“The Martial Artist without philosophy is nothing more than
a street fighter.”
~Author unknown
It might sound odd to someone unfamiliar with the Martial
Arts, but compassion is actually a big part of our practice. Learning how to
defend ourselves doesn’t have to mean getting into a fight. In fact, very often
our Martial Arts discipline is more about seeing things from the other person’s
point of view in order to avoid the fight. In life, and in the Martial Arts,
it’s all about compassion.
Many who enter the Martial Arts do so with the idea that
they will be the next Bruce Lee. The idea seems to be that, with enough physical
training, the perfected Martial Artist (if there ever can be such a one) can
vanquish his or her foes and walk through the world tough and untouchable. But
what the true student of the Martial Arts soon learns is that there is more—a
lot more—to training than just brute force. Without a guiding philosophy and an
underlying system of values, the Martial Artist becomes just a brute looking
for a fight.
Simply put, compassion means having concern for the
suffering and misfortunes of others. Compassion is a close friend of
empathy—the ability to see things from another person’s point of view.
Together, compassion and empathy serve as good guides for the Martial Artist,
and should be understood as cornerstones of the philosophy that guide our
practice as we work to perfect ourselves as warriors.
So, what does compassion look like for a Martial Artist?
Consider the following scenario:
You’re at school and a fellow student is walking behind you,
harassing you. His verbal taunts soon turn physical and he shoves you from
behind, causing you to drop your books and fall. You feel the blood rush to
your face—that rare combination of rage and shame that so often precedes a
fight—and you find yourself balling your hand into a fist, prepared to strike
back in self defense (after all, he started it!).
What if, instead of turning around and dismantling the
aggressor who so foolishly picked a fight with you, you instead turned around
and said something along the lines of, “Hey, man, I don’t want a fight with
you. It’s pretty clear that you need to feel better about yourself, and that’s
why you’re messing with me, but I would really rather not have to defend myself
and hurt you in the process. How about we walk away from this?”
That’s what compassion looks like from a Martial Artist.
Yes, you could very justifiably throw a punch in self-defense. You could
totally annihilate the guy, especially if you’ve been training hard for a
little while. But if you have a foundation of compassion guiding your training,
you’ll realize that you don’t HAVE to. You can choose to show mercy; you can
choose to show compassion. This is not to suggest that every fight can be
avoided—if you’re in real danger, you should always defend yourself.
When and where possible, however, you should lead with
compassion and be concerned with the suffering of others. After all, as a
Martial Artist you bear the heavy burden of being in a position to inflict some
real pain on another human being. Walk that path carefully. We are not street
fighters or thugs without moral instincts. We are Martial Artists on the path
of Black Belt excellence. That path is paved with honor, with discipline, and
with compassion.
