Beyond the Known, by Tri Thong Dang

ri Thong Dang is originally from Vietnam. Here he is a book that in my opinion is quite a little gem: "Beyond the Known - The Ultimate Goal of the Martial Arts".

Thong Dang writes about the eternal conflicts between the true values of the martial arts on one side, and money, fame, glory and attention on the other side. In more than one way this can be seen as the conflicting mindsets of the West versus the East. The introduction here focuses on this issue in a great way. The author writes about being a disiple (as in having a mentor or master to guide you), versus our western, more horisontal connections - as well as our buy and sell attitudes. The latter is in no way anything unfamiliar in our martial arts arrangements here in the western world.

In the book we meet the old master Tai-Anh and his pupil Lam. Early in the book Lam has broken away from his master, and started up his own school. He is blinded by his own skills and his own success, but gradually he is forced to aknowledge that there are still a number of lessons for him to be learned.

This nice book is written in a light tone. It speaks about issues such as loyalty, commitments, morals and attitudes without a hint of preaching or being superficious. These important subjects should be treated like this - not as problems, but rather as challenges - something to overcome along the way.

You may get the book through Amazon (link in the left column). Most probably it is also possible to find it through Abebooks.

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