Teachers and Responsibility

Teachers and Responsibility

by Adam Chan

I've grew up with domestic violence, been bullied when i was a kid for not speaking English, had friends that almost die from unprovoked attacks, had friends who have  been rape.... Violence sucks; its ugly - it's not glorious with cheers, pretty girls and trophies like the ufc or something. There's nothing good about waiting in the emergency room, wondering if a love one is ok.  Maybe that's why martial arts, the originally pictorial character for martial  is to " stop a  spear" or to stop fighting. Even though this idea is common sense, mainstream Martial arts has now become a mass promotion and glorification of violence. Violence is now trendy and cool, random clips of violence on the net are being film with laughter while the victim is lying in pain. I often wonder just how fun violence is to these people if they had to see their love ones suffer. Maybe in the near future we will bring back cage dog or chicken fights, who knows?

I am writing this because I urge all MA students and teachers to reconsider the option of ethics and  responsibility; that's hard to do because to trigger peace one have to look at  the opposite first , something very ugly that most don't want to look at.  The result of that is unrealistic and useless so-called "combative"  training and therefore the inability to over ride the insecure ego's need to prove itself through the domination of the weak. However, if there's intent for the ability to face real world violence, the training will naturally have a better chance to become functional and with enough competence and confidence, perhaps the practitioner will no longer have the need to fight the world.

The second reason I am writing this is for the "tough guys" who have recently contact me for lessons, please understand that I will never teach you regardless of the amount of money you offer because I want to stop attacks/violence, that being the case, why would I teach someone who starts it? While it is true that sometimes training can turn these ppl around , the truth is sometimes it doesn't. I've seen  a few ppl pick fights that obviously have done some MA and whenever I see that i want to slap their teachers silly.

It's getting hard to pull that off nowadays in our generation since so many schools are willing to train them right away without any screening as long as they pay.  It's bad enough that we have members of society that needs to  pick fights/attack/rape ppl in order to justify their existence;  the last thing we need is for these people to be combatively train - and it IS HAPPENING. This is a sad reality, at least in Vancouver right now. The basic premise of MA in my opinion is to help the average person defend themselves against attackers. The sucess of that objective is compromise when the attackers are train too. I strongly urge MA teachers to reconsider this issue since real MA is a weapon, it should not be hand out indiscriminately.

No matter how effective fighting ability and technology is, it is not necessary a good thing. Might be a good time to look at the big picture; on the superficial and phyiscal level, fighting skill should be use to help the weak to defend themselves against bullies/attackers/rapists etc.
 
On a deeper level , even if the need for self defence never arise, training in my opinion should help a person transcend conflict within. A lot of times people feel so small that they need to intiate conflict and dominate others in order to feel good about themselves. However , with training, competence and courage , it might be possible that their self esteem will rise to the point where that need disappears. That to me, is the greatest thing in MA , not just to beat the guy out there but to win against the guy inside.

It's is really easy to say "give me your money, you want to be a tough guy and kck the shit out of ppl? I can help you with that!" but maybe teachers instead can suggest to ppl that being a fighter is not about fighting your way through life - thats a good way to give yourself a heart-attack, end up dead or in jail and ruin all forms of relationship. Cattering to ppl needs is one way but pointing out the illusion of that need is another. I dont know....

In even a deeper level,  ones ethics and fighting ability are directly connected in my opinion. Fighting requires more than just power. Sensitivity and awareness are necessary. It is very hard to relax, extend awarenss and feel when one is over run by hate ,rage and fear etc. The teaching of o sensei is too much to go into here but lets just say that your intent, ethics have alot to do with your body's performance level - mind leads body.

Adam Chan runs PragmaticMartialArts.com