Episode Transcript
[00:00:09] Speaker A: I guess the first time that I ever thought of even becoming a master and was when I was testing for fifth degree. I was at world championships, and I went up to say hello to Grandmaster H u Lee, and he looked at me and said, I want you to become a master one day. And it's amazing how that one sentence changed my life, because that was my goal.
[00:00:36] Speaker B: I went up and stood at attention and waited till he saw me. And I bowed and reached my hand out to shake his hand, and he says, oh, Mr. Moody, nice to meet you, and nice to have you come to Little Rock, and thanks for being here. Then I realized he had probably met me once or twice in Arizona. I wasn't a high rank or anybody that I felt deserved him to remember my name deserved that recognition, and he did. And that was really special that he remembered.
[00:01:02] Speaker C: This is in the early 80s. He was talking about the vision of what we know as sung on taekwondo. And he took out a napkin, and he wrote the star on it. He drew it out. And I remember going, I'm not sure what this is, but I thought to myself, he's got something going in his head that is going to be huge.
And that star, no doubt, has turned into a really bright star.
[00:01:30] Speaker D: Eternal Grandmaster H u Lee gave me a stern warning one year to straighten out my personal life and wait a year to test for fourth degree. He says, pull over. We pulled over in the medium between north and south traffic. He says, get out. I'm like, okay, I don't know what this has to do with anything. And he says, can you count the cars on that side? I'll count the cars on this side. And we started counting cars, and about a minute went by, 200 and something. He says, Me, too. He said, So I want you to go back to your school, and I want you to wait a year and straighten out your life so you can get these people that are passing you by to pay attention and listen to you and come in and you can help them. And I just went, oh, my God. That meant something. Wait a year. I couldn't even wait ten minutes. And I was ready to train a test physically, but not mentally or spiritually. So I have done the car counting thing with all my juniors ever since.
[00:02:21] Speaker E: Me being the green belt, all of 23 years old. I'm the low rank. So Eternal Grandmaster leans over and says, hey, do you speak? I looked around the room, looked back at him, and said, I'm scared, sir. And he just laughed. And he said, of who? He said, we're all martial artists. And that was probably one of the most inspirational moments in my life.
[00:02:44] Speaker F: And young man came running up. He was probably about seven or eight years old. He was white belt. And he stopped and he bowed to, at that time, Master Lee. And he, sir, said, you're the highest ranking person in the organization who teaches you.
And Eternal grandmaster didn't miss a beat. He just looked right at me and said, you do kid's eyes got as wide as saucers. And he says, me.
And Grandmaster said yeah. That every time that I see a new white belt starting out on their journey in Taekwondo to become a black belt, it reminds me all over again about perseverance and dedication and discipline. And I learn all over again what those things are like. And he went out on the floor and did the most awesome white belt test I have seen in a long time.
[00:03:35] Speaker G: It's episode 31 of the Ata Nation podcast. Let's get started.
[00:03:41] Speaker H: Sir. I will live with perseverance in the spirit of Taekwondo, courtesy for fellow students, integrity within myself, and to become a black belt leader.
Welcome to the Ata Nation podcast.
[00:04:02] Speaker G: Welcome Ata Nation to episode number 31 of the podcast. My name is Master Zach Hayden, and we are getting ready to head to Fall Nationals. It's going to be a great time. Two Masters ceremonies there, and it's taking place during Founders Month, which is pretty awesome. The intro today was a clip from some of the Master's candidates and senior Master candidates from 2013, talking about some inspiration they got from Eternal Grandmaster. And as we continue to celebrate Founders Month, we've got another great story for you today about Eternal Grandmaster and one from Eternal Grandmaster. So let's get started with first.
[00:04:52] Speaker D: The.
[00:04:52] Speaker G: Story that I have just recently read about Eternal Grandmaster from the Way of Traditional Taekwondo, volume A, the Philosophy book. This book is amazing. It's fantastic, but it's out of print currently. We talked about this in an episode not long ago with a Master's candidate.
But it's really important to understand the past, the philosophies, and these are things that were set up by Eternal Grandmaster. These are the founding, the philosophy, the character, the structure by which song Taekwondo is created.
And in this section of the book, he is talking about the oath that we use, and specifically the section that says, I shall live with perseverance in the spirit of Taekwondo. And he tells this story about perseverance, and I'm going to read it to you real quick. Many years ago, when I was just a brown belt, I was training hard in the old church building that we used as our Dojong. While we were practicing pumsei, an important guest came up to see my instructor. My instructor had just given the count for us to step into a back stance and execute a double knifehand strike. The instructor went into his office with him and left us standing in our stance for over 20 minutes. We were determined not to move, since we had not been given the permission to rest. We didn't even move or straighten our legs. The guest left and our instructor came out to find us still standing in the same position. He said he was so proud because we had great perseverance. He commended the students and praised us for making him proud in front of the guest. These days, many martial arts have forgotten this level of discipline. A tragic loss for martial arts.
This is a story right from Eternal Grandmaster's history, from his time as a brown belt. And reading that makes me think of the discipline that is part of the Master's ceremony.
And I am getting ready to go through this Senior Mastership ceremony, and I have not eaten today. There is a nine day fast that is part of your Mastership training. It's three days that you go down to no food. So it's like two meals the first day, meal and a half the second day, a meal the third day, and then three days of nothing but water.
And then after that, the third day, we're working out at headquarters with Grandmaster and we break our fast. And then you spend three days working back up to a full regular schedules of meals.
And people often ask why we do this. I was talking to students this week at my school about it, and they were, Why do we do this? It's right there. That story Eternal Grandmaster had about holding that stance, it's the discipline. Are you able to do something that is hard?
Do you have the discipline in yourself?
That's something that we're missing a lot of in the world and something that Eternal Grandmaster wanted to bring back through the art of Songam Taekwondo. We've got another story here from a guest, Chief Master Langren Lee. Let's get to that.
[00:08:35] Speaker H: Special guest interview.
[00:08:41] Speaker G: During Founders Month. We are looking at getting different stories from Masters, from students, from instructors across the Ata about Eternal Grandmaster. And we have with us Chief Master Langren Lee. She is a member of the Masters Council. And Ma'am, do you have a great story for us about Eternal Grandmaster?
[00:09:00] Speaker I: I do. We had the pleasure of being able to bring him out to Arizona many times for tournaments. And the one that I think about is sometimes I have big ideas and sometimes they're maybe not the best. So I had one that on September 9, so that I was going to bring out Grandmaster and we were going to have an outdoor tournament. Well, Arizona, September 9 can be good, or it can still be really hot. And it was 99 degrees, go figure.
And we had 600 and some competitors outside, and it was really hot. We ended up having three kind of have to go to the hospital because of just heat stroke kind of a thing. And Eternal kept his coat on, his suit and his tie, and he sat at a table in the sun, and he never left. We had a motorhome for him so he could escape and go into the AC. And he said, if they're out here competing, I am going to sit here. And he was just pouring sweat. And until bow out, he sat there. So he was always there for the students. And he would never let himself be pampered. If they were going through something, he was going to go through it too. And it was a great day, even though it was so hot.
[00:10:33] Speaker G: That is an excellent story. Those are the kinds of things that we love to share with students and instructors who weren't around back when Eternal Grandmaster was here and with us. And just to see his character in action like that, I appreciate that story, ma'am.
[00:10:53] Speaker H: Here's. What's going on in Ata Nation?
[00:11:01] Speaker G: What great stories. We love hearing those. Now, real quick, if you are listening to this this week, and you are not in Little Rock, that means you're probably not making it to Fall Nationals. But that does not mean you cannot be part of the fun.
The Master ceremony is going to be broadcast on Wednesday night and Thursday night. We have the 2020 Masters, Senior Masters, Chief Masters on Wednesday night, and the 2021 Masters, Senior Masters, and Chief Masters on Thursday night. Those will be broadcast live on Facebook. You can find those the link to that at Atama Ninja Ceremony.
And last but certainly not least, do not forget we are running a contest this month for Founders Month. We're going to give away one of those books we talked about last week with Chief Master Cole. But you have to sign up for that contest. You can earn points by sharing with friends and stuff like that. You go and find that at Atama Ninjafounder.
No, I'm so sorrycontest. I almost got the wrong one at A-M-A Ninja contest, and you can get registered for that contest. Hope to see a bunch of you guys at Nationals and make sure you are out there taking action.
[00:12:35] Speaker H: Thanks for listening to another episode of the Ata Nation podcast. Be sure to subscribe and share with your Ata family.
[00:12:52] Speaker G: Little short and sweet episode today. But that was because as we are getting ready for Nationals, if you see us at Nationals, say hi. I'm hoping to get some audio from some people down there, and most of us are going to be busy working out, training, all that kind of stuff, and so we thought we'd do a little shorter episode this week. Hope you guys enjoyed later.
Bye.
