Three Types of Fearlessness
By Cheng Man-ch’ing
From: New Method of Self Cultivation
三無畏 一、 無艮喫苦。 二、 無艮喫虧。 三、 無畏厲害
(Literally) Three Without Fears: First, without fear of eating bitter Second, without fear of eating loss Third, without fear of ferocity.
Cheng Man-ch’ing wrote-
My discussion on fearlessness is intended only for those willing to exert effort.
First: Do not fear bitter work. If you do, you will never progress.
Second: Do not fear losing. The fundamental principle in taijiquan is to 'yield to follow others.' Yielding up your position to follow others is, most decidedly, losing.
Third: Do not fear ferocity. Laozi described men who have cultivated the life principle saying, 'a rhino finds no place to gore, a tiger feels nothing to claw, a soldier has nowhere to stab.' Why is this? Because they have no fear of death. Rather than praising the ferocity of a rhino, tiger or wean, Laozi exalts the softness which overcomes hardness."
