FLAMING WATERDROPS

non-traditional kick Creating our individual style is a natural process. Everyone develops their style automatically. This statement is general but can be applied to any specific field—martial arts, combat sports, and self-defence are no exceptions. People who practice fighting are constantly creating their own fighting styles. They are, consciously or unconsciously, the creators of their unique approach to combat. Whatever one is learning, only a part of it will truly be absorbed. Another part will be automatically rejected by the self. Moreover, every absorbed element is filtered through a person’s individuality. The evolving individual fighting style becomes distinct from the traditionally practiced style. In other words, by practicing conventional techniques, one is also developing an invisible, personal fighting style—what we can call the InFi style. For example, someone studying Wing Chun kung fu or Kyokushinkai karate is guided by teachers and improved within the framework of tr...

You can scoop water, but you cannot grip it or crush it. Water makes no effort to be high; it naturally seeks the lowest point. If you try to raise it or strike it, it resists and pushes back. It has no will to serve what is claimed—it simply serves. Water nourishes all things. It waters flowers, sustains living beings, cleanses, softens, and embraces. Water always tries to come to rest, yet it cannot be stopped until it reaches its final destination. If you place something in its path, it finds a way around. It can bring down barriers. It seeps through the smallest cracks. Water clings stubbornly to some things, yet it only serves: washing, carrying, softening, cleansing, and shaping. It can evaporate or freeze when influenced. It is unbreakable and invulnerable. It has no shape of its own, yet it can take any shape. Water is clear and transparent—it conceals nothing. If undisturbed, you can see yourself reflected in it. But if you stir it, your reflection becomes distorted—just as ...