Everything happens in the universe begins with intention. The classic quote known as the Upanishads dictates, “You are what your deepest desire is. As your desire is, so is your intention. As your intention is, so is your will. As your will is, so is your deed. As your deed is, so is your destiny.”
An intention is a directed impulse of consciousness that contains the potentials form of that which you aim to proceed. Our first WingChun form, Siu Nim Tao (小念頭), is translated as small intention. It includes key techniques in WingChun and each small section has its own aim in practice, and various meanings in applications. Once you learn the movements of the form, it must be practiced repeatedly with technical accuracy, power, and speed. It also designed to focus your intention and power into a single technique.
Observation and intention are intimately related. Like Heisenberg’s Uncertainty Principle, which states that we cannot observe something without changing what we are observing. According to Heisenberg, there is no such thing as an independent observer, who can sit on the sidelines watching nature run its course, without influencing it. In quantum physics, how we observe a particle in a subatomic system determines what it becomes.
In the same sense, within WingChun system, the way we observe ourselves and our opponents determines what becomes of both of these. So, then, how do we make our intentions manifest during the WingChun training?
These 3 things: Your Will, your Plans/Thoughts, and your Focus.
Your will to train and executing the techniques precisely, and your plans for the the training, which broadly includes from adjusting your training schedule, to how your WingChun techniques aligns into sequences, based on your training partner’s motions. Focus has less to do with determination and more to do with observation, looking out for opportunities that our intention leads to us. Focusing your thought on what you want to achieve is called intention.
The ideas of daily matters, such as families, friends, relationships, works, studies, egos, hate, love, etc… decrease to as little as possible, or even none, so that the WingChun practitioner may centralize oneself, only upon practicing, once you initiate the practice.
Let’s close it with this quote by Bob Goff, “Embrace the Uncertainty, some of the most beautiful chapters in our lives won’t have a title until much later.”