The first thing you learn when you start Kung Fu is stand ready. It is a simple stance, feet together, body straight, hands at your side, shoulders relaxed, chin up, eyes focused forward in attention. This simple stance shows your willingness to learn, to pay attention, to submit to the way of better life and health.
Over the years I have seen it break strong men (fewer women break), who’s egos struggles under the weight of their own expectation. Stand ready requires you to be humble because without humility we cannot learn. To stand in stand ready and have a teacher tell you that you are not all you can be, that you don’t fulfil your potential, that you are lazy and complacent, that you are unfocused and undetermined, that you could be ANYTHING and yet you chose to be so little… To stand in stand ready and truly be humble and learn the lessons shows that you are ready to accept your potential.
And as my teachers have engaged with me, I now have to engage with myself. I stand before myself humbled, with chin up and eyes forward I ask myself, how can I learn from my lessons of the past, where can I guide my lessons of the future? I write now with emotion, for all the lessons I have learnt in this stance, from being willing to engage with humility and for all the lessons I am still to learn as my journey and engagement with humility deepens.
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