Simplicity and Humility in Karate-do

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“Karatedo, we often see teachers and students, whether they are aware of it or not, who have filled themselves with ego. This can be expressed in many ways: boasting about one’s position, skill level or dan rank, knowledge or history or etiquette, wearing expensive dogi, multiple patches, and colorful belts, or altering kata. … by covering oneself in the trappings of Karate, you will never understand the essence of Karatedo. … This shows that they truly do not understand the spirit of Karatedo – simplicity and humility.” - Excerpt Kowakan Post, Sen no rikyu & a Slice of Watermelon

Simplicity is easy to explain, in a general sense toward a myriad of things, because humans as a species to survive must take all things down to its simplest form then make a decision, i.e., “Shall I stay here unmoving to survive; shall I run like the wind to survive; shall I simply fight like the devil to survive (oh, if you survive your primary motivation deep down inside your DNA is, ‘when can I procreate?’).” Ain’t life easy and grand? 

Humility is another issue because as emotional bags of water and meat we are emotional to the ninth degree where just about everything done and decided by our species is done from emotional reactions to external/internal stimulus. This guy said something demeaning to me, he dissed me, so “Wham,” I hit him in the face.

Hey, he pissed me off ergo anger and resentment for the way he treated me - an emotionally driven response. Ain’t life easy and grand? To be with humility one must be humble but remember the full definition of humility is, “a modest or low view of one's own importance.” To be humble or with humility in karate and martial arts does NOT mean you have low self-esteem but rather a humble attitude that masks the person underneath who has capabilities to handle conflict and violence in many ways from avoidance all the way up to, “Wham, slam the face.”

Now, to be humble, “Having or showing a modest or low estimate of one's own importance; of low social, administrative, or political rank; lower (someone) in dignity or importance.” This too doesn’t really seem to fit either but hey, this is why I try to figure out and explain why such meme’s are used in martial arts and karate mostly without thought, due consideration and factual checking the meaning given vs. the true meaning. 

How about, “Modesty?” Modest means, “Unassuming or moderate in the estimation of one's abilities or achievements; (of an amount, rate, or level of something) relatively moderate, limited, or small; (of a place in which one lives, eats, or stays) not excessively large, elaborate, or expensive.” Now, we are getting somewhere for these definitions fit a lot closer to the stories that abound from the passing down from ancient times. 

If we change simplicity and humility to “Simplicity and Modesty” in karate-do we have something with teeth. It means the person is decent, simple, plain, unpretentious, unassuming, un-flashy and so on all falling into the right descriptive category of terms and meaning to convey the true essence of the culture and belief behind most martial arts and karate ways. 

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“In order for any life to matter, we all have to matter.” - Marcus Luttrell, Navy Seal (ret)