I personally got nothing against the Karateka in the picture. I’m sure he’s a nice guy, maybe knows some cool shit. All that jazz.
But I really cringe when I see BJJ bros go in a circle and say “What has Jui-Jitsu done for you? What has it taught you about life?”
Or you have people who say their life only exists for Karate or doing Tai chi or something, especially when they say it gives their life some meaning.
I personally would not do martial arts if I didn’t see it help me in my everyday life. It certainly gave me self-esteem, it helped me realize I’m not as stupid as I originally thought I was, not as weak. Not as incapable.
But the thing is, if I had fallen in love with art, Math or Engineering, I would have a similar sensation of confidence. Maybe I wouldn’t feel as strong, but it can have similar enlightening effects.
Martial arts is not unique in being able to uplift the soul.
What’s worse, is the same people who think there is some special spiritual quality in martial arts or worse in a specific art only, they think it equals worldly wisdom and moral virtue. Just because martial arts can make you more assertive, confident, and less afraid doesn’t mean you’re actually more wise than anyone else because of it. Martial arts taught me I wasn’t as dumb as I thought I was told I was, but it didn’t make me smarter. It just made me realize something that was there. But you see in both western and traditional martial arts organization where students listen to the head or a black belt on random things like they are sages. I got nothing against Jordan Peterson in particular, but he’s very popular among them, and only because Joe Rogan and other figures in the combat sports community push him.
Lets examine some of these.
This above is blatantly untrue. I’ve played possum while rolling with both low ranks and high ranks. I’ve changed my energy and how I rolled many times, and I fucking suck too. I’ve changed my style doing striking or full MMA sparring. I picked some days I play dirty others more by the book.
Okay so, do I even have to point out how this is blatantly false?
Just google “Gordan Ryan Jui jitsu” or any number of high level black belts in the sports that are utterly arrogant.
Look up Dillon Danis and his antics.
Really? Then why are the best masters often not good people? Why did they develop during times of war? Why was the criminal under class in asia and all over the world involved in the creation of martial art styles? Because criminals want spiritual development? Bouncers? Body guards? It’s certainly a great vehicle for it, but that’s not it’s original purpose.
Wow ignore the opinions of others right? You mean like doctors and subject matter experts?
This is how anti-vaxxer shit starts, everyone thinks they understand medicine better than the actual experts. Think they know how to sift through information.
You’re damned right I consider the opinions of others, because I know I am a human being, I am not a god. I have limits in my understanding that perhaps others don’t.
Guess kung-fu makes you ignorant?
What is the point of this all?
In classic times people loved their hobbies no doubt. A mason took pride in what he built, brick by brick. A farmer took joy in yielding and producing good crops. Warriors were proud of their fighting prowess. People even identified with occupations and hobbies, and did write and wax poetic about their love of these hobbies.
For many parts of the world historically, people turned to Buddha, Moses, or Jesus and Mo for deeper philosophical and metaphysical concepts
. AKA “All ya’ll motherfuckers need jesus”
Meaning was not seen in your identity as a writer or fighter, but as some kind of deeper truth. There was not the secular existentialist concept of ‘we make our own meaning’ which leads to people using identities and hobbies as vehicles for meaning and guidance.
In non-religious ancient societies like ancient Greece, you went to a philosopher, a Rhetorician or a stoic for guidance on life and metaphysics. Wrestlers and warriors were highly respected, but no one really said shit like “The art of pankration has taught me to walk with grace. My life is just pankration, for only pankration gives me meaning” or “This spear is my destiny! I love my spear! I stick it up my ass!” like we do see in the modern martial arts world.
Sun Tzu was a general, but he didn’t go on about some ancient kung-fu giving him the guidance and wisdom he needed, didn’t talk about some primordial tai chi forms filling him with light, and he was a warrior, he probably knew good Wushu/Kung-fu.
Confucius straight up did not even like martial artists and warriors, much less talked about how learning Chin Na and chinese grappling gave him and others some inner peace.
The ancient world had many more grapplers, hand-to-hand, and melee weapon artists than the modern world.
Yet only in Japan was martial arts seen as a special virtue on a philosophical level, but like Sparta, Feudal Japan was a strong noble class that formed a military government. The legitimacy of their rule rested on their warrior class, the Samurai. They wax poetic about this stuff simply due to the fact their entire society was organized on it. But look at how we live today, is that true in our context?
I realized this when I started another hobby other than martial arts. When I say hobby I don’t mean “I like to sit and watch movies” or “I play video games”
By hobby I mean something to create or to do, art, math, history, philosophy, sociology.
In my case it’s writing (Clearly not editing and revising based on this blog eh?)
When your identity is not bundled in a single passion but many passions, you’re less likely to frame your sense of self and your life based on a single purpose. Find joy in many things and you will not be a slave. Study more than one aspect of living and you will not be a slave.
I promise you, there are more reasons to live and find joy than LARPING in a dojo or a Gym thinking you’re a warrior. And if you really are a warrior, there is more to life than simply ending others.
What's the deal with Adeel? 