Except By That One!!

[sensei8]

We train, we teach, we learn, we study, we seek, we discover, we exchange, and we do this and that and then some to satisfy that thirst of knowledge that will never be quenched; our tongue sweels in the journey as we try for just one drop of effective as well as palatable knowledge as if it was the one and only sustainable morsel.

This to me, isn't a bad thing, no, it's a good thing, imho, just as long as that which it is that sustains you is kept within its proper content and context.

Why is it that we MAists never seem to satisfy UNLESS it's provided by that one, and only that one?

False instructors dot the map so much so that when one throws a glance at the map of the MA, the map appears to have riddled with measles. However, there's a cure for measles but there's no cure for the disease of false instructors. Those who can't be honest with their victimized students, let alone with themselves.

We dwell amoungst the false instructors, and because of them, those true instructors that are honest across the MA board as the day is long suffer the same intolerable distrustfulness as though the true instructors of the MA were born of that same flesh, that same cloth, or that same soup as those false instructors who get richer while the MA as a whole is festered with the boils of untrust.

The suspicous student-to-be glares, deservingly so, at those true MA instructors untrustfully until theirtrust is earned. I"d have it no other way!! I sincerely believe that that trust is earned by what the instructor proves both on and off the floor: Effective and unadulterated and untainted techniques.

You know, a duck sounds like a duck by its fruits. A duck quacks, a duck waddles, a duck does what only a duck can do because it's a duck. Nothing more and nothing less! A false instructor will, not at first, begin to appear more and more as a duck to thier unwittingly students. By then the damage has been done, and that unfruitful time has been lost.

You're questioned, you're lambasted, you're drug over a bed of hot coals until the consumer is satisfied. But, that shouldn't worry the true instructors, no, they'll welcome the 3rd degree because they've nothing to hide, but everyting to gain.

But, even long after the dust has settled and the true MA instructor has been vindicated, that aproval is, at best, limited. How so?

Outside of your instructor and your style and your governing body, you're not valid. Outside of that warm and fuzzy world known only to you, you're insignificant. Within Shindokan, I'm well known and respected, but outside of Shindokan, I'm nothing to sneeze about or after. That's fine with me because it is what it is and I'm not a MAist for fame and fortune. I only want to learn and grow and tearn and share to the best of my abilities.

There's an untold amount of ways to market own self today. If that's what is important to that said MAist, then I say, go for it and succeed and excel in it. It's just not that important to me yesterday, today, and tomorrow.

Anything and everything that might possibly validate ones pedigree as a true MAist is and can be approved by nobody...

Except by that ONE instructor, except by that ONE style, and except by that ONE governing body!!

Your thoughts please.

*EDIT: spelling....again...sheech, I'm such a dork!!*

Edited August 23, 2013 by sensei8

[CredoTe]

Ooooh-eeee! Deep and meaty!

As MAs, IMHO, I think we're all looking for a "true" / "one" sense of self. Our relentless search for the "one" set / style / path of knowledge is a reflection of our inner, personal beliefs. There are many, many effective bunkai/oyo/MAs out there, so one would think, in our MA journeys, we would strive to learn all these effective methods. But we don't. As effective as any given bunkai/oyo/MA is, we follow what is suitable to each of us. What is suitable to one may not be suitable to me or you because our inner, personal beliefs are different. Compounding that is no person's body is exactly the same as another's; so, an effective bunkai/oyo/MA works for one person, but not another.

This is the core of why the "style vs style" argument is futile, but that's a different discussion.

Thus, we search for the "one" set / style / path of knowledge that is most effective for us. Many of us find a "one" person (instructor / mentor / organization) that reflects exactly what we're searching for. This "one" person is different for everyone because, again, our inner, personal beliefs are different (and our bodies).

I mentioned in another thread (that I started) that I had reunited with an old instructor that is a Te (Ti) expert. Not to disparage my current chief instructor, but this Te (Ti) expert, whom has taken me as a personal student, represents the "one" path that I've been searching for my whole MA journey... so, this "one" experience has really just begun for me... I look with awe upon those who've been on their "one" path for a while.

[sensei8]

Ooooh-eeee! Deep and meaty!

As MAs, IMHO, I think we're all looking for a "true" / "one" sense of self. Our relentless search for the "one" set / style / path of knowledge is a reflection of our inner, personal beliefs. There are many, many effective bunkai/oyo/MAs out there, so one would think, in our MA journeys, we would strive to learn all these effective methods. But we don't. As effective as any given bunkai/oyo/MA is, we follow what is suitable to each of us. What is suitable to one may not be suitable to me or you because our inner, personal beliefs are different. Compounding that is no person's body is exactly the same as another's; so, an effective bunkai/oyo/MA works for one person, but not another.

This is the core of why the "style vs style" argument is futile, but that's a different discussion.

Thus, we search for the "one" set / style / path of knowledge that is most effective for us. Many of us find a "one" person (instructor / mentor / organization) that reflects exactly what we're searching for. This "one" person is different for everyone because, again, our inner, personal beliefs are different (and our bodies).

I mentioned in another thread (that I started) that I had reunited with an old instructor that is a Te (Ti) expert. Not to disparage my current chief instructor, but this Te (Ti) expert, whom has taken me as a personal student, represents the "one" path that I've been searching for my whole MA journey... so, this "one" experience has really just begun for me... I look with awe upon those who've been on their "one" path for a while.

Solid post, as always!!

There's another ONE that isn't even an instructor or a style or a governing body. Nope...get ready...here it comes...you all already know what I'm about to say...the other ONE is...

THE FLOOR!!

[CredoTe]

TY sensei8 for the "SP!"

There's another ONE that isn't even an instructor or a style or a governing body. Nope...get ready...here it comes...you all already know what I'm about to say...the other ONE is...

THE FLOOR!!

Haha! How true! And, how easy it is sometimes to overlook this quintessential fact...

[ps1]

Good post.

My instructor and I have a similar way of saying it. A little more brutish, perhaps. "Put it on the mat!"

When my students ask if I'm worried about "school x" down the street or "instructor y" who teaches the same style as me; I say no. When pressed on this I simply say to them, I put it on the mat. My students see me put it on the mat day in and day out. If what I put out there isn't good enough to satisfy them, they will leave. If they are satisfied, they will stay. But this is a product of what I can do and am willing to do. It's totally in my control.

Put it on the mat, the mat doesn't lie.