I was on the gurney, being wheeled in for surgery yet again, and fortunately I had come to know most of the surgical team. The lead surgeon turned to the new anesthesiologist whom I had just met for the first time, and told him I was a karate instructor. He looked down on me and knowingly asked with that telltale arrogant smirk…” Oh, so you do karate? Do you do it as an art, or as self defense?” The question itself was legitimate. The manner in which it was delivered, with judgement and dismissive intent was offensive. I could tell in his mind he was sizing me up. It was the typical arrogant, western macho bullshit. He wanted an answer that would cater to his ego. If I answered “art”, he’d dismiss what I did as useless and inferior to him and his understanding of karate, and if I answered “self defense”, he’d want to up the ante to prove something seemingly important in his eyes, and the eyes of his cohorts.
I’ve met plenty of self absorbed people, after all I’m a karate Sensei whose had his fair share of interactions with other instructors and students. From the outset of my karate journey, my goal has been to hammer down the ego (mine and others) through karate practice, in hopes of revealing and discovering one’s true self….That is karate-do to me. In the ensuing years, spotting the “façade”, as I call it, has become second nature. The deconstruction of the underlying hubris of assumption and intoxicating blindness, has become part and parcel of my life’s journey, not only in karate, but in almost all aspects of life, because I’ve been afforded the path less travelled.
So there I was, minutes away from putting my life in the doc’s hand, with a choice to either kowtow to his arrogance and reinforce his ignorance, or to resist status quo, and present an alternative narrative. I set a reflective pause before answering the doctor with a question. I said, “Between the two, which do you think is the more difficult endeavor, the art or the self defense?” He was taken aback. I could tell from the unravelling of his pseudo confidence that he had never been challenged, let alone ventured to think beyond what he had parroted from others. As he was fumbling for an answer, I hit him again with another question that left him with the proverbial deer in the headlights look….I said, ” between the two, which is ultimately more effective in achieving its intent of removing violence and bringing peace, the art, or self defense?”
It is crucial in this day and age, where we are fed an agenda serving narrative that has promulgated all aspects of our lives, be it media, politics, religion, and sadly even basic human interactions…it is crucial and an existential necessity to soberly deconstruct every assumption, and look at the reality of things with a beginner’s mind. Soon enough we will see that whom we accused of being the terrorist is actually the victim, and whom we celebrated as free and democratic was indeed only manipulating us to think so, so long as we towed their narrative.
Shoshin Karate-Do International 