If you want to learn Kung Fu - or anything else for that matter - then approaching with the right mindset is critical. It really does make the difference between rapid success and a very long, hard struggle. In this video, Master Iain recounts an old ‘Kung Fu parable’ which makes this easy to understand.

Every experienced teacher will empathise with this. Master Iain has been teaching Kung Fu since 1987 and believes that this is the single most important step on the path to success! So watch this video, take good note and massively speed up your progress!

Full Video Transcript

Empty your cup.

This is one of my favorite, uh, Kung Fu parables. A parable is a story which has a meaning, which has a point, which has a lesson. Now this is a story set in the old days of kung fu. The golden days in China. And even in the days of my teacher Master Tan's youth, most people lived in villages without a great transport, network.

It was quite hard to travel beyond your village. So, it wasn't like now you didn't have a choice of, oh you know, I'll look up all sorts of kung fu clubs on the internet and choose which one I want. You are grateful to find someone who would teach you.

So usually you learn with either a family member or the village Kung Fu teacher. And it was only if you were very dedicated and very good, but maybe you would progress to a, a higher level teacher. A real master. And our story is about a young man in China. Who loves Kung Fu and actually, he's very good at it. And ever since he was a boy, he spent all his free time training Kung Fu, progressing in Kung Fu, and, actually, he's really very good at it.

And he comes to an age when his teacher says, 'Look, I've taught you what I know. I've taught you what I can. Now you're no longer a boy, you're turning into a man, and it's time for you to leave the village and travel China until you find a real Kung Fu Master. And then ask the master to take you as a student.'

And the young man is very keen, he's very dedicated. So he takes the advice, he gathers together his most important belongings things he can carry and sets off towards the big city. And all on the way, he's asking 'Can anybody recommend a Kung Fu Master?' And he travels for a long time. And he picks up rumors, he talks to people, and a pattern emerges. There's, uh, one name, one master, that people keep recommending. And gradually he forms the opinion that this is the guy, this is the master, this is who I want to be my teacher.

So he travels to find the Master's house. And in those days, it wasn't the same as now. You don't just go up and knock on the Master's door. That would be seen as very rude and disrespectful, and no good Master took rude disrespectful students. Instead, what the student had to do was wait outside the door of the Master's house in the hopes that the Master would speak with them. And this used to happen a lot and you could be there for quite a while, you could be there for a week sitting outside somebody's house. Well, this is just what he does.

He quietly, respectfully, sits outside the house of the Master, and he sees the Master come in and come out. He sees the Master has noticed him, but he has to continue waiting patiently until, yeah after a while the master says,

'Young man I noticed that you've been sitting outside of my door. Perhaps you like to tell me what's going on?'

He says 'Master. Master, I've heard heard that you're the best. Yeah you're Kung Fu's the best, you're the best teacher, you're the one that everybody aspires to train with. And Master, I've traveled a long way because I want to ask you to take me as a student.'

Master looks at him and he thinks and he says, 'Well maybe, but if you want me to take you as a student, first of all you can have to pass a test.'

'That's fine.' He says 'That's fine, I've been expecting this. I've been waiting for this. Master, what do you want me to do? Now, now I can, I can show you all my routines, yeah. And show you my techniques, yeah. You can test how strong I am and if you want me to fight one of your students, that's fine, yeah. Just tell me what you want and I'll do it. Traveled a long way and I really want you to take me as a student. You know I've trained all my life, yeah, I can do all the techniques, I can do all the maneuvers, yeah. Just tell me what you want me to do.'

Master looks at him and he's not too impressed. He says, 'Well, first thing, sit down with me. I'm going to drink some tea.'

This is very normal in China, you know you go to visit somebody then the first thing you do is you drink tea. We drank a lot of tea in China. So the master takes his time and he makes his tea.

And when he pours tea for the young man, very carefully with a very steady hand he pours the right to the top of the cup so it's almost overflowing. You got that kind of bubble up on top on the surface - it's called a meniscus. The surface of the tea is actually above the edge of the cup. Really full to the brim. And the student goes to take the tea cup and the master says 'Stop.'

And hands him the teapot and he says, 'How I want you to do is empty the rest of the tea into that cup but don't spill one drop. And if you can pour more tea into that cup, I'll take you as a student. And if you can't, you're leaving.'

And the young guy, he's absolutely devastated. He expected that he was going to have to show his Kung Fu, show how good he was, show how strong he was, show how fast he was.

He's got this stupid task, pouring tea in a cup that's already full. And he really wants to train, what he really wants to learn from this teacher.

But what can he do? So he sits there and he thinks about it, there got to be a trick. There's got to be something I'm missing. There's got to be a way of doing this. He thinks hard, he thinks for a long time but in the end, yes, he look the master in the eye and he says, 'master, yeah, I don't know what to say. I'm truly sorry but I failed the test. Cause I can't see any way at all to pour more tea into that cup without spilling it.'

And the master looks a student straight in the eye and he says, 'That's because it's impossible. You can't pour more tea into that cup because it's already full.' He says, 'That cup is you. You're so full of what you know. You're so full of how good you are. You're so full of your kung fu, and there's no point in me trying to put any more into you.'

'Because I got about as much chance as you have of pouring more tea into that cup. So, take your bag and leave. But, if you can come back having emptied your cup, you can come back as an empty cup. As a blank sheet. You can come back with a humility to start again from the beginning. Then, I'll take you as a student.' And that's one of the most important messages if you want to learn Kung Fu.

"Empty your cup" Don't think you know it all already. Be prepared to learn because it's only if you're prepared to learn that we can teach you.