Old City Kung Fu Five Animals, MMA

Wise thoughts⚔️

Be water⚔️

This is the way of shaolin

Wise

Food for Thought…

One of my old teachers told me this often… especially when he saw I was discouraged…

The only way to lose when you practice Qi Gong or any of the Martial Arts… is to quit…

It works that way in everything we do in life…

How is that so… how can that be? Especially when we may feel defeated or discouraged…

To walk the path of nature is to move like water… in the effortless way that looks to the unaware eye… like forced effort…not rushing to conquer, not clinging to outcome…

In the Dojo of practice… Qi Gong, martial art, life… the instruction is simple and stubborn… the only true defeat lies in abandoning the way… the practice…

Persistence is not blind force… it is the patient bending of reeds until they remember the river...

Small, steady motion accumulates the subtle…

Regulate until we no longer need to regulate…

A single breath, repeated, becomes a sea of qi…

A day of cultivation blends into years… each return to posture, each mindful step, is a prayer to continuity…

The Dao teaches that effort and surrender are not opposites…

When we practice with soft resolve, effort becomes like a hidden root… firm beneath the soil, unseen but sustaining the tree…

Surrender then is not collapse but opening… yielding to the present moment while keeping the intention to return…

We don’t quit… we don’t give up…

Improvise… Adapt… and Overcome…

To quit is to break the thread that unites moments into a life…

It is similar to a calligrapher who lifts the brush before the stroke is finished… the form remains incomplete, the energy shatters…

Yet the one who walks naturally… also knows that clinging to progress can calcify into resistance…

If practice becomes armor, practice is lost…

Therefore perseverance rests on a tender balance… persist without grasping, strive without forcing, continue without self‑annihilation…

We regulate until we no longer need to regulate…

Failure, in this frame, is not a verdict but a teacher wearing a plain robe…

Each stumble points to soft places needing cultivation… humility where pride hardened, patience where impulse leapt, clarity where confusion clouded…

We bow, adjust our feet, and begin again…

We regulate until we no longer need to regulate…

The circle of return is itself victory, for the only multiplication that matters is the return multiplied through time…

When seasons change, so do we…

Sometimes the path requires rest… sometimes fierce training… sometimes gentle tending…

I am very old now… I have had many injuries… many scars… I am familiar with all of these phases… you will be too… if you continue to show up… every day…

The Dao does not demand constant exertion but constant fidelity to the practice of returning…

Keep coming… Keep opening… Keep letting the breath tide wash through your bones…

In that steady homecoming, losing has nowhere to settle… we just keep going… we keep moving… advancing…

Every day… in every way… I am getting better and better…

How about you?

Only then does the word “defeat” lose its edge, and what remains is the quiet power of continuing…

In time the river carves the mountain not by haste but by the patience of many drops… so your steady practice shapes character, softens edges, and reveals a quiet mastery that no external award can measure nor momentary setback stop…

I have often told my wife… and others… I never give up… I never stop practicing… I keep moving…

Even seven decades later… I still practice…

I’m getting better at regulating until I no longer need to regulate… maybe one day…

I get glimpses… they get closer and closer together…

One day… when, you may ask…

That will fully happen when I stop breathing… so… I keep breathing every day… never quit… never give up…

Maybe one day, I will fully know everything that I don’t now know…

Then… I will no longer need to regulate…

How about you?

Do you get discouraged and quit… before others call you master…

Or do you keep showing up… every day…

All the Best!

H Perry Curtis, Master at Pampamisayoc Qi Gong

I Ching for Today: Modern Interpretations for Daily Living https://a.co/d/0cp5mPQ4

⚔️🗡️⚔️

Power isn’t about causing destruction or conflict it’s about stepping in when necessary to stop disorder and restore peace.

It is not for display or chaos. It is for control. The disciplined act only when needed, and when they do, it is to end disorder not become part of it.

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Wise words🗡️⚔️🗡️

Winning doesn’t always look fast or dramatic. Most real success is just continuing when others stop. Endurance is what turns small, repeated effort into eventual victory.

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