Wu Shen Pai Jiu Mei

Xin 信

TRUST

        Social progress and social harmony is created through trust. Trust must exist between a wife and husband, a parent and child, a teacher and student, an elder and youth, a friend and friend, multiple societies, a government and its people, and also between countries.  Trust is needed to create a positive setting between these social relationships. Social success requires adherence to commitments and agreements between two parties. If these commitments and agreements are broken by either party, trust will be lost.  Once these promises are broken and trust is lost, these parties will no longer be able to create further positive progress towards success. So if someone gives you this trust, you must be responsible and follow through to maintain the way of trust.  By one's actions, he/she earns the trust of others. However, trust must also be given and only the strong are able to that.  Trust cannot exist without a deep understanding of honor. Hence, it is essential that as Wu Shen Pai practitioners we live by honor and build strong character so that we can offer our trust to others without the fear of getting hurt.  Trust always entails risk.  Trust involves the prospect of betrayal and hurt.  In the modern world, "trust no one" is the motto we follow because we fear this hurt.  This leads to a sad state of affairs in which each individual is afraid to trust anyone, because the norm is the breaking of promises and taking advantage of others.

    This is precisely the reason why the martial artists of today must be the role models for such values and learn to protect the weak.  Strong moral character is developed through discipline.  It is most important that a student learns that there are immediate negative consequences associated with negative actions.  Many times, the breaking of promises can be resolved by confronting the person one to one, with the mutual intention of creating understanding and resolution. However many are only interested in fixing the blame rather than the problem.  Trust is essential within martial arts society.  It is one of the five cornerstones of a successful Sifu-Student relationship.  If trust does not exist between a teacher and student, how can they build a strong sense of family? Also, how can an individual teach these dangerous skills to someone they do not trust?  Furthermore, how can a student attend a school if they do not trust the teacher?  Students must trust their teachers, and teachers must trust their students. Only then can they work together to develop their skills and the honor of their martial art identity.  That is the main concern of the traditional martial art founders.  They teach this sacred art,  their technical skills, to the public under a specific identity.  They trusted their students to further develop the reputation and integrity of their art's identity in order to continue to pass the art generation to generation. One must have loyalty to their art of Wu Shen Pai, and then the trust between master and student can be maintained.  Through their trust, their art and its proud name will be positively developed, and passed on to future generations of Wu Shen Pai Warriors.