“Today, there are many instructors who boast of heroic episodes to their students. They are not qualified to be instructors.” – Eiichi Miyazato 10th dan Goju Ryu from the book Okinawa Den Gojuryu Karate-do
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Humility is a very important human trait that all people should exercise in their lives. The core significance of being humble, is showing modesty in behavior, attitude, or spirit; not being arrogant or overly prideful. And being receptive to the way you treat others.
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There will always be somebody who disapproves of what you’re doing. A lot of people look down on others because they think it makes them look better. It’s their way of feeling superior. And some people only feel good about themselves by criticizing others and running them down. When someone looks down on you, it says a lot more about them than you.
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People who look down upon you have issues internally, they feel inadequate for the most part and to fulfill their insecurities, they try to put down others, to make themselves feel better.
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The martial arts are very often tied to humility, its practitioners being taught from day one to leave their ego at the door. However, if you look at it at its highest levels, we often see big personalities with big egos.
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The value of respect is being less and less emphasized in the way we speak to each other, act towards each other, and the way we treat other human beings, race, cultures and religions.
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Whilst there are still a handful of highly skilled, highly ethical, and humble teachers around, a sadder development of the modern martial arts culture, is that the instructor has, in many cases, become a person who ‘demands’ respect.
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Instructors must manage their ego while also managing the skills and development of others, and remind yourself it isn’t always about YOU. For how is any student to learn properly if the instructor loses the most important battle of all, the eternal one that isn’t with the opponent but the ego.
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The worst waste of time is arguing with a fool and fanatic who doesn’t care about truth or reality, but only the victory of his beliefs and illusions. Never waste time on discussions that make no sense. There are people who for all the evidence presented to them, do not have the ability to understand, and others who are blinded by ego, hatred and resentment, and the only thing that they want, is to be right, even if they’re not.
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“It is unwise to be too sure of one’s own wisdom. It is healthy to be reminded that the strongest might weaken and the wisest might err.” – Mahatma Gandhi
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