TWO PERSPECTIVES IN EVERY SITUATION
Practicing chi kung enables us to be always positive
Question
I have always been amazed by your capacity of always making the best of every situation. At the courses, I saw how some people were rude to you but somehow you where able to turn the situation around and make a win - win situation. In fact, in all my years in Shaolin Wahnam I have always witnessed in you a very inspiring way of dealing with people of all cultures, races and religions. And to be honest, I have not met until date anyone with better skills than you in matter of dealing with people.
What is the secret of your success when dealing with people? Is this success caused by your Chi Kung practice? If so, could you share with us which skills have you found more useful for this purpose and why?
Santiago
Answer
Thank you for your kind words.
There are always two perspectives to every situation – the good and the bad, or yin and yang in chi kung training.
What about a bad situation? Is there a good perspective to a bad situation. Yes, there is always a good perspective even to a bad situation. The question is whether a person can see the benefit of the good perspective, and more importantly to act on it.
Let us take a bad situation. Someone is sick. The bad perspective is that he suffers because he is sick. The good perspective is that he will recover, and practice chi kung so that he will not be sick in future.
Someone has lost his job. The bad perspective is that he will not get income from his job. The good perspective is that he can get a better paying job, or better still become a boss himself.
A person met a serious motor accident. The bad perspective is that he has to be hospitalized. The good perspective is that he has not died. He has a chance to live a better life than before.
The good perspective cannot change the existing bad situation. If a situation is bad, it is bad no matter how well a person thinks about it. But how he thinks about it has a direct effect on the future unfolding of his life.
If he thinks badly, he feels badly and the future is likely to turn out to be bad for him. If he thinks well, immediately he feels better, and the future is likely to turn well for him.
My chi kung practice certainly contributes greatly to my success in dealing with people, including people who are rude to me. But I had two very good foundations. I was a boy scout and later an assistant scout master in school which gave me good training. Secondly, my father taught me, since I was small, to be courteous and humble.
Besides giving me some of the happiest moments of my life, scouting also provided me good training in dealing with people. Scout Law number 5 states that a scout is courteous. Scout Law number 8 advises a scout to smile in all circumstances. When a person is courteous and smiles at all times, as well as is humble, as taught by my father, he has a great advantage when dealing with people.
Many people know that to be courteous, cheerful and humble is a great advantage, but they may not be able to do so. Here is where chi kung training comes in. Chi kung training not only opens people’s heart, therefore making them possible to be courteous, cheerful and bumble if they choose to be, but also gives them desirable qualities like strength, courage, mental clarity and quickness of thought and action to be so.
One of the best advice came from Emiko, who said that every problem is an opportunity for improvement. When a person is rude to you, you have a problem. You can choose to be rude back and both become unhappy, or you can choose to turn the table round and both become happy.
Suppose a student in class was rude to you. You told him to repeat an exercise, and he answered rudely that he already knew how to do it. You could shout to him saying that it was an order and as a student he had to obey your order. Or you could tell him cheerfully that he might know how to perform the exercise in a mediocre manner, but if he did it well he would have benefits that could enrich his daily life.
One needs strength and courage to be courteous, cheerful and humble, and needs mental clarity and quickness of thought and action to turn the table round in achieve a win-win situation. The courses in the coming UK Summer Camp will provide all these qualities.
Chi kung provides the strength and courage to be courteous, cheerful and humble
The above article is reproduced from the thread Applying and Deepening the Fundamental Skills of Chi Kung in the Shaolin Wahnam Discussion Forum.
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