SELF
REVOLUTION OF VOVINAM VIỆT VÕ ÐẠO
Translate by Chieu Tran
We are always heard the word
"revolution" but our Vovinam is also teach us a theory calls
"self-revolution" by late grand master Nguyen Loc. So what is
resolution ? and what is self revolution ? Why Master Nguyen Loc and Vovinam
want us to learn more about this self revolution. we will discuss with a few
examples, before we will dig deep into the real meaning of this self resolution
of our late grand master Nguyen Loc.
Real meaning of the word
resolution
Kinh Ðịch, is a set of oldest
Oriental books, this books had talked about the words revolution in this
sentence : " Thiên địa cách nhi tới thời hành,
Thang, Vũ, Cách Mạng thuận hồ thiên nhi hồ nhân "
mean: the world is changing only a year, King Thang became King while King
Vu, exchanged his lives to obey God will to satisfy his people will. Here the
changing King Vu 's live is the resolution by God's will. And also book Trung
Dung has written as: "Thiên mệnh chi vị, Tinh chi
vị Ðạo, Tu Ðạo chi vi Giáo " mean: anything
that God had given to calls the way or can be translate as religion. Therefore
anything God gives, it has very wide meaning. In the old age, Kings becomes
Kings that is God 's will to give them a gift to look after their people. These
are the definitions of the resolution according to Chinese culture. To the
western world, the revolution come from Latin language is revolutio. the word
revolution has its origin is the word revolver mean go around, go and came back.
This revolution word has two words can be separate as : re and evolutio mean
show, tell, elaborate. So the revolution mean change to the better and this is
also the same mean as the old Chinese say: changing thing that God gives.
Example : Western world put
too much attention to their needs but the Eastern world pay attention to their
intellectual. Therefore, in the way of doing thing of Western world they always
put their needs and benefit in front of all, and the same to Eastern world they
put the intellectual in front of all.
The French revolution in 1789 and
Russia 1917, to tell us that the western people put their priorities are their
benefit and needs. And the only way to solve the conflict is go to war and it
will take a long time to solve, it cost so much .... According to history, the
Eastern world had not much war as the Western but beside the needs of those as
the western world, they also need the intellectual. This intellectual is always
use and put in front of the needs and benefit. If the revolution only accord to
politic as changing the social, the government, or the management, the passage
of Confucian for 14 years thought out China is a politic to change his kingdom
by that time, because any where he went he taught about hoe to change the
kingdom. But the local people did not support his idea of revolution, no one
would listen to him and help to change of the society life by that time. At old
age, Confusion change his idea instead of using politic to fight (change) the
society. He went home and tried to teach for his people know the benefit of the
change that he believe when he were young, and refused all the request from King
Lo. The move make his idea became very famous for thousand years, until now.
The example above, give us the mean
of revolution is changing to get new idea make thing better. Depend on where and
when so they can have the different revolution. In China, Ton Trung Son (1866 -
1925) he had his own idea about revolution. His revolution using step by step to
open the knots , resolve each problem at a time in timely manner and very
slowly.
The Self-revolution of
Vovinam
As we have seen, since the
beginning:
The politic revolution is changing the politic with a new politic. For example:
the change of kingdom to a democratic government, or the society revolution
changes the bad social life with another new better social life.
Self-revolution is a theory for Vovinam only. Later Grand
Master Nguyen Loc idea as men must always change to a new form to catch up with
civilization in both intellectual and physical
It is different with other revolution - Most of them are change the society,
political government - The self revolution of Vovinam aims at a self, change of
own way life, change of old own bad habit, change ourselves to a better form,
better person, better human being.
With many individuals will become a
huge group of good people, this will create a much better society, therefore
Grand Master Nguyen Loc show his idea of self revolution. The good and healthy
men including physical and intellectual these are the spotlight of the night if
there are more spotlight the dark will be gone
If we want to follow to this self revolution all Vovinam must train ourselves in
2 main parts as follow:
1. intellectual: A solid way
of life, good understanding of what you about to do for your future, you must be
a good citizen love your people and built your country to be the better country,
must have a strong intellectual mind, a strong willing to work at any
circumstances, and a will mentally trying to keep and maintain physical at a
high level
2. Physical: You must have a
strong and healthy body have technique to defense and attach, if needed
Conclusion: The social and politic revolution are only a sideline tools , it
appears in the period of time in history , then disappeared and forgotten. But
the self-revolution is a main basic tool for any revolution . It is wisely to
keep practices the self-revolution at all time in order to maintain at high
level. We must maintain feeding our thought the intellectual mind, keep physical
at high level for true meaning living of a Vovinam disciple. always do the
self-revolution for our life of today is better than yesterday. All those
practices will improve our way of living life and it becomes the best living way
and a conscientious civilization of human
Grand Master Lê Sáng
