When Double Mirrors is understood,
all organized, rigid, prescribed institutions designed to lead
the masses to God, are revealed to be nothing more than a shadow,
a finger pointing to the moon. Rather than go into more detail
on this thought, I will let a more accomplished Jedi of truth,
Bruce Lee, sum up my ideas for me. Simply replace his reference
to "martial arts" with the word "religion"
or the name of any other institution that claims to function
in the name of God.
Unfortunately, most students of
the martial arts are conformists. Instead of learning to depend
on themselves for expression, they blindly follow their instructors,
no longer feeling alone, finding security in mass imitation.
The product of this imitation is a dependent mind. Independent
inquiry, which is essential to genuine understanding, is sacrificed,
Look around the martial arts and witness the assortment of routine
performers, trick artists, desensitized robots, glorifiers of
the past and so on- all followers or exponents of organized despair.
How often are we told by different sensei (teachers) or "masters"
that the martial arts are life itself? But how many of them truly
understand what they are saying? Life is a constant movement-
rhythmic as well as random; Life is a constant change and not
stagnation. Instead of choicelessly following with this process
of change, many of these "masters," past and present,
have built an illusion of fixed forms, rigidly subscribing to
traditional concepts and techniques of the art, solidifying the
ever-flowing, dissecting the totality.
The most pitiful sight is to see sincere students earnestly repeating
those imitative drills, listening to their own screams and spiritual
yells. In most cases, the means these sensei offer their students
are so elaborate that the student must give tremendous attention
to them, until gradually he loses sight of the end. The students
end up performing their methodical routines as a mere conditioned
response, rather than responding to "what is." They
no longer "listen" to circumstances. These poor souls
have unwittingly become trapped in the miasma of classical martial
arts training. A teacher, a really good sensei, is never a giver
of truth; he is a guide, a pointer to the truth that the student
must discover for himself.
