated lives, doing a number of tasks per day.
The average boy who went to become a Shaolin monk in the past was probably a poor farmer who wasn't exposed to that many stimuli to begin with. It was probably easier for him to tune out than it is for us. When I was at Shaolin, I found the situation largely unchanged today. They began their training very young, before their lives became terribly complicated. They came from a society where people didn't have the freedom to plan their future, and where options were very limited, and very narrow. Most of them, even the ones who started their training in their late teens, had never had a bank account, a job, or many possessions. Many of them had never been to the cinema in their lives. Some had never had a TV. And most had never had cable. For many of them, the Temple was the furthest they had ever been from their home. And, it was shocking how many of them were from Henan. So, even by going to the temple they hadn't traveled very far.
Again, It was easier for them to give up everything and become monks. In the end, what were they giving up?
Shaolin Pagoda Forest
But for Westerners our lives have so many dimensions. We graduate from high school or university. We read books about far away places. We watch countless movies and countless hours of TV, showing us endless images of far off places and distant lives, which all become options for us. At the very least, they feed our imaginations, becoming mental distractions. For those of us living and training abroad, it is even harder to clear our minds. We are faced with such a variety of options on a daily basis. We can go anywhere and do anything. This makes it even more difficult to focus on just one thing, on kung fu.
Peter, a teammate of mine in Phnom Penh, is a professional kick boxer. Recently, the 37-year-old New Zealander lost a very brutal five-round bout to a Khmer, who was fifteen years younger than him. The Khmer kick boxers are not monks. But their lives are very similar, in that they live in a training camp and do nothing outside of training and fighting. An Australian journalist watching Peter receive twenty stitches in his face after the fight summed it up this way. "Peter is only in Cambodia to write his masters thesis. He has an excellent job, a tremendous education, and he boxes as a hobby. The opponent is illiterate, earns twenty dollars a month, and boxing is his whole life. And he still only beat Peter by about ten percent."
Kickboxing, oldschool
Among many concepts, Buddhism teaches balance. As cluttered with decisions and options as the modern Western life is, could it also be said that the West has found balance? Couldn't the fact that Peter found room in his life for both martial arts and reading and working be seen as achieving a kind of harmonious balance? Could he be seen as less selfish, since he is contributing to society by paying taxes and eventually marrying and raising a family?
There is something about Western intensity. The Asians can achieve great results after a lifetime of training and to the exclusion of everything else, even reading and writing (about seventy percent of the guys at Shaolin were effectively illiterate). But what Westerners are able to do is: 1) find a balance between training and maintaining some normal semblance of life; and 2) train intensely, packing years of development into months or even weeks.
Yuen Cheung-Yan trains Cameron DiazMatt Damon studied Kali for only a period of months to prepare for his role in THE BOURNE IDENTITY.
Kung fu has gained wider acceptance as a result of the movies. The actors from both CHARLIE'S ANGELS and THE MATRIX had to study intensely for a period of months to learn kung fu. Christian Bale studied for five months to prepare for his role as Batman.
In Asia, the idea of learning kung fu late in life to make movies is unheard of. Jet Li, Chun Long, and Lee Shao Long all studied from a very young age, not even knowing they would some day become film stars. In the case of Jet Li and Chun Long, they attended kung fu training in place of school. Bruce is an anomaly in that he had a relatively normal childhood, attending school and having interests and experiences outside of his training.
Smiling Shaolin Student with SpearI posed similar questions to a young, over-zealous monk, who told me Peter was wrong. I was wrong.
"The world is just an illusion, and none of this matters," he told me emphatically.
"So, I am not real?" I asked.
"Of course not." He sounded very sure of himself.
"And, you are not real?" I asked.
"No, I am not real."
"So, by extrapolation, your nose is not real?" I asked.
"Of course not.
"Good, then you won't mind me doing this." I said, and punched him in his imaginary nose.
Actually, I didn't hit the young monk. But I really wanted to, just to prove that we were real, and it did matter.
Hollywood depicts kung fu, drawing us to study this Asian art. But our way of studying is Western. Many of us begin studying as adults, which would be unheard of in most of Asia. In Shaolin, the absolute oldest students were in their early twenties. As far as fighting and competing in Asia goes, martial artists retire from competition by age twenty-five or twenty-seven at the latest. When international martial arts competitions were held in Taiwan, the oldest Taiwanese were seventeen, the oldest Chinese eighteen to twenty, and the oldest Americans were in their late thirties.
Christian Bale as Bruce Wayne at ninja training camp So, Westerners have taken an Eastern concept, kung fu, and made it western, by beginning training at any age, and by doing intensive courses. The training sequences in Batman are a perfect example. Although set in a monastery in China that is filled with Chinese martial artists learning an Asian art, the very concept of this scene is completely western. First of all, Batman goes there as an adult. Second of all, although they don't tell us how long he was there, we are lead to believe that it is a period of only one or two years, as Batman doesn't age much during his training.
Further, this monastery scene will inspire Westerners to begin training in kung fu, rededicate themselves to their training in kung fu, or - if they are very adventurous - a few Westerners will seek out monasteries in China where they can live the dream.
As for my beloved art of fighting, the MMA circuit is about the most Western/American concept ever imposed on Asian Arts. If your kicking is weak, go learn Muay Thai for several months. If you don't know how to grapple, go study BJJ for a while.
These large men are not learning an art from the ground up, as our counterparts do in Asia. Instead, they are focusing on the practical parts of the arts, learning them, and moving on. And again, the average age in MMA is much older than in any other kind of fighting. Many of the athletes are in their late thirties and early forties.
Artwork by Eduardo Barreto Batman copyright DC comics, Daredevil copyright Marvel comicsSo, is West better than East? Is MMA better than kung fu? Could Batman beat Daredevil in a fight?
In the Jet Lee film FISTS OF LEGEND, The Japanese karate master explains to Jet Lee's character that martial arts is not just about winning the fight. "The quickest way to win a fight is with a gun." So, debating about which style is better for fighting is academic since Sam Colt, an American, made all men equal.
Unless you are prepared to swear off jour job, give away your possessions, break all ties with friends and family and study full time, you would never achieve the Asian ideal. And, even if you did those things, by strictest Chinese standards you would be too old. And after having seen so much of the world, you would probably find it impossible to empty your mind and think only about your training. There were days at Shaolin when I was bored out of my mind.
Once again, Buddhist philosophy teaches us that the answers to these questions are within ourselves. We have to seek out, study and do those things that we are moved to do, and reject the rest. Success is not measured by heights attained, but by obstacles overcome. Maybe a sixty percent commitment to martial arts is a huge victory for you. The three days a week you spend in the kung fu school is still better than nothing. Maybe in your next re-incarnation you will have more time for kung fu.
Of course, I would still like to know if Batman could beat Daredevil in a fight. ...