I would like to
speak to you at the matter at hand for a moment, the many years of Martial Arts
schools and organizations have been the cancer for the development and growth
of the Martial Arts. What I am about to share with you is a continuation of a
previous blog called Egotism: Our own Worst Enemy. This blog is mostly geared
to high ranking instructors in their own respected system(s) of Martial Arts.
Instructors should open their eyes to understand what they’re doing is wrong.
Students should open their eyes and realize that this particular place is bad
and finding someplace else to stay is a must. This message is what got so many
of us messed up. Throughout my eight years of Martial Arts training, I have
heard about the whole fiasco filled with backstabbers, scammers, and liars that
can do anything to make themselves rich off of a business where you teach
students to build self-confidence, self-defense, self-esteem, improving health,
and many spiritual benefits abroad. Therefore there are certain individuals
that care only about the business than just helping others improve their needs.
I earned the title of Sempai in August 2011. At first it wasn’t a big deal for
me, but down the road it sunk in. The reason was that I have done so much work
and commitment for the Martial Arts community. I believed that I am great on
the tournament floor, on the judging rows, in the dojo training, and on the
dojo floor teaching. One thing is that a part of me says this is a burden; a
heavy load to carry, but despite that, I love what I do. If I don’t, then I
would have left it all behind. I would never forget what my dad said, “Everyone
has their own cross to bear.” Although the saying is more to the religious
mind, it can in many ways be symbolic to the reality of what we do in our
everyday lives.
In the past,
there are Martial Art masters that are legends, but little is known to us that
they can have flaws as an average human being. Those in the Martial Arts
community thought that Peter Urban was a nutcase and a loony, but one thing was
that he was a great Martial Artist of his time, and I thought that he could’ve
been the one to be the successor of the Goju-kai. I’ll say that the fault lied
with Gogen Yamaguchi for telling his senior student Peter Urban that “a
non-Asian can never achieve nirvana (enlightenment).” To add insult to injury
he preferred to have his sons run the organization after he passes away,
despite Urban being a higher rank than Yamaguchi’s sons. In my view, that is
called nepotism. If Yamaguchi wasn’t playing favourites or being prejudiced,
then there would be no such thing as American Goju-ryu. That’s just my little
humble opinion.
I would
generalize certain things at random on certain practices that can be a cancer
to dojos. Many schools anywhere in the world can let so few students get an
easy pass, special privileges or inheritance whether or not they are a
Dai-sempai or sempai of the dojo. First off doing such practices too many times
can create jealousy and another thing is that this special student would not
learn anything about earning what you want instead of things given to you on a
silver platter. Nobody in the dojo would get good benefit out of their training
when a Sensei does that.
Although hardly
mentioned within the Martial Arts community was that I heard stories posted by
forum members I have interacted with are the infamous scandals within the
schools and organizations. These members shared the articles of Senseis that
practice child molestation, affairs with underage girls, and Senseis cheating
on their wives committing adultery. Sometimes I gone about thinking that it is
all a misunderstanding and a certain clique are trying to ruin this guy’s
reputation and so forth, but who knows? It became apparent to me, overtime that
the stories are true. We have so few role models left in this world. Scandals
like these are everywhere, on the streets, in the classrooms, in the churches,
in the recreational centres, all the way up to the celebrity realm. And I
wonder if these Senseis and Sifus have a mental illness or something. You run a
good business, teaching kids and adults Martial Arts and they look up to you.
Then right behind their backs you engage in alcoholism and drugs. Starting
fights in bars to better your skills and hanging out with prostitutes. That was
the practice which Chotoku Kyan did in his time, and encouraged his students to
do those practices as part of their Karate training. Don’t take my word for it,
find that book Okinawan Karate by Mark Bishop, it explains it briefly about
Chotoku Kyan’s life. I wonder what kind of role model does such a thing. Kyan
was a great Martial Artist of his time, but not a great role model. How can you
enjoy your life by living a life like a drunkard? How can you enjoy your life
being a swinger? How can you enjoy your life fighting and hurting people almost
every night? I see that the most joy you get in your life has to be something
spiritual. Many Martial Artists in the western world haven’t grasp budo,
Martial ways or warrior spirit, the mental aspects of the Montu (Martial) Arts.
So I say wake up Instructors. You are the father figures of the community.
There are Senseis
out there who are not only egotistical and tyrannical, but also manipulative,
cultists, and conmen. Those certain individuals most likely built their empires
through making shortcuts; incorporating high priced membership fees and
expensive merchandises. Other scams I have recently heard of were those that
tried to raise the funds so they can pay off for a trip to go somewhere; that
is called “the Sensei tax.” That’s where you pay your monthly membership fee of
lets say $60 per month plus one or two government sales tax of 5%-7%, and then
add a tax that is not related whatsoever to your nation’s government, but your
own. You’ll be wasting your hard earn money over a greedy Sensei to either make
as much money to the point where he or she can go on that dream trip or to open
a chain of dojos from town to town, building a franchise like McDonalds. With
the outcome of opening multiple dojos around the province or state, you hire on
your Black Belt students who are Shodans, more likely who are fresh in the
black belt club. The traditional values of the Asian Martial Arts were overlooked
or overshadowed since it got here in the Western World. We have messed it up
big time. Why is that? We let ego and let greed get in our way. Some folks
cannot let go. There are individuals that try to embrace budo, but they are not
willing to let go of their luxury. Most of them take shortcuts like this
because they don’t have regular 9-5 job of sorts. How they run their business,
is that the Sensei’s teach their students hardly anything, hand out belts to
students like a Christmas present. In simpler terms, they run nothing more than
a black belt mill or a McDojo. You get students under 16 years of age as Jr.
Black Belts or black belts with very little effective skills to show. They are
more than posers than true Martial Artists.
Then there are
imposter leaders of the Martial Arts that forge the certifications, went over
to a Halloween costume store and bought a black belt, opened a school, making
themselves Hanshi. It’s like this, “I’m a grandmaster…of Karate.” (And I don’t
mean by the Japanese accent Karate), it is so pronounced in the American accent
“Karatee.”
Then adding
insult to injury, there is the bastardization of training uniforms. The late
Sensei Richard Kim said, “Clothes cannot change the skill.” One of the many
things that Sensei’s from different Martial Arts schools in the western world
place too much emphasis on is training uniforms to suit a particular system of
Martial Arts, and I find it way too overrated. It has been programmed into the
student psychosis to such a degree that they think that wearing a black, red or
a multi-coloured Gi (uniform) makes them higher in skill than the individual
that wears a white Gi. Where did the classical mind of the Montu Arts gone to? I
tell you Senseis, Shihans, Renshis, Kyoshis and Hanshis who are reading this
message that you are misleading your own students! Change your habit which goes
against your warrior ancestors.
I have attended
quite a few tournaments and the thing which I begin to find humourous is that
competitors obsess themselves about providing more than one uniform for
tournaments. Now I don’t mind those that train in both Karate and Iaido let’s
say, but the thing that can drive such folks crazy is that competitors change
at least two times. They have a uniform for weapons, one for kata, one for
sparring, one for self-defense (some tournaments have a self-defense division).
I find it funny, but understand the program. You have to waste so much money on
purchasing so many different uniforms to compete in tournaments, like come on.
Understand the message people, “Clothes cannot change the skill.” I quote
Richard Kim in his book The Classical Man, “More and more martial artists are
adopting a tendency to appear in flamboyant dress during meets, exhibitions and
demonstrations. Some argue that the flashy clothes they sport are meant to
psyche opponents and dazzle the public, but all that is a matter of opinion.
Clothes certainly cannot change the skill.” (p.55) One of the biggest scam in
the Martial community is to sell the student on joining the demo team or to
sign up to a tournament out of town and tell them that they have to buy a
colourful gi that can make anyone who wears it look like a peacock for $500 or
something plus tax and Sensei tax (if any other school I recognize do that
practice scam), on top of that put down an expensive fee for joining the demo
team. Think about how much money an instructor is raking in and being able to
buy fancy clothes and drive a Corvette or a Lexus. I have no desire to have
those luxurious things at the expense of what I love to do. I have the wealth
of spirituality, the highest form of wealth that many of us are having a hard
time to achieve. I rather walk as a warrior instead of driving in a fancy car
to get my message across to all of you.
Before I even
started training in the Martial Arts, I thought all of this was cool, but I
knew little by little about the lies, and the scams. Students who are reading
this message don’t be deceived, if you don’t like what the instructors teaches
and what he or she does, leave the dojo and find a better one who knows of no
ego, greed or arrogance; plain and simple. Find a Sensei who cares more about
passing down the knowledge to the next generation. The three poisons of man is
ego, greed and arrogance, let us get out of that mess and live right through
Ma’at, live modestly through Ma’at, do justice through Ma’at, live a balance
life through Ma’at, and be one with nature through Ma’at, live in the presence
of the goddess of truth, justice righteousness, and balance through nature. We
must be aware of the crooked scams and seek right knowledge that should benefit
our training. We should put aside are petty differences, that is what separates
us from the Montu Arts, for a Martial Artist should always learn to forgive and
forget and hopefully we shall work together for the betterment of the next
generation, that is the highest form of being a great Martial Artist. Let the
Montu Arts bring us together into one community and one organization, put aside
the petty politics and the egos, for we as Martial Artists should promote world
peace. At the end of the day you can dig it. A quote from the movie The
Warriors, “Can you dig iiiiiiiit?” We have so much work to do to rebuild our
community which had fractured us for so long. It’s time to come home to the
budo thought.
Hotep NTR,
Jonathan
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