Polishing a turd: virtue, vice and the way.
It doesn't happen that often, but every once in a while, someone in the martial realm I survey lets me down. Something about their personality or the character or both seeps through to reveal an image of the person they truly are versus who I believed them to be.
Now, don't get me wrong. I don't hold these folks on a pedestal. But, as with certain segments of a society, I expect more of them. Nay, I demand more from them. If one is remaining true to the principles of one's art, then one should always be striving to self-reflect and improve -and not just the physical.
So, what is the one yardstick by which I will table all karate-comers? "Seek perfection of character." An established principle reportedly laid out by 'Tode' Sakugawa is pretty basic in nature, but the thrust of the words often miss the mark for some practitioners. There are those among us who mouth the words yet do not take them to heart. They claim to be equal to us or above us, but are not simply by their actions towards us or their words to us and others. It is not a hollow principle that we utter aloud, bearing the tone of 'do as I say, not as I do.'
It is an all-encompassing canon that reminds us that we are all, in essence, turds. And we can be polished. But we need to recognize ourselves as turds and strive to 'rise up from the bowl' as it were.
For those of you who are uninitiated, the term 'you can't polish a turd' simply says that something inherently bad cannot be improved. I am not trying to say we are all mean, vile, evil and spiteful folk. But, yes, like it or not, we all have imperfections. We are born with some. We acquire others.
Our goal is to attempt to overcome our own shortcomings. Notice I say 'attempt to overcome'. Sakugawa himself, smart man that he obviously was, recognized the nature of human beings. Thus, he placed a caveat on his words (at least the translation of same does) by saying 'seek perfection'. He knew that we could not be perfect no matter how hard we tried. It does not say "try to be perfect, but if it doesn't happen, that's OK. Just be yourself." That sounds more like the tripe that kids are fed today when it comes to sports and education, where the core message seems to sometimes be: 'it's ok if you don't try, Johnny, at least you are going through the motions and being yourself.'
That, ladies and gents, is the recipe for making a turd darker and duller than what it originally was.
I know I'm not perfect. I can be rude and insensitive at times. I've been known to be somewhat judgmental and biased when it comes to certain subjects and issues. In the past, I have been unfaithful to a partner. I've committed small acts of petty larceny in my life. I've told a fib on more than one occasion. Thanks to a lovely case of PTSD, I have a lowered ability to cope with stress and have been known to be self-destructive and self-medicate. And those are just a few of my shortcomings.
So, dear, anonymous reader (because no one seems inclined to comment here :) ), you may be wondering what the hell I am doing teaching karate. What qualifies me to sit in judgment of others after admitting and confessing to so many sins? Well, for starters, I have never made a claim to be perfect or better than anyone else. In fact, I do not try to convince my people to be just like me (that is a dangerous road to try to pave for anyone), for the end goal is attempting to create a group of followers in one's own image. And the only people that can do things like that are people like carpenters from Nazareth via Bethlehem and Indian princes who have undertaken pilgrimages.
I want my students to be better than me. I want them to be the best people that they possibly can be. We should all want this for our students. And ourselves.
One of my former sensei, when he was a younger and wiser man, once asked his Okinawan master how he equated the life he instructed others to lead with the drinking and smoking that he did outside of the dojo. His reply? Oni te hotoke kokoro - which I am told equates to 'hand of a demon, heart of a saint.' We cannot always be all good. There is no such thing as pure good or pure evil. But, our goal in training, as guided by that principle is that we continue to strive to skate as close to the pure good line as possible. The bad things we do should be far outweighed by the good we do in life. And not just the good to ourselves, but to the good of humanity as a whole.
So, if you caught it, I did say 'former sensei'. We parted ways over some differences of opinion. he thought his anal effluence didn't stink yet was quite quick and willing to identify the order and magnitude of what he perceived to be the stench of mine. He was judgmental of me on many levels, even once told me that it was a shame that I never fully explored or understood any one style because I jumped from style to style (to which I wonder why he lowered his standards and ever gave me a sandan). This was from a man who had some serious flaws as I saw firsthand; yet, iw as willing to overlook them out of respect. Over his time on the floor, many of his students had let him down or turned their back on him and he was, to say the least, heartbroken and discouraged by this. In some cases, I see where the students were in the wrong because of their own flaws and foibles. But, the longer I had an association with him, the more I realized that this man did not do any internal introspection. He was willing to learn new techniques and refine his understanding of the physical.
But, his mental, emotional and spiritual learning had ground to a halt. he sat in judgment over me and and did not realize the things in his life that far outweighed the errors in mine. He was still my sensei, and I had much to learn from him, I know. But, comes a time when one must recognize the signs that growth and nurturing needs to happen on all levels under one's teacher. Still a phenomenal karate-ka for his advanced age, as his rank shows, but somewhere he lost his footing on another path. I was loyal to him to a fault. Then that fault became his, and I placed my faith elsewhere. Perhaps I was a disappointment to him like all the rest, but, to borrow a line from the Lord's prayer, he should have forgiven my trespasses as I was willing to forgive his. I prefer a stern hand, but an overly stern hand is not the best teacher. To go further with biblical allusions: judge not lest ye be judged.
The list of offenders that I know is disturbingly high. That is not to say that there are tons of them. That means that I think any number of people who cross the line and cease to see the lack of progress they make or are making in seeking perfection is a number too high. I hate to tell you, but Mac Davis was being sarcastic in his song . If yer breathin', ya ain't achievin'. Given the choice, I'll stick with flawed, humble turd over flawed, arrogant turd.
My message here should be crystal clear: don't stop seeking perfection of character. We are all turds, we all have imperfections. We all have shortcomings and vices that we could work on ridding ourselves of (or at the very least, reducing). But, if you have stopped looking in the mirror and critically dissecting that which looks back at you, you are fooling yourself. And when you stand in front of others as 'all-great and powerful, all-knowing sensei', people will believe that as well. That is called buying into your own bullshit.
Yet, when the warts begin to show, and they will at some point, people will rightfully be disappointed and move on. They will have been fooled and let down by the 'image' of perfection that was held up for them. No one is perfect, not even the great, old masters - those men were known to gamble, drink, carouse, fight and have mistresses and bastard children. Yet, for all the warts, they at least sought to be better and stronger all-around. The -do is a lifelong journey of self-mastery and no one every finishes the race before they die. If you're breathing and touting yourself as a paragon of virtue, the numbers aren't adding up. So, forgive the sins of the student, respect the sins of the masters, and work on your own sins and weaknesses.
And if you think this post is about you, mon semblable, mon frère, it probably is. :)
Work on your karate - remember Sakugawa's edict!
Now, don't get me wrong. I don't hold these folks on a pedestal. But, as with certain segments of a society, I expect more of them. Nay, I demand more from them. If one is remaining true to the principles of one's art, then one should always be striving to self-reflect and improve -and not just the physical.
So, what is the one yardstick by which I will table all karate-comers? "Seek perfection of character." An established principle reportedly laid out by 'Tode' Sakugawa is pretty basic in nature, but the thrust of the words often miss the mark for some practitioners. There are those among us who mouth the words yet do not take them to heart. They claim to be equal to us or above us, but are not simply by their actions towards us or their words to us and others. It is not a hollow principle that we utter aloud, bearing the tone of 'do as I say, not as I do.'
It is an all-encompassing canon that reminds us that we are all, in essence, turds. And we can be polished. But we need to recognize ourselves as turds and strive to 'rise up from the bowl' as it were.
For those of you who are uninitiated, the term 'you can't polish a turd' simply says that something inherently bad cannot be improved. I am not trying to say we are all mean, vile, evil and spiteful folk. But, yes, like it or not, we all have imperfections. We are born with some. We acquire others.
Our goal is to attempt to overcome our own shortcomings. Notice I say 'attempt to overcome'. Sakugawa himself, smart man that he obviously was, recognized the nature of human beings. Thus, he placed a caveat on his words (at least the translation of same does) by saying 'seek perfection'. He knew that we could not be perfect no matter how hard we tried. It does not say "try to be perfect, but if it doesn't happen, that's OK. Just be yourself." That sounds more like the tripe that kids are fed today when it comes to sports and education, where the core message seems to sometimes be: 'it's ok if you don't try, Johnny, at least you are going through the motions and being yourself.'
That, ladies and gents, is the recipe for making a turd darker and duller than what it originally was.
I know I'm not perfect. I can be rude and insensitive at times. I've been known to be somewhat judgmental and biased when it comes to certain subjects and issues. In the past, I have been unfaithful to a partner. I've committed small acts of petty larceny in my life. I've told a fib on more than one occasion. Thanks to a lovely case of PTSD, I have a lowered ability to cope with stress and have been known to be self-destructive and self-medicate. And those are just a few of my shortcomings.
So, dear, anonymous reader (because no one seems inclined to comment here :) ), you may be wondering what the hell I am doing teaching karate. What qualifies me to sit in judgment of others after admitting and confessing to so many sins? Well, for starters, I have never made a claim to be perfect or better than anyone else. In fact, I do not try to convince my people to be just like me (that is a dangerous road to try to pave for anyone), for the end goal is attempting to create a group of followers in one's own image. And the only people that can do things like that are people like carpenters from Nazareth via Bethlehem and Indian princes who have undertaken pilgrimages.
I want my students to be better than me. I want them to be the best people that they possibly can be. We should all want this for our students. And ourselves.
One of my former sensei, when he was a younger and wiser man, once asked his Okinawan master how he equated the life he instructed others to lead with the drinking and smoking that he did outside of the dojo. His reply? Oni te hotoke kokoro - which I am told equates to 'hand of a demon, heart of a saint.' We cannot always be all good. There is no such thing as pure good or pure evil. But, our goal in training, as guided by that principle is that we continue to strive to skate as close to the pure good line as possible. The bad things we do should be far outweighed by the good we do in life. And not just the good to ourselves, but to the good of humanity as a whole.
So, if you caught it, I did say 'former sensei'. We parted ways over some differences of opinion. he thought his anal effluence didn't stink yet was quite quick and willing to identify the order and magnitude of what he perceived to be the stench of mine. He was judgmental of me on many levels, even once told me that it was a shame that I never fully explored or understood any one style because I jumped from style to style (to which I wonder why he lowered his standards and ever gave me a sandan). This was from a man who had some serious flaws as I saw firsthand; yet, iw as willing to overlook them out of respect. Over his time on the floor, many of his students had let him down or turned their back on him and he was, to say the least, heartbroken and discouraged by this. In some cases, I see where the students were in the wrong because of their own flaws and foibles. But, the longer I had an association with him, the more I realized that this man did not do any internal introspection. He was willing to learn new techniques and refine his understanding of the physical.
But, his mental, emotional and spiritual learning had ground to a halt. he sat in judgment over me and and did not realize the things in his life that far outweighed the errors in mine. He was still my sensei, and I had much to learn from him, I know. But, comes a time when one must recognize the signs that growth and nurturing needs to happen on all levels under one's teacher. Still a phenomenal karate-ka for his advanced age, as his rank shows, but somewhere he lost his footing on another path. I was loyal to him to a fault. Then that fault became his, and I placed my faith elsewhere. Perhaps I was a disappointment to him like all the rest, but, to borrow a line from the Lord's prayer, he should have forgiven my trespasses as I was willing to forgive his. I prefer a stern hand, but an overly stern hand is not the best teacher. To go further with biblical allusions: judge not lest ye be judged.
The list of offenders that I know is disturbingly high. That is not to say that there are tons of them. That means that I think any number of people who cross the line and cease to see the lack of progress they make or are making in seeking perfection is a number too high. I hate to tell you, but Mac Davis was being sarcastic in his song . If yer breathin', ya ain't achievin'. Given the choice, I'll stick with flawed, humble turd over flawed, arrogant turd.
My message here should be crystal clear: don't stop seeking perfection of character. We are all turds, we all have imperfections. We all have shortcomings and vices that we could work on ridding ourselves of (or at the very least, reducing). But, if you have stopped looking in the mirror and critically dissecting that which looks back at you, you are fooling yourself. And when you stand in front of others as 'all-great and powerful, all-knowing sensei', people will believe that as well. That is called buying into your own bullshit.
Yet, when the warts begin to show, and they will at some point, people will rightfully be disappointed and move on. They will have been fooled and let down by the 'image' of perfection that was held up for them. No one is perfect, not even the great, old masters - those men were known to gamble, drink, carouse, fight and have mistresses and bastard children. Yet, for all the warts, they at least sought to be better and stronger all-around. The -do is a lifelong journey of self-mastery and no one every finishes the race before they die. If you're breathing and touting yourself as a paragon of virtue, the numbers aren't adding up. So, forgive the sins of the student, respect the sins of the masters, and work on your own sins and weaknesses.
And if you think this post is about you, mon semblable, mon frère, it probably is. :)
Work on your karate - remember Sakugawa's edict!
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