One World

A scene from the martial arts movie "The Grandmaster." The push hands lesson symbolizes the higher realization that martial arts philosophy can lead to. It is a practice to be shared with men and women of the world. A Youtube commenter (see below) explains it very well. We can be limited by our independent styles and visions or we can become limitless by joining in our styles and visions. One World!

crawlFace 2 years ago (edited)

(Part 2 of 2)

Ip realizes he cannot or should not actually or directly break the cake.  His greater understanding of the situation is that a torch and legacy is being passed on to him through the grandmaster, so the same understanding is applied to the technique to break the cake: the grandmaster must break the cake or through the grandmaster or together with the grandmaster the cake can be broken.

What Ip realizes is not the limitation of the grandmaster’s skill but how the cake naturally limits and restricts the grandmaster.  In ideology/theory, the grandmaster is bound by the cake.  Ultimately the grandmaster has to hold the cake and keep it from Ip.  Ip realizes he will not go for the cake but he will go for the grandmaster.  This is why on Ip’s third consideration he readies his hand past the cake and in challenge of the grandmaster.

The grandmaster can defend the cake but not truly or entirely defend himself.  In harmony with this and the grandmaster, engaging, Ip reaches the position where he is able to make contact with the grandmaster and transfer the energy/chi through to the cake.

Technically Ip never actually/literally breaks the cake.  It was the energy/chi transfer from Ip through the grandmaster that breaks the cake. Or it takes both the grandmaster and Ip together to break the cake.

Through this process, Ip understands how to answer the riddle:

“The world is a big place; why limit it to North and south?”  the next sentence is key:

“It holds you back”.

(The limitation of having to hold on to the cake and defend the cake and treat the cake so specialized, the same limitation of only seeing North and South and country when ultimately it is all part of life everywhere)

“To you this cake is the country; to me it is much more.”

“If the Southern arts go far, what boundary is the North?”

-Meaning: since the north and south are each other’s border, each is as large or small as the other.  If one is large then so is the other.  No matter how far one expands they will still be together as borders of each other.  Ultimately: there is neither without the other.

The grandmaster confirms our analysis of Ip’s understanding and answer to the question:

“Well said.  All my life I have been the victor; my technique has never failed me.”

** “I never thought I’d see the limits of my own vision.”

-I was through those limits that Ip was able to effectively solve the riddle.  The grandmaster was bound by the bread, connected to the bread, so through the grandmaster the bread could be broken.

If Ip would have tried to directly break the bread itself he would have failed the riddle.