“One often meets his destiny on the road he takes to avoid it.”
Master Oogway, Kung Fu Panda
When people see some things as beautiful,
other things become ugly.When people see some things as good,
other things become bad.
Being and non-being create each other.
Difficult and easy support each other.
Long and short define each other.
High and low depend on each other.
Before and after follow each other.
Therefore the Master
acts without doing anything
and teaches without saying anything.
Things arise and she lets them come;
things disappear and she lets them go.
She has but doesn’t possess.
Acts but doesn’t expect.
When her work is done, she forgets it.
That is why it lasts forever.
Tao Te Ching, Chapter 2
Translation by Stephen Mitchell
A good athlete can enter a state of body-awareness in which the right stroke or the right movement happens by itself, effortlessly, without any interference of the conscious will [anyone who has leisurely swung a golf club and nailed a fairway shot knows exactly what this means.] This is a paradigm for non-action: the purest and most effective form of action. The game plays the game; the poem writes the poem; we can’t tell the dancer from the dance.
This “nothing” is, in fact, everything. It happens when we trust the intelligence of the universe in the same way that an athlete or dance entrusts the superior intelligence of the body. Hence Lao-tse’s [Tao’s philosophical father] emphasis on softness. Softness means the opposite of rigidity, and is synonymous with suppleness, adaptability, endurance. Anyone who has seen a t’ai chi or aikido master doing not-doing will know how powerful this softness is.
Lao-tse’s central figure is a man or woman whose life is in perfect harmony with the way things are. This is not an idea; it is a reality. I have seen it. The Master has mastered Nature; not in the sense of conquering it, but of becoming it.
You might hear someone say something like, “The conventional wisdom on the subject is that you don’t stick a Q-tip in your ear…” and some such.
Conventional wisdom actually means a commonly held assumption, belief or understanding that on the face of it appears plausible, but after careful scrutiny is erroneous.
For example, the conventional wisdom in Medieval times was that the sun and stars revolved around the earth, not vice versa, and that the world was flat. On the face of it, both would seem to be true, but after further investigation, both were proven false.
Therefore, conventional wisdom is not true wisdom.
In the Old Testament, it was conventional wisdom among the Israelites that the Philistines were giant Ark-stealing marauders who could best Israel’s greatest warriors any day of the week. With their eyes closed. One hand tied behind their backs. With the sun in their eyes.
So fearful were the Israelites that they could not even engage the enemy in battle, especially against the Philistines’ giant Achilles-like hero Goliath, whose legendary skills were the stuff of legend.
Conventional wisdom among the Israelites was that the Philistines and their greatest warrior Goliath could not be beaten.
Until along came the lowly, small shepherd boy (you guessed it) David. The brave young man proudly stepped forward to take on the giant. So unlikely was a warrior was he that the adults in the room tried to talk him out of it. You could almost imagine these flustered commanders scratching their heads over what to do with these annoying Philistines when a boy enters the room to save them. You can almost hear the W.C. Fields tone in their voices, “Step away kid, you bother me.”
Until, of course, the commanders shooed him away and realized there was no one left signing up at the “I wanna fight Goliath” table. Reluctantly they acceded.
He defied conventional wisdom.
And the small, shepherd boy defied conventional wisdom yet again when he refused to gird up his loins with armor, nor fill his hands with sword and shield. Instead, he armed himself with only a slingshot – and not the Bart Simpson or Dennis the Menace kind of slingshot that you can actually aim and fire like a bow and arrow. No, David used something more like a whirling projectile that represented the kind of primitive technology of a hand-held catapult.
Now, I’m not about to say that Po is the David figure in the David and Goliath story – at least not in the sense that the small underdog takes on and vanquished the undisputed heavyweight champeen of the world (though that theme would also work). Rather, Po is something of a David figure in that he is the unconventional device that takes on and vanquishes conventional wisdom.
Further, Po is the unconventional hero who begins his quest in a conventional manner. He trains like a Confucian Kung Fu warrior… and fails. He practices the conventional methods. He studies in the conventional manner… and fails.
Po is the unconventional character who is destined to be the unconventional Dragon Warrior. He is destined to battle the unconventional foe Tai Lung.
All of this is frustrated, however, because he, his teacher and his peers are stuck in convention. They are stuck in conventional wisdom.
people become powerless.
If you overvalue poessessions,
people begin to steal.
The Master leads
by emptying people’s minds
and filling their cores,
by weakening their ambition
and toughening their resolve.
He helps people lose everything
they know, everything they desire,
and creates confusion
in those who think they know.
Practice not doing,
And everything will fall into place.
Tao Te Ching, Chapter 3
Translation by Stephen Mitchell
Master Oogway is at the Peach Tree of Heavenly Wisdom. Shifu brings him conventional wisdom – the bad news that Tai Lung has escaped prison and is on his way to destroy them.
Oogway: Ah, Shifu, there is just news. There is no good or bad.
Shifu: Master, your vision… Your vision was right. Tai Lung has broken out of prison! He is on his way!
Oogway (alarmed): That is bad news. [a little Taoist irony]
Despite the news, Oogway tries to disabuse the conventional wisdom of Tai Lung’s power with the unconventional thinking of how he will be defeated.
“The panda will not fulfill his destiny, nor yours, until you let go the illusion of control,” says Oogway.
“Illusion?” responds Shifu.
“Yes,” says Oogway. “Look at this tree, Shifu. I cannot make it blossom when it suits me, nor make it bear fruit before its time.”
“But there are things we can control,” cries Shifu striking the tree. “I can control when the fruit will fall!” as a peach strikes him on the head, causing Oogway to laugh sympathetically.
“And I can control when to plant the seed!” shouts Shifu who karate chops the peach in half, striking the pit from the peach and jamming it into the ground.
“Ah, yes,” Oogway smoothly replies. “But no matter what you do, the seed will grow into a peach tree. You may wish for an apple or an orange, but you will get a peach.”
“A peach cannot defeat Tai Lung!” cries Shifu.
“Maybe it can if you are willing to guide it. To nurture it. To believe in it.,” Oogway says, gently swirling earth over the peach pit to grow it.
“But how? How? I need you, Master!” Shifu pleads.
Oogway replies wistfully, “No. No. You just need to believe. Promise me, Shifu. Promise me you will believe.”
Oogway disappears in a swarm of peach petals, leaving Shifu to rely on his own resources.
This scene is a turning point for Shifu as much as it will be for Po. Though they have not fully grasped Oogway’s admonitions, it is at the Peachtree of Heavenly Wisdom (we should all have one of these) where Shifu’s Confucianism clashes with Oogway’s Taoism, or where conventional wisdom is confronted with unconventional thinking.
Whereas Shifu would persist with the conventional by forcing Po to comply with the structured, regimented intensity of Kung Fu training and conditioning, he might eventually develop a panda that can fight, but he would never be able to unleash the panda that is to become the Dragon Warrior.
Oogway is saying that the Dragon Warrior is within the panda; it just needs nurturing. Like the peach, it can be forcefully cultivated, but it will never be more than a peach. It is what it is. It will be what it will be. But if Shifu will allow the peach to be a peach, and a panda to be a panda, the power within will emerge.
Think of the atom, which zings by us, around us and through us constantly. We don’t know it. We can’t see it or feel it (unless that atom is radioactive). Yet when the atom is split, it unleashes terrible power.
Shifu willing to try, though he’s not convinced in his heart, to train Po as the Dragon Warrior. He is placing faith in the confidence of Oogway, but he has not yet believed in his heart as Oogway asked him to.
Earlier in this book we explored the confrontation between a very frustrated Shifu and very exasperated (and frightened) Po when Po attempted to quit and run away upon hearing the news that Tai Lung was on his way to destroy them.
In their exchange, Po asserted his defeat. He couldn’t take on Tai Lung and he certainly couldn’t be the Dragon Warrior. Shifu, confused about the wu wei lesson Master Oogway was teaching him about Po and the Dragon Warrior, easily accepted Po’s – and his – defeat.
Here conventional wisdom turns convention on its head. They realize – with all the old thinking – that Po is not the conventional warrior and conventional training won’t turn him into the Dragon Warrior. So they accept, for now, defeat.
The conventional warriors – the Furious Five – take off to fight the unconventional foe Tai Lung (also the “impossible dream, the unbeatable foe”) … and LOSE.
OK. So I wanted you to read what I have to say about all this before I post the video above.
Meanwhile…
Shifu accidentally discovers Po executing perfect Kung Fu moves… in the kitchen and pantry. Po is breaking through wooden boards, high kicking cabinets all while trying to get food. He performs a perfect split 10 feet off the ground… to get almond cookies.
Here the Confucianist and conventionally wise Shifu has his Taoist and unconventional epiphany.
Po, noticing he has been caught in the act of destroying a kitchen with brilliant Kung Fu, says, “What? This? It’s just an accident.”
Shifu echoes Oogway’s earlier admonitions that things happen for a reason. He now understands Oogway’s unconventional wisdom that Po is unconventional and that he is a “peach.” Shifu can almost hear Oogway’s admonition to treat Po like a peach and he will – Shifu too – fulfill his destiny. Shifu realizes he will have to nurture a peach into a peach, not an orange or an apple. He must train the unconventional warrior with unconventional lessons.
Shifu replies, now with brilliant clarity, “There are no accidents.”
Shifu begins Po’s training by taking him not to their gymnasium and courtyard, but to a secluded place.
Po says, “I know you’re trying to be all mystical and Kung Fuey, but could you at least tell me where we’re going?”
Shifu says, “When you focus on Kung Fu, when you concentrate… you stink. But perhaps that is my fault. I cannot train you the way I have trained the Five. I now see that the way to get through to you… is with this.” Shifu reveals a bowl of dumplings.
Po and Shifu engage in masterful – if inelegant and unorthodox – Kung Fu sparring over a dumpling. Po reveals strength and talent he never knew he possessed. He jumps, he flips, he is supernatural, all in a determined effort to challenge Shifu for a dumpling. Po gets it using his own strength and instincts. He fights the way he is naturally inclined – based on food.
When he wins the dumpling over Shifu, he chooses not to eat it. He is enlightened. They are both enlightened.
You have to find your power. You can train in the conventional manner. You can go to work every day in the conventional manner. You can live life, day by day, in the conventional manner. You might succeed, you might even thrive. Good for you. But it will not be that until you dive down deep into your soul, your identity, your true nature that you will discover your true power.
Go after the Big Thing. Only until you test yourself will you really discover who you are and your great strength.
