“We all have inner demons to fight, we call these demons, fear and hatred and anger. If you do not conquer them then a life of one hundred years is a tragedy. If you do, then a life of a single day can be a triumph.” – Yip Man
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You run into lots of different attitudes in the martial arts, most are extremely positive, but some extremely hateful. While all of us would prefer the positive, unfortunately there are those that just prefer to hate.
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Hate is an emotion that gives you a feeling of intense hostility and aversion, usually deriving from fear, anger, or a sense of injury. It is extreme dislike or disgust. Extreme hatred can inspire violence, whether physically or online.
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From time to time I’m sure everyone has said; “I hate this…..…”. But most of the time this is a fleeting emotion in the moment, perhaps born out of frustration.
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In the martial arts (and in society in general), hatred is something we can do without. It seems to manifest itself in differences between styles, schools, and individuals who believe they know better. It is often heard; “that won’t work!” They claim to be the best, the strongest, or their method works better than yours.
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Hatred has no place in the martial arts. Haters are not happy people; they have to build themselves up by tearing others down. Why are these people so fearful? Of what exactly? Fear of the unknown, fear of humiliation, fear of powerlessness, fear of being found out?
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The paradox of our time in history is that we all have more, we have taller buildings but shorter tempers, wider roads, but narrower viewpoints. We spend more, but have less. There are more conveniences, but less time, people have more degrees and certificates, but less common sense, more information, but less judgment. There are seemingly more experts everywhere, yet more problems with no solutions.
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Values have reduced, people talk too much, they don’t listen and hate too often. We’ve learned how to make a living, but not a life, adding years to life, not life to years.
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‘The three sieves’. Socrates concluded; “….what you wanted to tell me is not true, nor good, nor useful. So why did you want to tell me?” – Everyone falls short of something. When hate repeatedly slips into everyday situations, something has gone wrong.
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Fear leads to anger, anger leads to hate, hate leads to suffering…. Nothing in life is to be feared. It is only to be understood.
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