Tea Isn’t For Drinking
Few things are more pathetic than a martial arts teacher who was once famous for dominating others. He goes from a low status job to martial arts school owner, to having a few schools. For perhaps a decade he dominates students until eventually they dwindle and leave. He’s left with chronic pain and no health insurance. He eventually dies in poverty and loneliness
It is truly a life wasted on feeling powerful rather than being powerful.
Martial artists can avoid this sad and predictable fate by learning to pour tea.
The point of tea is to fill people’s cups when they are getting low in such a casual way that it doesn’t feel like you are filling them. It is to serve that which is essential for life without them feeling the weight of the gift. It is a path to nurturing community through acts of service.
It is not about dominating the supply of water. If you were thirsty and having tea with someone who was making you jump through hoops to get the next pour, you would leave quickly. This would be an obvious perversion of culture. No one would put up with this type of predatory behavior.
This sharply contrasts with the subculture of martial arts both in East Asia and abroad.
Masters dress their students in branded uniforms with their name written on them. They make students purchase large photographs of the masters face to prominently display in their schools. In some cases senior students are encouraged to get tattoos with their systems logo on them.
To varying degrees this is typical in martial art circles. Martial arts serve as an escape from low status lives. The dojo is a place to experience ascension through a make believe dominance hierarchy.
With enough time, money, and obedience they can become dojo fabulous. Eventually they go onto become instructors who experience relevance by how many students they can control.
The weight of their dominance is repulsive to anyone who isn’t desperately in need of a father figure or cult leader. This leaves them surrounded by a network of needy devotees they feed off of for a temporary dominance high.
With a perspective shift toward using martial arts to serve others, the quality of their social capital would grow and and as a result their lives outside of the dojo would flourish. It could be a tool for personal and community cultivation. It would give them a happy and fulfilling life.
Use tea to serve people and it becomes a practice of nurturing friendship and community.
Use martial arts to serve people and it becomes a meditation on death as a path to a fearless life.
The way your view it will drastically change your quality of life.
Choose wisely
