Kung Fu Destiny

Qing Ming Jie (Qīng Míng Jié 清明節), commonly known as Tomb Sweeping Day in English, is a time for families to get together and honor their ancestors.  This day is a day for families to come together spending time in reflection for those that have come before them.  The family will tend to the grave plots of their ancestors sweeping the tombs and making offerings of food, tea, wine, or paper accessories to their ancestors.  These offerings are a display of remembrance and affection, a way in which families can demonstrate that they both remember their ancestors as well as understand the contributions their ancestors have made to their families and communities and that without them things would not be the same.

This year Qing Ming Jie was on April 4^th, 2009.  Da Shi Xiong Kevin Sears and myself decided that this day would be an auspicious one for the Jiu Long Pai to erect its ancestral shrine.  The installation of the ancestral shrine is an important event in the life of any Gong Fu School.  This shrine is created to honor the martial ancestors of the practitioners within the system.  Without their insight and teaching, their hard work, and their sacrifice we would not be able to study these great arts.  Our school is very new and is an amalgamation of many systems of martial knowledge that we have learned over the years as we study martial arts.  As we work to continue learning and create our own lineage and traditions we still want to honor all of those that have influenced us and helped us to achieve our current place on our journey  in the martial arts.  So even though we do not have our own lineage, we put up our shrine to honor all of the lineages and masters that have taught us and helped us in our search for self betterment through the martial arts.

Da Shi Xiong Kevin Sears and myself both follow the Buddhist traditions and feel that the martial arts are an extension of Buddhism and that they two cannot be separated.  The teachings of Buddhism help to shape your martial learning and your practice of martial arts is the practice of Buddhism.  Therefore we observed Qing Ming Jie and the installation of our ancestral shrine with a Buddhist ceremony.  The ceremony first cleanses the objects that will be placed on the shrine.  Each item represents an aspect of the system or the philosophies that we believe in.  For example it is common to have a small statue of General Guan Yu.  He is the patron saint of martial artists and was renown for his great skill as a martial artist, tactician, and general as well as his Loyalty.  Once the items were placed, a small tea ceremony is performed.  The tea is used as an offering for the ancestors so that they know we remember and honor them.  Then Da Shi Xiong Sears and myself each drank from the same cup of tea signifying our unification in the creation of this system and its values. Next the students are invited to offer incense at the ancestral shrine.  This act allows the students to honor the ancestors and the smoke from the incense carries their hopes and aspirations to the ancestors in hopes of their blessing.  Da Shi Xiong Sears and myself make an offering of incense last, and then we bow to the ancestral shrine.  Once complete we kowtow to each other to show our honor towards each other and our unity and then we kowtow to the students.  In this way the family honors each other.  Finally we call the spirits to observe and witness and call out the name of the school so that they know what it is we have called them for and that we hope for their blessings and protection of our new school and its students.

I am glad that the school got the chance to come together as a family and observe this important holiday in Chinese Culture.  The training area now feels more complete with the ancestral shrine in place.  I now feel like the training space that we share with Apex is a little more our own.  I hope that our school will continue to show its unity and brotherhood as we all work together to learn more on our journey through the martial arts.