Humility

Truthfulness has become such a strained virtue! The media prints stories that are so slanted that they are often false. Politicians lie outright. Worst of all, people lie to themselves.

The dictionary defines humility as having low self worth. The Bible, however; defines it more like the code of bushido. To have courteous respect for others. At the same time bushido would define it as recognizing one’s self worth without being boastful of it. i think that deserves exploring.

As we train and practice in the Martial Arts we gain skills that can give us power over less skilled people. We gain skills that allow us to do things most others cannot. If these skills and powers give us an inflated sense of ourselves we can quickly become tiresome to those around us, even, perhaps become scary to others.

It is important to recognize a few things. First of all, we are training in the ways of the samurai. One should be aware that the term ‘samurai’ means servant. The skills we learn are meant to be in service to others. We need to know that these new skills give us responsibilities in that fashion.

We need to keep in mind that whatever we become in the Martial Arts there are many who came before us and many who train in other arts at the same time, and will come to train in the future. To think that any one of us is more special than any of those others is folly. There is always someone stronger, faster, younger, more clever, more practiced, or better trained. While we endeavor to be the best we can be, we can’t, necessarily be the best there is.

Suppose that for a while one did manage to become the best martial Artist the world has to offer. How long would that last before time removes much of the skill or the person altogether. Maybe you will be the next Bruce Lee, or the next Sagawa Yukiyoshi, Gichen Funskoshi, Miyamoto Musashi, Munenori Yagyu or Kyuzo Mifune. I’m not certain everyone will recognize all f those names, but at one time they were each considered the best…

In the Bible it says “Pride comes before the fall…” It serves us well to remember that.