About our Name
In the summer, fall and winter of 1999, I would go to my Sifu's house every Friday about midday. We would do different things. Once for a few weeks I assisted in the making of a school sign, or a tong. Sometimes we would watch movies. And often we would go to yum cha and eat dim sum. But the thing that Sifu talked most about was that he wanted to teach me Cantonese. Sifu was a master of brush calligraphy. He showed me my name and certain sayings and the names of food and tea that he would order at yum cha. There was always one phrase that he came back to over and over. That was Ming Sam. Ming is a combination of the signs for sun and moon. It means bright and shining. Sam, actually it is pronounced more like sum, means heart. Dim sum is a little heart speck, that is the name for all the small bits of food on the steam carts when you go to a traditional Chinese tea (yum cha). So Sifu asked me "Why do people study Zen?" I replied, "To get Ming Sam." He said, "To be Ming Sam." Ming Sam means to discover the pure heart.
One of the things Sifu would say was that Ving Tsun reveals your true nature like a stream polishes the stones in its bed.
The nature of Ving Tsun is to go to the center, to be as close to the center as possible, to occupy the center, and to get back to the center as swiftly as possible.
These are some of the reasons that I chose to use Ming Sam as the name of our school.
Samuel Harris