Colored Lenses

Your focus determines your reality.

Humans are subjective beings.  Although we exist in an objective reality, our existence within that reality is forever perceived and interpreted through a subjective lens.  Conceptually, we are capable of abstraction; I can employ my mental faculties in order to conceive of another's point of view - but what cannot be divorced from this process is the 'me' of this.

It's like wearing a pair of funny glasses.  Try them on and the world appears differently, thanks to the colored lenses or whatever other properties are in the lenses.  In some cases, the altered sense of perception can highlight certain things and obscure others.  With certain lenses, you may even begin to see things that aren't even there, or are so badly distorted that we don't recognize them.

Mentally, the lens that we employ is attitudinal.  It comes from us, and is controlled by us.  The world provides a set of circumstances, but depending on which lens that we employ, we will shape our own perception of it, unconsciously categorizing, interpreting, and reacting to what we see - or what we think we see.

Take our practice of the martial arts, for example.

Many people in the world see much of what we do through the lens of media, almost all of it in the most superficial sense (the punching, kicking, choking, etc).  Many people also have rather polarized views regarding violence, ranging from bloodthirsty cries of support, to utter revulsion, and everything inbetween.  All colored lenses.

From a certain point of view, love or hate it, we're all a little sick.  We stab our friends for fun and strive to figure out how to do it more effectively.  Our idea of a good time is tossing our buddy on the mat and hearing that thunderous echo resound throughout the gym.  Only we know the joys of impaling someone (or being impaled) with a well-timed side kick, and when it happens, we somehow manage a smile.  Part of our practice involves visualizing and having a deep understanding of exactly how that joint locking technique is supposed to light up every nerve in our opponent.  Smashing through construction materials is somehow considered impressive.

Distorted?  Perhaps.  But through this lens, we're all a bunch of sadistic people.  In fact, given that this is what is shown in most of the media, it's no wonder that some people don't see what we see. We see through different eyes and wear our own funny-colored glasses.  In what we see, there is a deeper beauty to what we practice, revealed in every action of every day.  We have the opportunity to show it - but to do that, we must teach, we must practice, we must write, we must film, we must take action, we must create, we must inspire, we must do, and we must share.

I like that the UBBT encourages us to embrace and adopt a more overt connection between what we practice and the benefits that it carries for our students in all areas of life.  I like that we have a group that reminds and inspires us to BE what we practice.  And I love that students have this opportunity to see us in action (or inaction) as we train and grow because it's real.

Our work provides a different lens for us to see ourselves and our practice differently, and for the world to see us with new eyes.  I am honored to contribute in whatever way I can.