Ego-Pride

I am surprised that both ego and pride don’t appear in the fundamental principle of martial systems. When you look at the principle of Philosophy you encounter sub-principles that may or may not address these two but unless one is versed in how this affects training, practice and application you may fall prey to them.

When I think of ego and pride I think of the monkey (thanks to both Rory Miller and Marc MacYoung for exposing me to these concepts). The monkey brain seems to have its own unique emotionally driven approach to things often at odds to our thinking brain, the Vulcan mind of logic and common sense. The monkey uses emotions to take control and to make the person think that the things it drives us to do are “good, logical and beneficial.” So far from the truth it is just not funny. 

In Martial Arts circles with an Asian philosophical flavor they talk about getting rid of ego and pride. They do recognize that both tend to push people to take inappropriate actions yet these same Asian philosophies fall prey to things that may have been acceptable and relevant to the times but in modern times end up sending folks down a deep and dark hole called civil, legal and emotional hell. 

This is an attempt to bring the monkey up and into the training of martial artists because when you allow the monkey out of its cage you can find that training, practice and application are far removed from any and all aspects of self-defense. 

Even police and military are governed by rules that would put such actions taught under the auspices of traditional combatives tend to cringe under the scrutiny of others who take a vested interest in their actions. No wonder the professionals are subjected to restrictions and limitations that tend to hinder doing the job safely, etc.

I have to agree that those traditional Asian arts or combatives have it right, that ego and pride can misalign the true objective of such disciplines and that holds true today with repercussions that most don’t know about or even begin to understand - until it becomes way to late. 

When I think of the philosophical principle and sub-principle of mind, mushin, zanshin, etc. then I also think of the monkey (emotions, ego, pride, etc.) that affect how we train, practice and apply our lives toward conflict. Even when many definitions of these sub-principles may not extend outward to encompass such esoteric concepts it becomes something teachers and practitioners/professionals need to consider. 

I believe Marc MacYoung, in the book “INOSD,” states that many incidents of violence come from emotions and how those emotions are expressed from the mouth of participants. 

Bibliography:

MacYoung, Marc. "In the Name of Self-Defense: What It Costs. When It’s Worth It." Marc MacYoung. 2014.