How did you come to be in Luxembourg?
As my father had introduced Hwa Rang Do to the United States, I have introduced Hwa Rang Do to Europe, first in the mid 1980s in Germany. However, my disciple from Italy, Chief Instructor Marco Mattiucci was most successful in Europe with over 15 clubs. So, I wanted to establish a European Headquarters in Italy, where I can focus on creating future leaders, instructors, and masters of Hwa Rang Do based out of Italy. However, there were some complications with acquiring a visa and this is when God intervened.
We had a very small club in Luxembourg at the time, which was taught by an Italian Instructor and they proposed the possibility that through Luxembourg a visa might be granted. I really had no knowledge of Luxembourg and never thought that I would end up calling it my home. After several months of the application process, I was accepted and now I am a full-time resident of Luxembourg. After being here now for almost a year, I find that there are many advantages and possibilities offered through the Luxembourg government agency for martial arts, FLAM (Flam Luxemboureoise des Arts Martiaux). They have really received us well. So much so that we are planning our next annual international event, WHRDA Black Sash Conference Seminars Championships 2018 in Luxembourg sponsored by FLAM. Coming to Luxembourg was truly a blessing in disguise. As they say, God works in mysterious ways.
It is my plan to establish a school for the future professional Hwa Rang Do leaders and instructors of the world in Luxembourg and currently I am accepting candidates for private apprenticeship in limited numbers. Anyone who is interested can contact info@hwarangdo.lu for further information.
My ultimate goal is to create a Hwa Rang Do Academy to raise, educate, and train orphaned children into world leaders of tomorrow as well as a live-in center for professional Hwarang Warriors as in ancient times. However, this time not from noble wealthy families, but from abandoned innocent lives.
Lastly, what do you feel about the current state of the Martial Arts?
I have stated many things of what Hwa Rang Do is in these pages so I do not need to reiterate it them. However, I want to bring about some clarity and maybe spark some further introspection and dialogue amongst the members of our martial arts community as well as the global community at large.
I feel once again the problems that we face as individuals in this world today lies in compartmentalization and specialization with the advent of greater technologies that further enhances our comfort, self-gratification, and self-pleasuring, which only benefits the few owners, masters of the system and not the individual as the individual can only know in part and can never understand the true purpose of the system. We are taught to do a specific task, which is groomed from an early age by determining what our interests are and where our talents lie. Then we go to school to get a specific degree, and after graduating we seek for a job that pays us for our skills. We pursue then the rest of lives for a paycheck to purchase goods and services that brings some temporary relief, satisfaction, and momentary pleasure from the uncertain chaotic world, which is constantly reinforced through the social media platform by computers and smart phones we are always connected to.
All human beings have the propensity for addiction and social media has become the most powerful addictive drug with the giant technology, and Internet companies becoming the most powerful drug dealers. We are all looking for the next high, the next thing to make us feel good, and whether it is real, surreal, or virtual is no longer relevant as long as it pleasures us. No one lives in reality anymore as we spend more and more time in the virtual augmented reality that increases our fantasy world of what pleases us, escaping the true realities and struggles of existence which ends up creating a generation of pleasure seekers with the shortest attention span yet forever empty and lost of meaning and purpose.
For this reason, I feel most strongly that we must within the martial arts community uphold, preserve, and disseminate the values, which are being stripped away from our society, from our youth. The traditional martial arts are the last bastion of noble values, the higher laws of honor, strength of character, loyalty and self-sacrifice.
The commercialization and dumbing down of ideas for easier consumption has also infiltrated the martial arts. They are trying to sell quicker, easier, sleeker versions to meet the expectations of the Millennials. God forbid when the reality of plugging in your brain to a computer, then instantly “I know kung-fu” becomes a reality. People these days are only interested in the external, material, and superficial and the rest is considered a waste, BS. It is all result oriented and we have forgotten that the journey, the experiences gained through struggle, the satisfaction gained from achievements of hard work, these are the things of value and the results are the reward. However, we want the rewards without the effort, which devalues our own existence and purpose, rendering humans obsolete and technology favored over human experience.
As a result, martial arts are now most popular in two forms: as sport or as self-defense. All this is under one category of “Martial Arts”. As much as I disagree with labeling, I feel that we need new categories to better identify the various aspirations and goals of the different martial systems.
- Martial or Combat Sports – Martial systems focused on sport fighting only
- Self Defense – Systems that focus only on effective methods of self defense
- Martial Way or Art – Martial arts schools that focuses on personal development through its practice.
I believe that the Martial Arts as defined above, at all costs must maintain the value of human experience, human relationships, and the ideals of hard work, dedication, perseverance, and loyalty. That human beings are not replaceable; that we cannot be updated for a new improved version, a human 2.0; that we are sacred and perfect by its creation; and that facing the struggles and the challenges of our journeys in life is what gives our lives meaning and without that, we are no better than a robot, a computer, a lifeless, uncompassionate material body without a soul.
May God bless us all.
