JKD MINDPOWER!!!
Lak Loi talks to interviewer Andrew Staton about how he discovered the MIND POWER in JKD;
Dive into the inspiring journey of Lak Loi, a Jeet Kune Do instructor from London. Discover how Bruce Lee’s philosophy transformed his life and led him to teach mental and spiritual cultivation. Don’t miss this episode! #martialarts #JeetKuneDo #BruceLee #SelfMastery
After being immersed in Bruce Lee movies as a child and a brief childhood journey in Shotokan Karate Lak was diverted into football until he discovered JKD just as he was about to become a new father.
Martial Arts Journey
Discovering martial arts in New York, he walked past a JKD studio. He signed up with the New York Martial Arts Academy, which was in the Ted Wong lineage, and is now, after his passing, affiliated with Chris Kent.
Returning to the UK he searched for another place to train and he discovered a Lamar Davis affiliated school and then Tim Tackett.
Discover how he found JKD MINDPOWER!!!
Transcript;
Lak Loi is a JKD instructor from London
Andrew Staton: Hi, this is Andrew Staton, at World of martial arts tv today we have the honourable guest of Lak Loi, a JKD instructor from London. And, the situation is we’re finding his journey, and all sorts of things about his JKD journey as well. But first of all, as I say, what I want to do is say hi to Lak. How did you get into martial arts?
Lak Loi: Thanks for having me on, your podcast, first and foremost. And, I hope we can add some value to your listeners.
How did you get into martial arts? How did I first learn
So your first question, how did I first get into Jeet Kune do?
Andrew Staton: no, that’s another question. How did you get into martial arts?
Lak Loi: How did I get into martial arts? Ah, as a child, as a very young child, me and my brother. My brother’s like 13 months younger than me. We used to play fight quite a lot. And my dad, he brought us up on Bruce Lee movies and he realised a secret, and this was that if he put a Bruce Lee movie on both of us, particularly mesmerised, and probably that’s the reason why there was no fighting, because it’s probably me starting, who knows? But sit, quietly. And especially when what he didn’t factor into account was we would then try and mimic what Bruce of, you know, literally spoon feeding us on Bruce Lee movies. So, I think I, was hooked from a very, very young age. Father of us having so much energy, being hyperactive, olders in the local show to classes. Did that four years. And, that’s where the martial art journey we started from.
Andrew Staton: Lak, what did you do after Shotokan? After four years of shotokan?
Lak Loi: Oh, nothing for a very long time in the martial arts space, to be honest. Not up until I was 29 after that. So, yeah, a very long break. Martial arts after that. really, kind of dived into football at that time. Football was really kind of, my first sport and, a lot of football up until about 18. and then it was kind of more sporadic after that once I went to university. So, yeah, not a lot on the martial arts space up until 29, so quite later on, so.
Andrew Staton: And what m was that when you were 29? What did you go into?
Lak Loi: Well, I went into. I went to Jukendo, when I was 29. And it was a funny story how I got into that because I wasn’t actually interested in getting into martial arts at that time. And, as you’d say, you know, I had a bit of a calling. my wife was six months pregnant with, ah, our first child. And, I woke up one morning and I had this vision. And this vision was a very clear message. I remember saying to my wife, I need to learn Bruce Lee’s martial art. And I’ve been told that I’m going to help people and it’s going to help me as well, both personally and professionally. And it was vivid as day, you know, and, she, she’s kind of been musing. She was like, you know, we’re gonna have a baby in three months and you want to start taking up martial arts. And, you know, at this time, you know, kind of, she didn’t say, what’s wrong with you? But it’s kind of, I felt like, you know, she would say that, but she didn’t. And, I said, well, look, I, I’ve never really had this kind of feeling, and I really feel it’s a calling that I have to do something, I have to act on this. I don’t know why, but I’ve been told that I need to do this because it’s going to help me and it’s going to help other people, both personally and professionally. And, I said, look, if you don’t want me to do it, that’s fine, I get it, but I’m not going to do it without your blessing. And, she said, look, well, if you’ve had a calling, then you need to follow it. And that’s where the search started. And that search was an interesting one in its own right.
Andrew Staton: So the journey must have been. How did you find your first JKD school?
Lak Loi: Well, I looked, I was in working new, york at the time, in Manhattan. And, I used to work for a, fintech company. We used to provide trading systems to all the, tier one investment banks, brokerages and things like that. Ah, that was called, Google was quite young then. there was nothing on Google. There were search engines like us and like Netscape that were kind of the more popular ones and still there wasn’t a lot of intel on those. So I, don’t know there’s a martial art that exists in Bruce Lee’s name. Don’t know that. I don’t know there’s a name for this martial art. and I don’t know where to go for this. So I ended up going to the Awuxi temple. And, it wasn’t, it didn’t feel right to me. there was nothing against the actual art itself. It just wasn’t what I think I was meant to do. And, so I got invited to consult, in a investment, banking company based in midtown. I was a member of, a New York health and racket club. All these clubs spotted all over Manhattan. And I went to the local one and as it says, fate. I walked past the studio and in the corner of my I saw a poster saying, learn Bruce Lee’s martial art, g’dault. And that’s the first time, you know, I snapped my neck back, looked at the sign and that’s the first time I realised, wow, there is a martial art in Bruce’s name and it’s called Jeet Kondo and I need to sign up. So it was, I, signed up pretty much as quickly as I could and rest is history.
Andrew Staton: Well, it’s not history. Who did you train with?
Lak Loi: That school was, affiliated with Ted Wong, Bruce Lee’s, sparring partner. So it’s a New York martial arts academy. Nymma. That’s still there. It’s now affiliated with Chris Kent, following, Ted Wong’s, passing, bless him. And so yeah, they’re now affiliated with, Chris Kent now. And so I was very lucky to fall into, a pure lineage in Bruce Lee’s martial arts. You know, I didn’t know a single name in the Bruce Lee’s martial art community. His first generation students, first generation instructors, I didn’t know any of them. I don’t know who they were. Somebody could have said a name and it would have gone straight over my head. so all I can say is something was looking down on me, that I fell into the right place at the right time and that was guided by, you know, the masters within that space.
The gym where I trained was run by a gentleman called Dino. And Dino was an instructor under Ted Wong
Andrew Staton: Do we have a name that we, that we can portray? Who was the person that was teaching there?
Lak Loi: I think the gentleman’s m. Name now, if I, off the top of my head was a guy called Derek. the, the gym is run by, a gentleman called Dino. And Dino was a, ah, Dino was an instructor under Ted Wong and Dino, one of Dino’s instructors that ran two classes in Manhattan on a Monday and a Thursday. And the gentleman that I trained with was one of his instructors called Frankie. And I’ve tried to look him up, you know, since moving back to the uk and I can’t find him. But this guy was young, quite skinny, but he can pack a punch. And I remember the first time he hit a focus pad I just thought what, you know, I was blown away. This young, skinny lad could really leather that, ah, focus pad. And, I just didn’t know how he did it. I was hooked. I was hooked straight away. and on top of that, on top of that, it’s interesting because sometimes I think he was a figment of my imagination because this guy came into my life and then I had to move back and he just vanished. But he used to always say, you know, I want to be a, you know, a, professional, speaker, a personal development coach. I really want to help people. And at that time, it didn’t really kind of register with me, that that would be my pathway as well later on in life. And it was almost like he was sowing the seed in that. This is what you need to do. This is what you need to do. And then puff, he just vanished. well, I vanished. I came back to the UK and lost contact with him. I’ve not been able to reconnect with him since. But Frankie M. Left a lasting impression on me and he was so inspirational, that my start in Jeet Kune do was, one of inspire and all. I really, really loved it. It was fantastic. And that’s what I’ve tried to carry through ever since. And I didn’t even realise it was him that sowed that seed right at the beginning.
I trained with New York Martial arts academy for a year
Andrew Staton: Where does seafood Tim Tackett fit into the picture?
Lak Loi: So I came back. I came back a year later. So I trained with New York Martial arts academy for a year. Then I came back to the UK because our first born was born and we didn’t really want to bring it up in New York. And, when we came back, I just. Before I came back, I was looking up online to see if there are any Kikundo schools, in UK where I was moving to. And, I decided I’ll move back to my, you know, you know, my home village or hometown, should I say, which is up in Leicester, Midlands. And, three months before I moved, I found, urban martial arts run by Kotlin Wan. Now, that school wasn’t open at that time. It was about to open and luckily for me, there was some information online. So I called him and had a conversation with him before I actually moved back. And he said, yeah, we’re going to start up. We’re going to start. We’re going to teach, you can know. And he was affiliated with Lamar Davis at the time. Lamar, Davis, ah, is one of those rare gems that has trained with loads of the first generation students himself out of ah, his own time and effort, energy and really got a wealth of experience in that space. So we were training under Sifu Lamar Davis, initially. And then I trained in Leicester for about three, four years. And then eventually I ended up back in London, which is where most of my professional services are in the data. And ended up back in the banking world. And I got a call from my instructor, Sifu got Luan and he said look, we’ve got a gentleman coming up. he’s over from the States. His name’s Tim Tackett. He was supposed to do a seminar for a gentleman down in Southampton, who couldn’t get enough numbers in order to make up their seminar. And so he was kind of in a bit of a bind. So he’d called around other JKD schools in the UK and he called Gotlin. And Gotlin’s like, yeah, bring him up here. And I went up and did a. It was an evening, I think it was like a Wednesday or a Thursday evening, midweek evening seminar. And did that. And that’s where when sifu Tim Tackett recognised us and they thought well, you know, I want these two lads to represent me. And that’s where the journey started.
Andrew Staton: Yeah. Just to go off tangent one more time and then that’s it.
Your martial arts journey has led you on to teaching mental and spiritual cultivation
We go back to the thing. What do you feel jikudo has to offer everybody just by, in the martial m arts sense? What is it that makes it slightly different or slightly better or slightly just for certain people? What do you think the essence of Jeet Kune do is?
Lak Loi: First, I think all martial arts offer some gold in some way, shape or form. This value we take all martial arts, but all martial arts have a different hypothesis. so some martial arts are used for display, some are used for sports and some are used for street fighting. Street fighting. When you or loved one is put in harm’s way, how can you incapacitate your opponent as quickly as possible using reasonable force? Know if somebody’s unarmed and posing a threat you can incapacitate them using least amount of force, just restraining them potentially. But if somebody’s out to kill you or a loved one, then you got to do what it takes. and Bruce’s philosophy was take out your opponent in 15 seconds or less. And ultimately the first and foremost reason for martial arts in a combative manner. In as you said, a martial arts, pure martial arts sense is from a combative perspective is self preservation and preservation of your loved ones.
Andrew Staton: Your martial arts journey has led you on to teaching mental and spiritual cultivation. How did this happen?
Lak Loi: Well, I personally went into martial arts with this calling so I didn’t know any any better. Was none the wiser. and I thought I was going into martial arts because I was an average gym goer. I still am. And so I thought it was, you know, to cultivate physically, you know, to be fast and powerful and be able to kick a punch, you know, efficiently. To be able to defend yourself and look after yourself and your family members and your friends. But throughout that journey I was. I took a very keen interest in Bruce’s writings. And one of the writings that he’d, he’d written was his chief definite aim or definite chief aim. Now I thought that was interesting piece of writing because it, it was a, it was a mantra essentially, that prophesied what he was going to become. And as a consequence, I felt that he had realised that even after his passing, in fact he’d realised it after he’d passed and that there was a huge amount of power and potential, in those words that he’d written. And I started to look into it and I realised he was inspired by Doctor Napoleon Hill. Now Doctor Napoleon Hill is renowned as the godfather of personal development in the US and he trained with the likes of Dale Carnegie back in the day. So he had some amazing mentors, amazing idols that he worked with. And in that space he was a person that wrote the world’s best selling personal development book called think and grow Rich. And I had to get my hands on a copy of that. And as I read that I started realising think and grow rich was about mindset and that I had to apply myself in that way because that was not taught in any of the Jeet Kundo schools, that I’d been part of. And none of the teachers taught any of the mindset, part of Bruce’s teachings. And I thought, well, you know, if Bruce was big into this and this forms a big part of what we’re doing, then we’re missing a massive trick. You know, you’ve got your physical element, you’ve got your mental element, you’ve got your spiritual element, you know, well, we could even break it down further. You got your body, your mind, emotion and your spirit. So if you’re looking at four aspects and you’re only focusing on the physical, you’re missing three quarters of your being. So I started to delve into the, mental, conservation aspect and started to make loads of connections with the physical and mental. And then started to realise that everything that we’re doing in terms of movement is there to help us cultivate and move the mind. So if we move badly, our mind’s going to operate badly, but if we move well, our mind’s going to operate well. And I started to make these connections and, having gone through my own process of kind of self mastery, I started to, apply this on myself and use it, in my own way. And I found it to be very therapeutic, healing and transformative. And, I realised that this was something that was teachable, using martial arts and martial arts movement. And that’s, how the martial mind power, aspect of it was born. Where we use the mind, use, your mind and the power within that and the martial mindset to really transform your being. so it’s a transformational process using martial arts, martial arts movement. it moves the body, it moves, the mind and it moves the spirit. And it was only till later that we got into the spiritual aspect, which was an unknown. You know, there was a time when the mind was unknown. The physical was, you know, just accessible, just kind of get into groups with that. once I kind of got a grasp on that, then moved on to the mind and then the mind ended up moving me to the spiritual, element because I realised the mind was a gateway between the body and the spirit.
You’ve been a pioneer in applying Bruce Lee’s martial arts to life
Andrew Staton: Explaining that, I can see this, that you’ve been a pioneer in applying Bruce Lee’s martial arts, martial art, and philosophy. And having written several books. Ah, can you describe what they’re about?
Lak Loi: Absolutely. So I’ve, authored four books up to now. The first one is called master your life and it’s a, nine step to self mastery and it’s inspired by Bruce Lee. So through my own process of, cultivating self mastery, I realised there were certain stages that you needed to go through in order to ascend that process. And, so that’s what that book covers. and it uses Bruce Lee’s principles and philosophies. if you, if I may. Ah, I reverse engineered a lot of the philosophies and principles that we use in Jin kun do so that we can apply it to our life. and really got down to the science core of why those, aspects of, training work. I really talk about the science behind it as well. So evidence it with science so that it becomes a bone. So you know, that is something that works. It’s something that the scientific community has proven. and you can then apply it in your own way and then using martial movement as a consequence.
The second book is called the Art of thinking without thinking
The second book is a book called the Art of thinking without thinking. Now this is a book about self actualization. Now what is self actualization? And Bruce talked a lot about self actualization and it’s really about discovering who you really are. You know we’ve all got this innate soul, spirit and that, that has an identity, it has an essence and we’re really in this world to discover that. And self actualization, or alternative another word Bruce uses quite often is self realisation is to realise your true self as in who are you in spirit. And therefore what that helps you understand is what are you here to serve? As in what capacity are you here to serve others in? And once you realise that, then you can act in that highest capacity. So this, that book is actually a book of following my own spiritual quest and my own spiritual awakening and my own spiritual experiences. and I wanted to share those insights that I gained with others in a playful way. So I use zen koans, to help the reader be playful in using. And the way to tap into these Korans is not to think. Just when you, when you read the quran the idea is Zen praise will give you a koran and when you read it there will be a spiritual experience that happens inside you. And when it happens inside you, the idea is for you to become aware and acknowledge that experience. And therein lies the answer. so to do that, to have that awareness and that spiritual sensitivity or acuity about the feelings that are happening inside you, that experience that happens inside you, you have to be completely relaxed and thoughtless. In other words, the art of thinking without thinking. So you’re not thinking. Whatever thoughts are given to you are given and experiences are given to you that are working through you, is through that, huh? It’s through that experience that I want you to tap into. And that’s what the Zen koans are trying to do. And so I used that book as a way to playfully engage and help others experience it for themselves. The third book was original truth. And this is a book about living the martial way. and it’s a book that you know, that both yourself and will have been very instrumental in you know, it started off as you’re well aware as a series of articles in the woma magazine. And later on we expanded that into a book which had more expansive chapters for each of those. Plus it was a hidden chapter which we didn’t publish, which was on the game of death and where we talked about the topic of what happens after. And so there’s 13 chapters, even though we actually published twelve. So there’s a hidden gem in there. And then the last one, which is called, ‘I hate my effing job’, is a book about corporate while being a motor motivational leadership, and is interesting because it uses martial arts principles and philosophies. but it’s interesting how, you know, when I had that calling initially three months before my firstborn was about to be about to arrive, and where I had this calling saying, you know, you need to learn this because it’s going to help you and it’s going to help other people in a personal and professional capacity. Well, here it is. You know, it arrives and it arrived in a way in which ultimately I’m helping people to find joy in their jobs. I help them transform their hatred for some experience, unresourceful, experience that they’re having in their, in their job or their work experience into one that they do love. and it’s written in such a way that it’s written to address employers or that could include managers and leaders and things like that, and also employees. So it’s for both. And ultimately I think really, it’s a book about using martial, mindset, but in a corporate setting. Right.
Andrew Staton: You’ve done these four books like, and they look terrific and thanks for giving us the, the sort of like the accolade of helping you out with the, the third book. And. But now, how can people, how can people access this resource? Is it just books or is there anything else as well?
Lak Loi: We’ve got books, so they’re all on Amazon. So you can have a look at Amazon. we’ve got a bunch of other resources, guy, something called a digital dojo. So we’ve got resources online. It’s like learning how people can join that. And I’ve got the self mastery course, video series on there, meditations, martial arts, community forum, a whole bunch of whole bunch of fitness work on there. So that’s quite extensive. There’s a whole bunch of stuff on there. So just go to marshallmind power.com. but if you want to access that access that, and then we’ve got classes and we do workshops and experiences. And then the last bit is, you know, applying it into the corporate environment.
Andrew Staton: I can see from your first three books, embody martial arts and philosophy. How does the corporate well being book embody martial arts and philosophy?
Lak Loi: It’s a good question. And the answer to that is quite simple. the corporate well being book is just about justice. It’s justice that justice to be done to the employees and employers and to create a harmonious environment. So really martial arts, if anything, is about being a justice warrior. And I think when we use the word warrior, we’ve got to be careful that we’re not overly aggressive and that actually we do things with love, kindness and compassionate. So what are we trying to do here? The teaching behind this is something called Santa sapahi. is a Sikh teaching actually, which means Santa means saint and sapahi means soldier. And the santa sapahi means we’re all a saint and a soldier. So there’s times where we have to be saintly. We’re silent, we’re listening carefully, we’re being attentive, we’re being aware. And but sometimes that silence can be misconstrued as the weakness. And people tend to walk all over you. Now, that’s when the sapahi, the soldier stands up and he says, no, you can’t walk all over me, right? Just because I’m silent. Don’t take that for weakness because you wake up the line within. And so the soldier stands and the soldier is the one that says, no, you can’t treat other people like that. you can’t treat me like that. And you want to do things the right way. I understand that, you know, you can’t always do things the right way because sometimes you might have to not deliver everything, but deliver part of a everything because you don’t have the right time, you don’t have the resources and so on. But ultimately you want to do things the right way, and do it with integrity and honour. It’s very hard to do that because once you start to slip on those two, pillars of integrity and honour, it’s a slippery slope to, self dishonesty. And Bruce was a big advocate for honestly express yourself. And he said, you know, honestly express yourself. Easy for me to stand there and put on a show, be cocky and all this that and the other. But it’s very difficult for me to be honest with myself. And it’s only when you’re honest with yourself. Can you be honest with others?
Martial arts can help people suffering from mental health and anxiety
So, you know, what we’re trying to do here in this space is educate, inspire, and empower employers and employees alike so that really they teaching in the highest power. And that highest power is actually love. And, you know, Dan Inosanto, who was one of Bruce Lee’s confidantes and closest friends, and he ran his lh Hannitan school. You know, he wrote, and I’d like to read this quote because I think it’s, it’s really powerful. and I hope this puts things into context for martial artists and people that are using the martial mindset in a, in their personal and professional lives. And he said this, he said, love is the highest art. In ancient times, you trained so hard, not for the sake of killing people, but for the love of your family, for the love of your mother, your father, your children, your tribe and your body. It is the love of life. That is why we train so hard, so you can preserve life. And that’s really what we’re trying to do here, is preserve people’s lives, in all aspects of their being. You know, martial arts isn’t just for the dojo, and it isn’t just for your personal life. It’s also for your professional life in all aspects. How many different ways do you represent yourself and express yourself outwardsly? You know, when, you know, you’re, you might be a brother, a son, a father, a grandfather, a friend, a work colleague, you know, a guide, a confidante. So many different roles we play for different people. And I remember my daughter gave me, a father’s day present one time, and he said, you know, for some people, you might, you might. For some people, you know, you might be just one person in the world, but for me, you are, the, the world to me. You know, you are the one person that means the world to me. And when you’re wearing all of these different roles or expressing yourself in all of these different roles, if you’re doing it with kindness, compassion, and love, and you’re doing it from a higher place, which if you’re operating from a place where love is the highest place, then you can have that effect. You can be the world to someone, not that you want to be the world to someone, but because you’re there for them in that capacity, and they will also, you can also make them feel like they are the world. They are the most important thing, especially people that are suffering from mental health and anxiety. I mean, that’s a big problem within the corporate world at the moment. Sorry. I’ve got a little bit of a cause stroke. And, 95% of my students in my martial arts school come in because they’ve got mental health issue. The other 5% come in because they want to entertain themselves with fitness and some activity that occupy their time. 95% of them are coming in because they’ve got a underlying mental health condition. And usually it presents itself as I’m overweight. But what that means is I’ve got self confidence issues, I’ve got self esteem issues, or I’ve got, anxiety issues. Yeah, I’ve got anxiety. What that means is there’s something that’s, causing your self confidence to be lacking. And these trends and all the different various ways that this presents itself, it repeats again and again, bullying loads of adults that attend martial arts. I’ve been bullied when there were young kids in school and it stuck with them all this time. And here they are in the martial arts group trying to heal from that underlying trauma that they might have forgotten or not recognised. It’s amazing. Yeah, definitely. That’s what this works all about.
Andrew Staton: We’ve done interviews with the people and that has come through an awful lot. An awful lot. Just a couple of more questions.
MMP Talks aims to spread self mastery inspired by martial arts
You also founded MMP Talks. what is that and how does it work?
Lak Loi: So, MMP talks, martial mindpower talks. it’s a talks platform. It’s a Ted Talks talk platform. People come in and do 20 minutes talks. And what we do is we invite all people, nominate themselves to other people that are masters, in their field. Now what does that mean? we are trying to spread self mastery that’s inspired by martial arts. So, our core mission is to help raise the awareness that martial arts is more than kicking and punching and that it’s a really powerful conduit to help cultivate self mastery. So body, mind, emotion, spirit, so that one can be the best they can be, to raise human consciousness, be the best they can be, and to make the world a better place to live in one person at a time. So we, have speakers that come in and they’ll do a talk on their specific subject. And it’s amazing, actually, the speakers themselves, you know, because they might, they might have practised martial arts and some, maybe a small teaching in martial arts had made a big difference in their life, completely transformed their being. And all of a sudden, they are now at the height of their, their, specialty, whatever that might be. And they’re putting themselves out, into the world and they are, an aspirational and inspirational individual. And as a consequence, we’re trying to help these speakers to bring that out and say, look, can you share the life lesson that martial arts taught you that helped transform your life and get you where you are now so other people can also benefit from that?
One of Bruce’s real passion projects was the silent flute
Andrew Staton: I’m going to take you off a little bit off your comfort zone for a minute before we wind up. My passion, of course, is the art and philosophy of Bruce Lee. And so basically I take to some things that have not really stood on very often. But you might be able to enlighten me a little bit. One of Bruce’s real passion projects was the silent flute. And I was always told that him and James Corbin did an offer, ah, things called sufi tales and things like that. And basically within the script there is an awful lot of that. Have you ever looked at the silent flute and where do you feel Bruce was going with that? Because he was looking at this philosophical art that you’re looking at and I’m always looking at. And he was trying to put that onto celluloid. and even through a fantasy sort of like, picture bring out a man’s journey, which is what we’re talking about with people like yourself. So what do you feel about silent flute and the things that are in there that are maybe you have seen as sufi tales.
Lak Loi: So the silent flute, in my humble opinion, is Bruce’s attempt to tap in to the spiritual aspects of martial arts. and he’s approaching that through the sufi angle. Now, Sufis or the swirling dervishes as well. part of the Sufism, movement is a beautiful movement, a highly spiritualist, community of people that try and cultivate spirituality. And that means really connect to the higher self, self realisation which we talked about earlier, through their practise of sufi philosophy, applying that philosophy into daily life. The way they live, the way they, the way they think, the way they talk, the way they act. All of that is kind of an expression and embodiment of that philosophy. And I think Bruce, that was Bruce’s magna magna opus piece of work, in that. In that sphere. And I think he’s trying to get across something that is really subtle, right, in a very artistic way. And obviously it was done after Bruce had died. So, it was the take of the, the producers of the team that took that on after that. But had Bruce been here to actually direct and, drive that project. I think it would have even been more impactful than what it already is. And what it already is is highly impactful. But you have to have that one very open mind to watch it because it’s not Bruce’s, typical fanfare.
Big uh, screen entertainment movie is very subtle, is very artistic
Big screen entertainment movie is very subtle, is very artistic, it’s beautifully put together and it’s touching on very subtle topics. And these subtle topics are so subtle, but they have an everlasting impact on a being. And I absolutely love that movie. I wish Bruce was in it and I wish Bruce was part of that, ah, process. But I know that, you know, from reading, some of the books by Matthew Polly and the later one by John Littlewaite, he alludes to it a little bit in particular. I think Matthew Polly alludes to it that, he spent a lot of time working on it, but then he got distracted by end of the dragon and that took away a lot of his time. And it was a project that he always wanted to come back to. And I think I would say if anybody really wants to understand Bruce and his mindset, there’s two things, two places they should go to. Number one is this book called Artist of Life. That really gives you a sense for what Bruce was thinking and how he was thinking and writing it down. And the second is silent flute. Because the silent flute helps you understand where Bruce was intending to go at that time. And that was probably his highest piece of work.
Andrew Staton: I’m talking about, where you’re going. What’s your next step, young lack? Oh, bound from a big drink of water.
Lak Loi: Yeah, I’ve just come off a bit of a cold, so a bit coughing. It’s blurred a little bit. So apologies for all of that.
What is your next move after 30 years in the corporate world
What is my next move? I think the corporate while, ah, being part of it is really important to me. I’ve been in the corporate space, about 30 years. Over 30 years now. I’ve been, lucky. When I was in the States, I was working on Wall street. Spent five years in a Wall street firm. I spent the rest of the time in the city of London. and you’d think that technology would make your life easier. And ultimately that’s what it’s there for. But what it’s done is it’s made the pace of life faster and therefore the expectations greater. and with the kind of like the modern mindset, you know, we all live in a fast food mentality. You know, we want everything now and and it’s the same in the corporate environment. So everybody wants everything now. You know, there’s more pressure on, people within the workforce and this is having, a detrimental effect on people’s mental health. And having gone through this whole process myself and there’s a reason why I’m in this space and there’s a reason why martial arts was given to me, there’s a reason I had that call in, there’s a reason I’ve been compelled to write these books. it’s to help people, is to help people, to help them really operate in a space of effortless ease and buoyancy in all walks of their life, in particular their work. If you’re spending two thirds of your day, or even a third of your day in the work, you spend a third of your day in a work environment, you spend a third of your day sleeping and you spend the other third, hopefully doing personal activities. But what’s happening is that third of personal activities is getting consumed by work. So you’re spending more than a third of your time working. And, you know, at the end of the process, at the end of this journey we call life, you know, we have to, you know, if we are lucky enough not to get hit by a bus and go instantly, and we have the time, to contemplate, you know, what did I achieve in life? Did I actually do anything of value for others outside of myself? I want to confidently be able to answer that question and say yes. I wrote books, I wrote programmes, I put events together for other people to make their lives richer, not to make me rich. I don’t want nothing from it, but it was my calling. It’s the reason I’m here, it’s my true self and I’m putting myself in that position that I’m serving in that capacity. And, that’s what it’s always been about. And I’ll continue doing it until my last breath. And, at that last breath, if I have the chance to answer that question, I’d like to look back and say, do you know what I touch people’s hearts, mind, spirits. And that’s all what it was about, nothing more. Nothing else is. It’s not what cars, motorbikes, houses and, you know, material things you’ve got, because they’re all going to fall, they’re all going to decay and deteriorate and rot away. The. What doesn’t rot away is the imprint you leave on people’s heart, mind, spirits. And that’s what it’s all about for.
Andrew Staton: Me leaving on a high. Thank you so much for that. That’s beautiful. Absolutely beautiful.
There’s a lot of funny questions students ask you all the time
But now just on a, on a lighter note, should we say on these deeper things that we’ve been thinking about, what’s the funniest thing a student has ever asked you?
Lak Loi: A funniest thing? I’ll be honest with you. There’s a lot of funny questions students ask you all the time. You know, I think there’s you know, depends on the level of conscious maturity of a student, you know. But the younger, younger students in their spiritual maturity will ask questions like, oh, sifi, what do you think is the best martial art? You know? what would you think, what martial art would you think do you think would win if you put this against another art? I mean that was the hypotheses of UFC originally, you know, and to be honest with you. So it’s, it’s a very challenged question, because it’s ultimately about the individual. You know, you could have, you know, you could. If you think, you know, Ra is better than our b, but the practitioner a is weak then, and b is fairly competent. B is probably going to do better than the person practising the better r so it doesn’t make sense, right. So it’s just, it’s just a very immature question.
Every day, every day is a battle, Bruce says
another question that I get asked quite often, ah, is see if it was the last time you’ve been in a fight. And that’s always an interesting one because I know they’re expecting me, you know, to say, yeah, you know, you messed up somebody because they did this, that the other. And and they want that. They want that, you know, that heroes story, you know. But really the answer to that is every day. And they mean, what do you mean every day? We get a fight today, I’m like, yeah. I was like, isn’t there in a battle you had today? You know, did you, there’s some challenge you had to deal with today, you know, oh, my washing machine broke down yesterday. So there’s a challenge, you know, I’m gonna now replace it, right? So that’s an inner battle, you know. that you’ve got to deal with. It’s a small bow, but anyway you’ve got to deal with it. But then it could be something bigger. You know, you got a challenge at work, you know, appliance be difficult. and how you gonna, how are you gonna deal with that? Or you’ve got somebody that’s creating animosity within your team and you wanna neutralise that so that you can create harmony and happiness within your team. So you need to, you need to become aware of that. So what is martial arts teaching is teaching us, okay, how do we become aware of what’s happening in and around us in as firstly, because if you’re not in touch with yourself, you ain’t going to be touched with anything outside you. You’re going to become chaotic inside and outside. So what’s happening in and around you? And once you’re aware of that then you can take positive affirmative action. You know, Bruce talked about think it. In other words, if you need to hit something, you’ve got to do it now. Don’t hesitate, no procrastination, just get on with it. And sometimes you’ve got to become really quick at you know, observing, orienting, deciding and acting as quickly as that. and that gives you that certainty, but without, without knee jerk reactions. So that means when you’re observing and you’re orientating yourself and you’re making a decision before you take affirmative action, you’re actually taking a moment. You’re taking a moment to, to process everything. Now out. in the real world, sometimes you’ve got more time to do these things, sometimes you don’t. In a combat situation you haven’t got much time to think about these things. Things are changing milliseconds to milliseconds. So as a consequence, you’ve got to be able to think really fast without conscious thought. It’s all got to be unconscious. And we’re trying to do that in a daily life. So every day, every day is a battle. and it doesn’t mean those battles are hard or easy. They just are what they are and it’s just challenges and things like that. my wife’s going to have an operation on Friday. So I’m very calm and comfortable with that. But your average Joe that doesn’t have self mastery over themselves would be panicking and worrying and winding up their partner because that’s the last thing they need. What they need is calm quietitude, and assurance that it’s going to be okay because it’s a mindset. And a friend of mine, one of my students actually yesterday said a loved one, it’s got cancer. And there was a study that was only published last week’s in Apple news. and there was a study on how if you are negative. If you are in a negative state of mind your body releases these like a mesh and this mesh is there to kind of capture rogue cells, okay? And so it captures them and it destroys them. but if you’ve got cancer what it does is it starts to coagulate and build up all these cancer cells and then you start to develop lumps. And this study is the first study that’s actually proven that when you’re in a negative state of mind how it actually exacerbates the buildup of cancer and the spreading of cancer. So again the point was to my student that you know take this scientific article and ensure on the back of that that you keep your loved one in a high spirit, keep them calm and relaxed and that way she won’t get, she will reduce that buildup and it will help them as they go through their medical therapy. And so these kind of things you know is, is how do you apply it in every day, you know, and it all boils down to when you’re in a fight. When you’re in a fight you’ve got to be calm, you’ve got to be at this, you’ve got to be you know, in the eye of the storm and in the eye of the storm is completely calm but all the chaos is ensuing around you and we’ve got to try and make sure that if there’s something that’s happening in our lives that starts to become like a bit of a storm, like a bit of a tornado, you’re in the centre of it, completely calm, see what’s happening and then make an informed decision what is it that you need to do and then to take affirmative action. So you know, these are the kind of questions that students asked and they all kind of end up pointing back to self mastery again and how you can apply martial arts. So I know you didn’t want a deep answer but The reality of it is that everything is deep but you’ve got to get so good at doing it that it becomes light and it becomes effortless and easy ah, and buoyant. And those three words I think really is a ah, crucial mantra in life. That once you learn these things initially it’s conscious and it takes work and it takes a lot of thinking and practise but eventually you’ve got to be effortless, easy and buoyant. So then that translates to grace and how you can move through life graciously. And you know, the, you know, typical, typical kind of perspective or image of a martial arts grandmaster or someone like that, you know, someone at the height of their, oh, it’s somebody that’s so graceful, that literally looks like their flows, that talk easily, softly and so on. And you know, I think that’s a beautiful, aspirational place to be, but you can be that if you put the effort in, but you got to put the effort. Self investment, it’s a huge self investment process.
Andrew Staton: It sounds absolutely amazing. You can see that I have been keeping very quiet because I’ve been intentive and I have enjoyed every minute of it. Like, thank you so much for your time. We’ll most likely be coming back to you fairly soon, but at the moment we wish you all the best with what you’re doing and we’ll touch base with you soon. And thank you so much.
Lak Loi: Thank you so much, Andrew. I really appreciate your time and will. And I hope that this, podcast is, going to give you some value to your listeners and viewers and they can take something of importance a day, our way and practise in our lives to help enrich it. So from my heart to yours, thank you so much.
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