In memory of my teacher, Grand Master Koo Ham King, I would like to share my reflections on the special relationship between a Sifu, mentor and the apprentice.
In Chinese culture, the pursuit of spiritual cultivation and self development hinges on seeking a great masterful mentor to guide and polish one's life. This is romantically portrait by the Star War trilogy, the Jedi training is based on this profound relationship between the Jedi master and the Padawans--Jedi Knights.
I started my studies with Master Koo in 1976 while I was attending Princeton University. It was a very good complimentary field of studies, an Eastern direct experiential learning and Western theoretical cerebral mix. At Princeton, I studied psychology and classical Chinese as well as modern dance. With Master Koo, I learned the way of life and Tao.
Master Koo, or Sifu (Chinese for teaching father) was born in a turbulent, chaotic time. At the age of 8, he was a skinny sick-looking child whom his parent worried that he might not grow up. Hence, his father engaged a personal friend, a retired imperial governor who had studied Taiji at the imperial court. For the next four years, his teacher taught the little boy, Koo, only one move, Bear Walk. he would practice this one taiji movement back and forth--from one end of the rice paddies to the other end. Within four years, the little boy's health had completely restored to full vigor. Only then, did his teacher teach the boy the comprehensive system of Taiji Quan and Qigong.
At the age of 16, he joined the Tung Meng Society, a revolutionary underground society aimed at overthrowing the Manchu Dynasty. He was one of the youngest members. He was captured and ready be executed when the revolution overthrowing the Manchu Imperium succeeded. He was set freed by his comrades.
Koo then continued his education oversea in Japan, studying law and return in China to serve as a judge. However, he then realized that true revolution is in the mind; he became the headmaster of a primary school of modern education in Shanghai. The old Confucian system had become an encumbrance for the Chinese in facing the rapid challenge of a new period of human history.
Koo's whole life was filled with this generous spirit of self sacrifice to serve humanity. Having gone through revolution, world war and civil war, in his old age, he continued his service through the transmission of the light in the Taoist inner alchemical practice of Taiji and Qigong practice.
Every lesson with him, I felt deep gratitude, as if he had carried a fire over war, distant terrain and personal tragedies to bring this ancient practice into light. This inspired me to maintain a dedicated cultivation daily without being distracted by the little things of life.
My relationship with Sifu can be likened to two tea bags,
jasmine tea and green tea. Both are soaking in a single tea pot.
Each is infused with the taste of the other. Sifu's life was open
to all his students. And I felt my life was also lay bare in front
of him. It is this bare, raw honesty between two people that
allow the magic of the transmission of the Tao. In observing how
he integrated between life and practice inspired me to find my own way
of creative living. I was privileged to see how Sifu had lived each
moment with such full conviction and commitment.
Sifu used to share the secret of his power breakfast with me which was black tea and a chocolate bar. During those breakfast, he would relate the stories of his training with other masters, and his travels in the Amazon jungle in search of the origin of some sacred mantra. I realized then that formal teaching occured in class, but that the informal teaching while having tea or taking a walk with him to see the Cherry trees blossoming in Spring was equally important. Without the informal lesson, my studies with him would have been utterly dried and incomplete.
I have continued his lineage of the two-tea-bags in one tradition in my own teaching.
Our Dantao school is deeply indebted to Master Koo for
his generousity and wisdoms.
I know that the essence of his being lives like a tiny
star in the life of each of his students, serving as a guiding light in
this time of dark turbulence.
by Sat Chuen Hon
Fall of 1999, on a cool, blue-sky morning.
revised May, 2004