[ Change or die. You are here to evolve, and that means transformation—rarely pleasant, always necessary if we wish to do more than languish in a past of illusions. That which does not change dies soon thereafter. It’s important to keep your training fresh and stimulating; this usually will mean putting some quality hours into solitary disciplines.

[ Comfort is dangerous, seek difficult. In training, eat bitter every day. Don’t forget to hammer basics: they will keep your workouts honest—and provide you with powerful tools to manifest new ideas.

[ Bitter alone is a poor diet. Eating bitter every day is only one side of tri-lateral equation. One thousand kicks daily will not stretch your mind’s rational capabilities, nor will it feed psychic circuits of intuition. A complete Art of leg maneuvers combines proper attention, visualization, and conscious breath control patterns, along with repetitions of well-aligned kicking form.

[ Suffering is a great Teacher, but life-threatening poverty is not Noble. It is a fact of human existence that we learn a great deal more from our struggles than from complacency. But if we are to advance in training, we must maintain a decent standard of living, thus guarding Three Treasures of Temple.

[ Chasing illusions of wealth, position, status, social power will stunt your evolution. Modern men have been divested, emasculated, and tamed through social programming by culture of commerce. We are told to defend marketing strategies, bottom lines, and aggressive growth policies of business cartels. These social programmers love money. What do you love?

Why have bulk of great men retreated to natural environment and even harsh circumstance, with only basics of survival to sustain them, while they cultivated excellence? The answer to this question brings us to integration of First Principle with Second: "Nature shows Way." Correct me if I am misguided, but I can't seem to recall advice from any culture in synch with its environment that directs us to "come downtown" for wisdom and health.

When a human extricates himself from rhythms of Earth he becomes a foreigner in his own house. The strident make-up of modern life-style has left most of us without means of carrying forward natural abilities and skills we inherited as a creature of natural rhythms.

The Zen Tao Ch'uan Fa group recently met with me for a training session that lasted 3 ½ hours. That wasn't too radical in itself (we've met over 2 ½ days before, isolated in woods), but toss in heavy snowstorm that swirled around us, and you get idea. Actually, maybe you don't: we've found that it's difficult to impart to observers changes in self-regard, increase in focus and intent, and more importantly, appreciation of just being outside.