What are focused on the 6 Dragons Kung Fu’s mind skills?

As we said for the combat skills (read Combat skills: what we will learn), 6 Dragons Kung Fu is a style of life before then a martial art and this means that our study do not ends becoming simply physically stronger.

The mind skills we search for are related to:

• Self-knowledge (to understand what we are, how we act and why)
• The knowledge of the others (discover what we have in common with the others)
• Self-control (to guide the only thing that is worthy of trying to control, what happens inside our head)
• Deception (to limit the action of what is negative, inside and outside us)
• …

A note by Master Kongling – The work of “optimization” and “redesign” that we do on our minds: is not a secondary task that can be skipped or ignored, is not something that we talk about only theoretically but that we do not pursue (as unfortunately happens in a lot o other martial arts)… the cerebral development is as important as the physical one (more important).

Mind skills: what we (aim to) learn

These are the main mind-related teachings of 6 Dragons Kung Fu (not all are “skills”, in some cases, it is more a question of awareness):

• Mental clarity – We learn to analyze ourselves to free our mind from superficial assessments, to fight and live with a clear mind; for example, we learn to understand and wisely manage our big / small fears (eliminating the illogical ones and giving an useful menaning to the concrete ones); another example, we learn the difference that passes between the desire of possession and real the love / friendship in relation to the other living beings
• Self-discipline – We learn how to build the necessary self-discipline and self-control to be truly free (read Discipline is the key to freedom); trough exploration and experimentation, we learn how to take every day more and more “control” over our mind (sensations, emotions, etc.)
• Attention span increasing – We learn how to gradually widen our concentration span and attention to the details
• Deception – We learn the art of deception and negotiation, for example, to avoid as much as possible the use of violence or to decrease the risk to become the victim of mental abuses
• Reason and instinct – We learn to embrace the logical reason and use our instincts at our favor
• Peace – We learn what is violence and what could cause, to avoid and reject it in every possible way
• Mind programming – We learn various mind programming methods, for example, to improve the basic functionalities of our mind (memory, multitasking, quick reasoning, self-confidence, etc.)
• Channeling our nature – We learn to relieve in a controlled way the most feral impulses of the human mind, to give them a direction, an reasonable outlet (as Shaolin monks do)
• Empty the mind – We gradually learn how to empty our mind to get rid of anything that is not useful to the achievement of our goals; this at the beginning, means to be focused like a laser, at the end to become free from what is meaningless
• Be free from the desires – We learn how to control and to be wary of desire (starting from the most unnecessary and artificial ones), in order to limit the consequences that it implies (suffering, incompleteness, etc.)
• Body control – We learn to know and deeply feel our body, to optimize it, to understand its limits and to extend its functionalities
• Awareness – We learn to see the things for what they really are and not for what we (or the others) would them to be or not
• Problem solving – We learn how to sistematically divide, analyze and solve or accept the problems that our life will put on our way; we learn to face the difficulties with concreteness, positivity and determination
• Comprehension – We learn to see the things from the point of view of the others to understand them and avoid all the useless contrasts; for example, this does not mean to be kind for abitude, it means to be kind because we understand the dynamics and contexts of which the others are part
• Balance – We try to balance our lives between the right self-esteem and the necessary humility; this means that no one is special (we are matter/energy in motion, without merits or demerits) but that at the same time we are all partakers of something incredibly special, life
• Discover our life scale – We learn to shed light on the order of the values (love, money, family, friedship, , etc.) that is in our head to gain awareness and to change what we want in what we need
• Juxtapositions – We try to create and use juxtapositions, unorthodox methods to solve our problems and always have another option/possibility to reach our goals (in training, in combat, in life, etc.)
• The only certainty – Last but not least, we come to the realization that the only certainty is that there are no certainties; we always work mentally and only on the rationally probable, thus always remaining open to new ways
• …

Needless to say, these are extremely ambitious and complex objectives, but the meaning of life lies in their own research.

A note by Master Kongling – There are no tricks or shotcomings. As it happens for the physical skills of 6 Dragons Kung Fu, their acquisition is not automatic, we need deep discipline, preparation and concentration. The quality level of acquisition off each point will be inevitalbly proportional to our commitment.

In the next article of this series, we will list all the skills of 6 Dragons Kung Fu.