Just the other day I was thinking about what people would be willing to pay for the price of gold and more importantly, how far they’d be willing to go to get it.
As we all know, gold is one of the most precious sought after metals on the planet. In fact, throughout history, many people made it their life’s work to get it both legally and illegally and many people lost their lives in the process. Up until about 1971, most world currencies were valued based on how much gold they actually had in their reserves. Gold was considered that precious, that a purpose built fortified vault in the U.S known as Fort Knox was used and still used to this day, to house one of the biggest gold reserves in the world.
So what has all this got to do with martial arts?
Well, the reality is that most people never really understand the true value and impact that martial arts has on peoples lives. As human beings we have a tendency to put a value on materialistic things such as; the sort of house we own, the type of car we drive, the clothes we wear, the income we earn, the places we eat at and even how much money we actually have in the bank.
We never really think about the value of our health until it’s too late.
If you were in poor health and I had the power right now to give you one of two choices, the first being to make you a very wealthy person, wealthy beyond your wildest dreams. And the second, to give you a way to preserve your life and health, which would you choose?
I’d like to think that you’d choose life and longevity, after all, what good is wealth if you can’t enjoy it, right?
Although the study of martial arts is not often seen by most people to be as valuable as gold, metaphorically speaking, martial arts is gold to those that understand the true value of this worthwhile study.
My question to you is, what price are you willing to pay for it?
What price are you willing to pay for better health, confidence, empowerment, character development, positive attitude, supreme physical skills, life lessons and success in life?
I really don’t think you could put a price any of those things, it’s absolutely priceless, Infact, if someone had a time machine and told me that they could take me way back in time, back to my first lesson, then said to me “I’ll give you a million dollars to erase any memory you have of the martial arts, would you be interested?” My answer would obviously be “no way! Keep your million dollars”. You see, there is no way that you could ever put a value on what I’ve learnt over the years. The martial arts has made me person I am today. It’s given me the confidence to pursue my life’s goals, it’s shaped my character, it’s given me humbleness, it’s made me realise that I’m just a very small and minute part of the bigger scheme of things. It’s given me a solid grounding to appreciate all that I’ve achieved in my life and all that I’ve become, I feel centred and at peace with my inner self.
Studying the martial arts has shown me the importance of preserving life and training for the love of life. Most people that have never trained in the martial arts will never quite understand the impact martial arts have on the lives of those that do study. My instructor Guro Dan Inosanto once made a comment that resonates a profound truth. He said, “Love is the highest art, we don’t train in the martial arts out of hatred but more so out love. In ancient times you trained so hard, not for the sake of killing people, but more so for the love of your family: for the love of your mother, your father, your children, your tribe and your body. It’s the love of life that we train so hard, so you can preserve life!”
Once you understand that point, then everything else is put into its proper perspective. This is the part that most people don’t get most people associate martial arts with the perceived violence that they see on television. The martial arts stems far deeper than that, the idea is that you have to start somewhere, you first start on the physical level then transcend to the mental, emotional then finally the spiritual level. This takes many years to develop but once there, you have complete inner peace and calm within your self and soon realise that you’re a very small part of the bigger picture.
Until Next Time, Stay safe.
Sifu Arthur
http://www.combatsystems.com.au
http://www.sydneyjkdkali.com.au
