The Gompa Electronic News. Spring 1998. All contents © IAM Co.1998. Reprints for friends allowed. Distribution of contents for sale or profit is a violation of federal copyright laws. Reflections on Daoqiquan's Four Virtues by Keith Christian. (Editor's note: Daoqiquan is the name of the parent internal martial art system created by the Li family of Sichuan Province, China. It teaches the arts of Taijiquan, Baguazhang, Xingyiquan, Qigong and various other internal art practices.) Knowing others is wisdom; Knowing the self is enlightenment; Mastering others requires force; Mastering the self needs strength. Lao Dzu, Dao De Jing, Chapter 33. At the end of every class here at the Gompa we recite (all too often without much vigor) the following : "I honor the masters who came before me and seek to develop the Four Virtues. Honesty - to myself and others at all times. Humility - to all people in thoughts, words and deeds. Patience - I serve others according to their needs. Sincerity - is the foundation of my every action." We're typically tired at this point and the end of the day is now in sight. I'm so mindless of the ritual that I had to go and look up the four virtues just now and that's the problem. The virtues are so self evidently good ideas that I never felt the necessity to think about them. It was just part of the atmosphere of the school. Then one day my brain, sluggish from disuse, woke up and said, "Pay attention! Did you give an honest effort tonight? Were you humble towards your fellow students? Were you patient when your training partner was having difficulty with a technique? Were you sincere in your own training?" Lama Zurdwang, the Tibetan monk who taught the Li Family his Daoqiquan system, stressed that it could not be learned without mastering the four virtues. Was he just some moralistic busybody who was spreading the gospel according to himself? Or, instead, did he realize that a person lacking the four virtues literally had no foundation on which to build anything lasting and good? Let's examine the virtues in order. Honesty comes first because it is the most important virtue. It is foundational. You can be honest without showing a trace of humility, a shred of patience or an ounce of sincerity (granted, a small, narrow and extremely unpleasant type of honesty) but you cannot display any of those qualities without first possessing honesty. Honesty is best defined by its synonyms: integrity, truthfulness, uprightness, authenticity. It is exemplified by that part of us that gives the bank teller back the extra ten dollars he accidentally put into our envelope. Honesty is also speaking the truth when it not only might not gain us anything but might actually cost something. The truth, it is said, is a two-edged sword and cuts both ways. Therefore the virtue chosen to symbolize the T'ai Chi sword, the ch'ien, is honesty. The first virtue reads, "Honesty, to myself and others at all times". Honesty to others, I believe, is actually easier than honesty to oneself. Honesty to yourself is equally important but more slippery in nature, not exactly elusive but difficult to implement correctly. When assessing one's own strengths and weaknesses the temptation is to be "brutally honest" leaving little room for appreciating your own accomplishments. On the opposite end of the spectrum is the "I can do no wrong" attitude which sets you up for a nasty fall later on. This leads us into humility territory, which is next on our list. First of all, to paraphrase C.S. Lewis, humility is not talented men thinking that they are bumblers or attractive women thinking they are plain. Humility has much to do with self assessment, yes, but the statement reads "to all people in thoughts, words and deeds". Not meaning subservience but, instead, appreciation. Everybody on this earth has something that I can learn from them if I will just humble myself long enough to hear the lesson. The newest student in class can still get lucky and push me over and, if that happens, humility demands that I say, "Thank you!". I am in class in order to learn the martial arts and if a weakness is revealed how can I help but be appreciative? That's humility. Granted my ego will probably moan like a sick calf, but . . . . . Again, there can be no humility without honesty. False humility is related to pride, the biblical deadly sin. "I'm not worthy", the prideful person proclaims while thinking that it's about time he's been recognized for his possessions/abilities/accomplishments. "Patience, I serve others according to their needs." (This virtue structure is really beginning to shape up now.) Would anyone but a humble person deign to serve another? And how should this person serve? Patiently according to their needs. My Tai Chi brother doesn't need to hear the Way According to Keith just now, he needs me to hold still while he figures out the mechanics of a technique. A helper or servant must be patient in order to accomplish anything. What is patience without honesty? Not much, frankly. The patient person recognizes the scope of a task and says, "This job will take as long as it takes". It is the honest assessment of the work to be done balanced against the understanding of the price to be paid, whether in man-hours or money, that makes patience possible. Which brings us to Sincerity, "the foundation of my every action". I hate to say this but wisdom is where you find it . . . . sometimes even out of the mouth of a little green puppet. "Do or do not! There is no try!" Few statements as meaty as that one. Sincerity as laid out by Zerduong is about effort, action, intent. Doing something implies intent to accomplish action, trying something implies only an intent to attempt. See the difference? "I am going to climb that wall", versus, "I am going to try to climb that wall". Doing is sincere. If you cannot be sincere then why do a thing? Granted much of this is attitudinal but, frankly, I'd prefer that my surgeon or airline pilot did their best rather than just tried their best. Attitudes affect performance as well as our health. That's one reason we are advised to occasionally practice our forms as if we are masters. We just shouldn't expect any applause for twenty or thirty years. Once again, sincerity cannot exist without honesty and here we are back at the beginning. Everything comes back to honesty and it is a multifaceted sort of virtue that we are looking at here. It isn't just admitting to chopping down a cherry tree, though that is a very important side of this virtue. Honesty to "myself" comes first and that comes down to self assessment. Was I humble, giving weight to lessons that I may have heard before? Did I seek to gain new understanding of those lessons? Was I patient with my partner during applications practice, giving him the opportunity to learn the technique? And for that matter, have I been patient with myself concerning that same movement? Have I been sincere in my training? Was I earnestly working towards a goal? You may ask, "What does all of this have to do with the martial arts?" What, I ask in reply, do grapes have to do with wine? Everything in the world. The four virtues are more than just some pretty phrases we mindlessly mouth at the end of class. They are real values that we have to pursue in the same way that we practice our forms. Once we start to develop in this area then Daoqiquan will begin to manifest itself in our lives. Thoughts To Ponder. A man has to live with himself and he should see to it that he always has good company.

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