Time to Wake Up

Recently, Tom Callos posted an open letter to the martial arts world, calling the masters and leaders of this generation to action: time to grow up.

His thoughts and words remind me so much of my own teacher, KJN Ed Fong. I suppose they should. After all, we're members of the same martial arts lineage, just different branches of the family tree. Yet, regardless of the messenger, there is wisdom to be found in the message: a martial artist needs to stand for more than just glorified punching and kicking, motivational daycare, wealth building, or any of the gimmicks that we've employed in recent decades.

I should clarify myself before I proceed: instructors always carry an obligation to develop, refine, and display nothing short of exemplary skill. They also should convey the philosophies of their given art to their students and discuss the benefits of martial arts training as they pertain to daily life. When applied, those skills can and often will yield success of many kinds - emotional, financial, you name it.

I'm saying that those things aren't enough.

As a young instructor, searching for information and methods to build my school, I embraced a lot of those practices because I thought they were cutting-edge practices which would lead me to success. They were, and they did. However, those same practices, when treated as a school owner's core focus, empty the arts of value. It converts a school into a business of the worst kind: one which (forgive me) seduces its students with early success and simplistic insights, develops unwavering loyalty through masterful relationship-building, and then uses them as a vehicle for simple financial gain from that point onward because they are eternally grateful for what they have been given.

For a time, I participated in this, and I grew to despise myself for what I had become. Not that I didn't like having money. It's nice. Not that a part of me didn't enjoy the prestige of walking into a room and seeing several hundred people stop to stand up and bow. It's nice to be recognized. However, as I embraced more and more of the practices of the 'martial arts business', I began to feel like I was exploiting my students, and it wasn't right. In my quest for professionalism, I lost my sincerity.

Since then, I have found it again. Now that I am more acutely aware of such things, I hope that I am less likely to lose it again. (Should this occur, please tell me.) But now that I've rediscovered this part of myself, what comes next? What is a martial artist to do?

And the words of Master Fong and Master Callos return to me:

Give back.
Walk your talk.
Live the life.

It's time for me to grow up. I need to do more than reject the old paradigms which I once embraced. I need to synthesize what was useful from it with what I know now and help to transcend myself and advance the art for the benefit of our families, our communities, our countries, and our world.

My teachers already knew this to be true.
It's taken me until now to understand.

I am awake now, sir!