Is it the picture or the frame?

All I can say is "wow." I had a conversation with a very dedicated martial artist who's practiced a traditional art for many years.

He did everything and believed everything the style stated. He never ever doubted the system. Until he had an encounter that made him almost loose everything. He was lucky...He only lost his confidence in his art after the incident. I told him it wasn't his art that let him down, it was him working with his art. It was as if he never saw the picture in the frame, he only saw at the frame around the picture.

I was really suprised that he never thought about other aspects of martial art training. I guess I shouldn't be all that suprised. He never thought he had to look at his study and pull the concepts and training practices apart to self inspect. He simply thought that he didn't have too.

I think a lot of people are like this too.

I think most martial artists either want to blindly believe and don't want to have to think. All they have to do is do what the "Sensei" says, while others believe that if they get tattoo's and hit each other hard, all is good.

That martial artist was lucky. His ego was bruised but he's not dead.

Where's the fight, inside yourself or out?