The Martial Arts as a Road Map to Peace

“The only enemy is self, and the only wealth is health,” anonymous.

If we took the time to recognize this on a daily basis, each and every person would be making a concerted effort to bring peace into their lives. All the battles that we fight outside of ourselves amount in very little. All the posts we make. All the people we kill. All the money we make. Every battle we wage on a daily basis has very little to do with the war we are waging everyday with ourselves.

A suicide bomber is very evidently not at peace, nor is a shooter that takes a school or a clinic. These are the very base forms of self denial. You pretend that the world is causing all your problems. You deny the one person that is responsible for any range of emotions that you feel. You want to be empowered. You want to crush those around you, but in effect you’ve done very little. You have added nothing of value to the world.

Take a breath. Look at the sky. Go swimming in the ocean or a river. Watch the animals in the trees or flying by. You need not do much to understand that we still live in a beautiful world. No matter how much people try to burn the earth. No matter how much people try to bludgeon each other with acts of malice and disdain. The world is still beautiful in spite of you. The harder you try to change that the more it yields to you.

The lesson you can take from studying the martial arts is that you are not learning to fight to go to battle with anyone else, because you never truly win. It might be great to compete; to struggle and fight to hold a belt or a trophy. You might be very proud of your body, and the strength of your muscles. That simply doesn’t last. Champions fall over time. Entire organizations crumble into nothingness, and what are you left with in the end. Yourself.

There is no other entity on this planet that you need to battle. There is no other being that you need to master before mastering yourself. If you cannot master yourself, then who are you to try to lay mediocre judgement on any other being. You have proven nothing to the one person who you should value most and first, because you are the only one that your actions will matter to in the end.

There is no greater battle for you to take on, and there is no time like the present. Stop looking outside yourself for answers. Stop seeking anything outside of yourself.

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