Lineage is important.
Some say it is important in order to prove authenticity.
Authenticity however is not proven through lineage but through examination of your art. If you put Lineage at the top of authentication, then you take over the mistakes YOUR teachers might have passed on without examining the art.
Martial Art - If this is about combat, you better examine it.
Is it about Self Defence (which is way different from Combat), you examine it.
If it is about MOVEMENT - you examine it as well. Is it good for the mechanism, or not? Is it may be bad for the body after years?
If it is about Health - you examine it. What benefits does it have and what contra's it has for the body and EXPECIALY (within internal arts) MENTALLY. Does it boost your ego to a degree that you start now judging other styles like you have the only truth? Better think that over.
Examine it - if it has truly WU DE within its teachings and practice or not? Does it follow the 10 Moral Codes? Does it follow them only formally, or in every day & overall life? Does it offer Humbleness, Respect, Righteousness, Trust, Loyalty, Willpower, Endurance, Consistency, Patience, Courage, Decency, Certainty?
Or does it only teach how to pick on styles that do not follow the same or similar path of ideology? Does it teach to JUDGE over fakes and reals? You better overthink this :)
Does it offer one teaching that transmits the knowledge about an amount of courage to stand up if needed and protect the ideology, even if this means standing against the world?
Does it give you an insight & knowledge of 'discovering-the-new' instead of 'blind-following-the-old'.
Does it offer the knowledge of STANDING your MAN or WOMAN against so-called Martial Moral Keepers (Sharia-Police for the Martial Arts) and make an unexpected aggressive move to show them their place, which could be misunderstood as 'no-moral' by the majority of martial arts ppl who haven't been through an education in life that gives them the options to understand such situations! Not caring about the mass-main-stream but going the distance fully and consciously.
It is easy to be a member of a lineage.
It is difficult to be a human.
The 10 Virtues of Kung Fu
Watch here part 1 in order to grasp the idea of what a 'Virtue' is to Ismet and what the meanings are for the every-day-life.
Dive into the ideology of how to improve every day little by little and see whats Kung Fu all about.
Part 2 of the 10 Virtues of Kung Fu
In this part I am explaining the inner 5 of the 10 Virtues.
Watch, think and let it sink.
These are 2 of many Kung Fu Talks from www.Ismethimmetkungfu.com