“Rabbit transforms into Tiger, Tiger Transforms into Spiritual Dragon” Is the way my teacher Xing Yi Quan Master Mike Bingo expressed the core learning stages of the hero’s journey in lineage martial arts.
New students begin as rabbits with no power or skill and a timid attitude. A rabbit’s defense is to listen for danger and then run fast if there is some.
A good teacher can then train their skills and physiques and help them build their courage until they become fierce tigers able to protect themselves and their family. When you truly have the Tiger energy others look at you, they know immediately you are no longer a rabbit and will fight with real power and ferocity.
Finally, a great teacher can help the fierce tigers evolve into Spiritual Dragons who use their strength, wisdom, and compassion to serve their community wisely and avoid conflict and strife that would cause fighting. The spiritual dragons are so powerful and wise they are not overawed by the challenges of life and instead of struggling amid conflict they playfully create peace with harmonious actions, words, and thoughts. When confronted with the energy of a true Dragon, the opponent quickly realizes they have no hope of victory and they had better calm down and work on the peaceful harmonious solution!
I love how the student who is becoming a hero develops their Wu De, or martial virtue, the morality, and ethics of a warrior, as they also develop their physical prowess in martial arts.
In today’s world practicing mixed martial arts is incredibly popular and a great way to build practical fighting skills. The addition of also training morality, ethics and virtues sets classic lineage arts apart. MMA is great at producing fierce tigers, less so at producing spiritual dragons. Classical martial arts like Kung Fu try to turn every student into a spiritual dragon. Not everyone makes it, but the goal is creating great people who create wonders for their communities helping everyone and are also incredibly healthy and able to defend themselves. If you teach people martial skills without cultivating good character and strong morality you run a great and real risk of training bullies or thugs.