# Philosophical rant on yudansha/mudansha



## TSDTexan (May 22, 2017)

The color of the belt worn around the waist isn't as important as the belt worn upon the soul.

The only difference between the white and the black is the passage of time, sweat, tears and blood and the essential quality of perseverance.

Perseverance can be made evident in the tempering upon the anvil called "Training", in which the mettle of oneself is turned into indomitable will.

There are those who wear an outward blackbelt, but inside are still white belts.

How can this be?

Because, they were blessed with enough talent and natural ability that they learned their material and passed their requisite class testing.

However, they were never pushed beyond their actual limits, to the point of failure at the degree of which their total strength was fully spent, and the only thing left moving them forward was pure will.

These blackbelts are those who have not failed.
Who have not re-started from failure.
And who act from fear of failure.

They are apart from those others:
Who refuse to die, and refuse stay down.
Who eat defeat, and grow from it.

Perhaps, you or your family tradition sees it differently.

That is the test.


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## jobo (May 22, 2017)

TSDTexan said:


> The color of the belt worn around the waist isn't as important as the belt worn upon the soul.
> 
> The only difference between the white and the black is the passage of time, sweat, tears and blood and the essential quality of perseverance.
> 
> ...


you seem to have a beef about something? Life isn't fare, some people can do things with little effort, other can put their whole being in to it for a decade or more and never have the same ability. I'm not sure that , that makes them a better person


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## Blindside (May 22, 2017)

Do you have a testing procedure or requirment for "perserverence" or "indominatable will?"    Because if you don't it isn't a requirement.  He is a black belt just like you are.

You may have ascribed that trait to a "true black belt" because that is you think it takes for many, but if it isn't a requrement, it isn't a requrement.  You aren't better than that other guy because he sucked less than you and didn't have to work as hard.  It sounds like he just hasn't reached his limit yet, and if he isn't pushed he may never reach it, kind of sad that your school/association can't challenge its most talented members.


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## drop bear (May 22, 2017)

Blindside said:


> Do you have a testing procedure or requirment for "perserverence" or "indominatable will?"    Because if you don't it isn't a requirement.  He is a black belt just like you are.
> 
> You may have ascribed that trait to a "true black belt" because that is you think it takes for many, but if it isn't a requrement, it isn't a requrement.  You aren't better than that other guy because he sucked less than you and didn't have to work as hard.  It sounds like he just hasn't reached his limit yet, and if he isn't pushed he may never reach it, kind of sad that your school/association can't challenge its most talented members.



The belt as a physical manifestation of the journey it took to get it. If it was an easy journey. It is the manifestation of an easy journey. If it was a hard journey then it represents that.


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## Blindside (May 22, 2017)

drop bear said:


> The belt as a physical manifestation of the journey it took to get it. If it was an easy journey. It is the manifestation of an easy journey. If it was a hard journey then it represents that.



Nice, and even if that other guys journey was supposedly easier than you, you don't get to say "well, he didn't really take the journey."


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## Headhunter (May 23, 2017)

So you're upset that someone got a belt who's more naturally gifted? 

Are you saying that even if someone's good enough they should be failed simply so they can improve there soul or whatever? Some people are just naturally better that's the same with everything in life. You may work harder to learn something that others that find it easier. That doesn't make you better than them or them better than you.

You shouldn't even be getting upset about other people just train and do what you do a belt is a very unimportant part of martial arts probably the most unimportant to be honest.


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## Buka (May 23, 2017)

TSDTexan said:


> The color of the belt worn around the waist isn't as important as the belt worn upon the soul.
> 
> The only difference between the white and the black is the passage of time, sweat, tears and blood and the essential quality of perseverance.
> 
> ...



Esoteric and perhaps romanticized, well sure, okay. But stated very well, IMO. I hear that all the way, right down deep to my core.

I'm all about the push. If you ain't got the push, you ain't got squat.


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## JR 137 (May 23, 2017)

TSDTexan said:


> The color of the belt worn around the waist isn't as important as the belt worn upon the soul.
> 
> The only difference between the white and the black is the passage of time, sweat, tears and blood and the essential quality of perseverance.
> 
> ...



Some people make it look easy, some don't.  Michael Jordan surely made it look easy.  Mike Tyson made it look easy when he was in his prime.

An outsider not seeing the setbacks, failures, etc. doesn't make them nonexistent.  When I first started karate at 18 years old, I'm sure some of the people training alongside me thought I didn't struggle and it came too easy.  Nonsense.  I'm sure some of the people training alongside me now think the same thing, because I've been through the ranks before.  Nonsense again.

Even if I was some phenom who was so naturally talented and I earned my rank without breaking a sweat, does that change anyone else's rank and value of theirs?  For the record, no one in their right mind would look at me and see a phenom.

Dolph Lundgren won the European Kyokushin championship as a green belt (4th kyu), fighting black belts who had decades of experience.  Since the requirement was brown belt an up, he had to borrow a friend's brown belt to enter.  Do you honestly think because he was so good that he didn't have any failures or setbacks?  I'm pretty sure he was just better at hiding them and not letting them effect him.  Keep in mind at that point he was just another competitor, not Dolph Lundgren the movie star, Ivan Drago, etc.  He wasn't that guy who walked in and everyone automatically knew they were fighting for second place like when the original Dream Team walked into the Olympics.

Just because you don't see the struggle doesn't mean it's not there.


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## TSDTexan (May 23, 2017)

jobo said:


> you seem to have a beef about something? Life isn't fare, some people can do things with little effort, other can put their whole being in to it for a decade or more and never have the same ability. I'm not sure that , that makes them a better person



McDojos for one, if I have a beef about something. But I don't have a beef, as I wrote that.


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## TSDTexan (May 23, 2017)

Headhunter said:


> So you're upset that someone got a belt who's more naturally gifted?
> 
> Are you saying that even if someone's good enough they should be failed simply so they can improve there soul or whatever? Some people are just naturally better that's the same with everything in life. You may work harder to learn something that others that find it easier. That doesn't make you better than them or them better than you.
> 
> You shouldn't even be getting upset about other people just train and do what you do a belt is a very unimportant part of martial arts probably the most unimportant to be honest.



Your response seems to have a bit of projection. I could be wrong. And I am emotionally calm and centered, definitely not upset.

It wasn't even written with any specific individuals or other people in mind. Actually, far from it, as it was written with myself in mind, and a from a look back at my own life.

A confession if you will.
And just because someone is one, that doesn't mean that He has to remain one.
You can grow into the other.


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## TSDTexan (May 23, 2017)

JR 137 said:


> Some people make it look easy, some don't.  Michael Jordan surely made it look easy.  Mike Tyson made it look easy when he was in his prime.
> 
> An outsider not seeing the setbacks, failures, etc. doesn't make them nonexistent.  When I first started karate at 18 years old, I'm sure some of the people training alongside me thought I didn't struggle and it came too easy.  Nonsense.  I'm sure some of the people training alongside me now think the same thing, because I've been through the ranks before.  Nonsense again.
> 
> ...



Agreed.


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## Bill Mattocks (May 23, 2017)

TSDTexan said:


> The color of the belt worn around the waist isn't as important as the belt worn upon the soul.
> 
> The only difference between the white and the black is the passage of time, sweat, tears and blood and the essential quality of perseverance.
> 
> ...



This was true for me at one time.  Now my struggle is mostly internal.  I have not stopped trying to progress physically, and I should not, for my karate is inadequate and in many ways substandard.

But I am more focused on my progression in the path I see before me, which does not typically include those aspects you describe above.  I train my hands for battle, but I seek gnosis, the Philosopher's Stone. 

Each person's journey is different.  I cannot judge the path another takes.


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## JP3 (May 27, 2017)

TSDTexan said:


> Who eat defeat, and grow from it.




Huh... Who eat the feet , and grow from it.

Not only nasty, but nutritious? Feet?  PhotonGuy's thread on homophones sparked this play on words.

As for O/P, good stuff. Really gifted people very rarely are truly tested, and ... not being truly tested, have a fear of the unknown if/when they are.


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