Gung fu is a special kind of skill, a fine art rather than just a physical exercise or self-defence. To the Chinese, gung fu is the subtle art of matching the essence of the mind to that of the techniques in which it has to work. The principle of gung fu is not a thing that can be learned, like a science, by fact-finding or instruction in facts. It has to grow spontaneously, like a flower, in a mind free from desires and emotions. The core of this principle of gung fu is Tao - the spontaneity of the universe. The word Tao has no exact equivalent in the English Language. To render it into the Way, or the "principle" or the "law" is to give it too narrow an interpretation. Lao-tzu, the founder of Taoism, described Tao in the following words :
- The Way that can be expressed in words is not the eternal Way;
- the Name that can be uttered is not the eternal Name.
- Conceived of as nameless it is the cause of Heaven and earth.
- Conceived of as having a name it is the mother of all things.
- Only the man externally free from passion can contemplate its spiritual essence.
- He who is clogged by desires can see no more than its outer form.
- These two things, the spiritual (Yin) and the material (Yang),
- though we call them by different names, are one and the same in their origin.
- The sameness is a mystery of the mysteries.
- It is the gate of all that is subtle and wonderful.
