The idea of training the body to move based on concepts such as:

Philosophy of Keeping Yourself Centred in Wing Chun

sounds intriguing. I have been doing very basic Qiqong for around 30 years. It's a form of meditation.


[Aside: I found the writing style very clunky, you should practice some of your philosophy and make it flow, but perhaps that is the way you want to come across]

I used to train in martial arts. I think this notion of it having some grand philosophical aspect is nonsense. You're just taught how to fight, being given practical advice on how best to do so.

I used to train in martial arts. I think this notion of it have some grand philosophical aspect is nonsense. You're just taught how to fight and given practical advice on how best to do so. — Michael

That's not true. I've been training in martial arts for many years, mostly in Wing Chun, but also in Tae Kwon Do, and Aikido from the Far Eastern ones. All martial arts seek to teach a living philosophy, which goes beyond merely fighting in a physical sense. For example, all of them teach how to tame your ego, and how to use it to your advantage. At the higher levels it's all about the mind, and understanding your own weaknesses and strengths, which requires that you develop honesty.

Of course, in the Western world you'll find all of the martial arts diluted and packaged as consumer goods. This ruins and removes the most important aspects from them. In the West, folks who attend classes don't go there, mostly, because they want to become great fighters and want to live a certain lifestyle - but rather because they want some entertaining relaxation, and some way to socialise, or some way to defend themselves. If you consider who the martial arts were for historically, you will see that they were for warriors and spiritual purposes - people who wanted to, and liked to fight, or people who wanted to develop their body and mind together for spiritual purposes.

Take Miyamoto Musashi (and you should read his Book of Five Rings - almost at the same level as the Sun Tzu's Art of War) who was self-taught in the martial arts, never lost a single battle, and won around 60 duels (winning a duel meant killing the opponent for a Samurai, for the most part) as well as took part in a few battles. These people were dedicated and self-made, quite many of them. They were very driven. In today's Western world there's very few, if any, folk who are so driven. They were highly intelligent - they were adept at many other arts, not just the art of fighting. They were willing to dedicate their whole lives to martial arts. Find me someone who is willing to do that today - there's nobody. They go and train, but then they don't want to change their diet, they don't want to stop drinking alcohol, they don't want to stop partying, they don't want any of the discipline that necessarily has to be attached to the martial arts. And so, the martial arts as you find them in most places here in the West are jokes - where they teach you, as you say, only how to fight and give you practical advice about how to do so. But all that is useless, unless you train your mind and your spirit. Unless you develop the spirit of a champion, of a winner - to hell with all the practical advice, because it will come to naught. Unless you develop your honesty for example, you'll pick the wrong fight and get your ass kicked. Unless you can tame your ego, you'll beat someone up because he insulted you, and to jail you go. You have to be able to read yourself, and read your opponent accurately, and to do that you need to develop spiritual virtues and discipline.

Furthermore, no champion can be attached to, or care about worldly matters - because if you do, you'll renounce your long-term goals and compromise them in favour of some short-term returns. If you really want to win, you'll never do that because you've learned discipline. You've learned not to care, not to be interested in worldly goods which are easy to lose, and hard to keep. You can live with little food if you have to, you can live without sex if you have to, you can live without alcohol, you can live without any worldly pleasure. That is discipline and strength. Martial arts originally taught that, because your Sifu could do anything with you. They could beat you, they could make you take the trash out, do the dishes, anything. Because you'd live with them while you learned. You wouldn't learn just fighting, but you'd learn powerful living.

Actually philosophy of martial arts also deals with life notion. Here is an interesting article: http://gowingchun.com/philosophy-of-keeping-yourself-centred-in-wing-chun.html

My martial arts philosophy is to "get your retaliation in first". Seems to work.