Ego

Some people just have to be in the spotlight. It's not enough to train with the most knowledgeable martial artist in the world. It's not enough to be highly respected by your peers. So you leave and strike out on your own, starting your very own martial arts system.

I guess I can sort of understand it. There's good money to be made teaching martial arts on the seminar circuit. Money is a powerful motivating force in some people's lives.

And why be content with being a student, just one of many, when you can be "the man." You can be Hanshi So-and-so. Or better yet, make up your own title. Just stick a word on the front of "bushi" and you sound like a real master. I can sort of understand that. Who doesn't want to be esteemed?

Yet I can't help but think of the biblical proverb, which says: "Let another praise you, and not your own mouth; someone else, and not your own lips." Seems like a hollow accomplishment if you have to call yourself Hanshi to get the word out. When you have to list your own credentials and trumpet your own mastery. Better when others do it for you.

An old saying goes: If you are in Okinawa and you meet a man on the street and ask him if he knows karate, if he says, "Only a little," then be very careful. That man may just hand you your rear end if you get cross-ways with him. But the man who says "I am a master" probably actually knows very little.

Some of these self-styled masters may have worthwhile things to teach. I won't deny that. But some make up their own katas, their own techniques, etc., out of nothing but their own imagination. If some of the stuff they teach is junk, who's to say that the other stuff is not junk as well?

My instructor is always careful to point out that he didn't "make-up" anything that he teaches. He learned it from his instructors, who learned it from their instructors. In other words, it's authentic life protection arts that have been tried and tested over time.

I understand why people do the things they do. Those same desires are present in all of us. We want to be praised, honored for our accomplishments. Recognized as outstanding individuals. We are all human, after all.

But what I don't understand is this. What you learn from your instructor is given in trust. It's not yours to just do with as you please. My instructor has dedicated his life to martial arts. What he teaches me is not trivial, since it was not trivial for him to learn it in the first place

Shouldn't my instructor have the right to say how he wants this knowledge passed on to future generations? And if he reserves the right alone to give yudansha ranks, why would I think it would be alright for me to award black belt rank to someone?

Everything I know came from my instructor. It seems only proper that I honor his trust in me with my loyalty. I'm not in martial arts to be somebody. I don't care about rank. Either you understand what you're taught, or you don't. A "black belt" doesn't mean squat if you can't defend your life when the need arises.

So, yeah, I don't understand betraying your instructor's trust. I can't see lying to cover up that betrayal. Lying, deceit, betrayal: those are not characteristics in keeping with the spirit of martial arts. In fact, they're not in keeping with being an honorable human being.

It all boils down to ego. There is no place for ego in martial arts. When we start to think we are somebody, we stop being teachable. We stop learning and become more interested in being the source of knowledge. Humility will keep us on the right path. Ego leads us to set up our own shop. And as bad as that is, these self-styled masters have students of there own, students who are often infected by their teacher's egos.

I know one such student, who's gone from shodan to sandan in just a couple of years under the guidance of so-called masters. He may feel a real sense of accomplishment. But in the end, he's been done a disservice. He's gotten it in his head that attaining rank is the measure of a martial artist. And there is no one to tell him any different. Unless someday that someone happens to be a six foot one body builder with a bad attitude. In which case, if he learns the lesson, it just may be in the very hardest way.