Guys,

As everyone knows, due to my heavy workload I haven't been available
to train as often as I would like. But I am always thinking about my
teamates and wishing them well in their endeavors. Part of that
relationship is sharing our realizations on this art we have come to
know and love. Hence, I thought I would share with you a letter I
wrote to Armando last year on the topic noted in the subject line of
this message. I hope you enjoy it and look forward to any questions
and/or comments. Please e-mail me at jasonbrown1018@...

Trusting all is well, I hope to see you soon.

Regards,
Sundara

Dear Armando:

Thank you for the encouragement. I think the atmosphere at the club
is wonderful. It's a soothing place to train, a friendly environment
and atmosphere. Everyone feels at ease with each other. Thank you
for suggesting that I share my experience with the other students-
and no, I don't feel awkward or strange helping or coaching. I know
full well that in order to make advancement we all need to develop
together. That's what's so nice about training there.

Here's an interesting treatise for you. I've been thinking about
these concepts alot lately and they have finally taken shape in the
following text. All those years living as a monk in India were not
for naught...:

The "new meathead overnight blackbelt instructor type" is an
interesting phenomena. I too have seen it countless times. I'll
share with you an interesting philosophical take on this all too
common psychological disorder. This comes from a Sanskrit book
called "Madhurya-kadambini" which was written by Vishnavatha
Chakravarti Thakura circa 17th century. "Madhurya-kadambini"
means "A Cloud Bank of Nectar" and the work is a systematic
evaluation of the stages of spiritual development, from neophyte to
advanced.

The real "nectar" of the work is Thakura's identification of the
various obstacles that one encounters on their progressive journey.
His focus on overcoming these obstacles indicates that it is indeed
not the problems themselves that are ultimately important (as
problems will exist no matter what), but the manner in which one
deals with problems. The reaction to difficulty (as opposed to the
difficulty itself) is what enables or disenables potential growth in
any individual's character.

Thakura describes one stage called utsahamayi. The Sanskrit
word "utsaha" is most commonly translated as "festival", but it also
means "enthusiasm" or "fervor". The word "mayi" is a form of the
word "maya" which translates literally as "illusion" or "that which
is believed to be, but actually is not."

The word "enthusiasm" indicates a "passionate interest in, or
eagerness to do, something; something that arouses a consuming
interest." It's etymology stems from the Greek word "ethousiasmos"
which means "one who has a god within" or "believes he is inspired by
the gods."

The word "illusion", of course, indicates a misinterpretation of fact
on behalf of the illusioned person. It's etymology is traced to a
Latin root "illudere" meaning "something not to be taken seriously."

How then do the words enthusiasm and illusion relate to a particular
stage of one's life? The combination of "utsaha" and "maya" gives
us "utsahamayi" a word meaning "Proudly false enthusiasm". The idea
being enunciated here is this:

By definition, a new endeavor indicates a lack of experience in the
endeavorer. If experience existed, the endeavor would not be new as
time lends experience. The maintenance of any endeavor necessitates
a requisite amount of interest in the practitioner. Further, it may
be assumed that the endeavor is, in some way or another, enjoyable to
the practitioner. (If one has no interest in training, one won't
train. If one does not enjoy training, one won't train.) In other
words, one has to have a certain amount of enthusiasm for a
particular activity in order to maintain one's involvement in the
activity.

A neophyte practitioner takes the happiness, enjoyment and enthusiasm
he derives as a result of his interest in and practice of his chosen
endeavor, as the be all and end all of that endeavors being. His
enthusiasm is fueled by his continued experience with success in his
chosen path. The existence of enthusiasm itself is not the
difficulty. The difficulty is the displacement of this enthusiasm
onto the personal platform. Under the false conception ("maya") that
he is the sole person responsible for any success in his endeavor he
becomes illusioned by his own enthusiasm.

Due to false pride ("utsahamayi"- pride in oneself and not pride in
the system of training), or as you perfectly described
it "overzealous motivation", he cannot refuse sharing his newfound
greatness with others. It is not long before he truly does believe
(on the most subtle of levels) that he is, in fact, divinely inspired
("ethousiasmos") in some way. (Again, the difficulty here would not
be that one is divinely inspired, but that one takes inordinate pride
in having been chosen as "the Golden Child" as opposed to accepting
that position of responsibility with maturity and gratitude).
Internal feelings of superiority to one's elders, teachers, or more
advanced peers soon manifest as the activity of regularly instructing
others. One becomes argumentative with one's elders, not entirely
disbelieving them but maintaining in the back of one's psyche
that "there might be a better way, and if there is, I will be the one
to find it out."

Essentially, the maintenance of this psychological disposition
damages the faith of the practitioner. Faith in a system of
knowledge is the sole foundation for the development of further
knowledge. Without faith one's foundation is weak. Without a strong
foundation one has nothing to stand on. One in "utsahamayi" not only
believes that he has the strongest of all foundations, but also
believes that he has built this foundation himself. All the while
his foundation is crumbling under him and everyone but him can see
it. At a certain point this becomes almost comical to the outside
observer for he has become "illudere" someone "not to be taken
seriously."

When the inevitable fall occurs he is plunged into depression and
self-pity. He may develop a sense of low self-esteem. But low self-
esteem is simply the other side of the coin of false pride. Whether
one is falsely proud or one is enveloped in feelings of low self-
esteem, in either condition the focus remains the same- one is
intensely preoccupied with oneself. Interestingly enough, because he
has not been purified of his selfish tendencies (he's still reeling
from shock and in denial of the fact that he's not as good as he
imagined he was) he may try to compensate for his low self-esteem by
again thrusting himself into the role of teacher. This unfortunate
attempt only thrusts him into the role of unqualified
teacher. "Nothing is more powerful than knowledge. And nothing is
more dangerous than a fool armed with his own knowledge." This only
serves to further damage his own abilities and, if prolonged, as you
said, "in the long run, it can slow folks progress down". That's it
precisely. His continued association breaks the faith of others.

Visvanatha Chakravarti Thakura's recommendation is that one
experiencing these stages should be encouraged by his elders and
teachers to take shelter of those more advanced them him.
(Ultimately of course, one has to make this determination for
oneself. Growth cannot be forced, only facilitated. One has to
replace his desire for self-aggrandizement with trust in authority.
Thakura recognizes that there is a class of unintelligent men who
just have to be beat down by life before they come to the realization
that it is necessary to become introspective. Thakura also
recognizes the large improbability factor in this equation. He goes
so far as to say that it may take many lives before one comes to this
realization. An intelligent person, even though he may be
illusioned, will eventually see this need within himself, and will
then naturally approach his elders, teachers, guides et al. for
help. Others may not know what to do at all, so it is the express
duty of a teacher to encourage the student to come to this level.)
By the association of more advanced personalities the student's faith
will become strong, having been positively affected by the powerful
faith of the teacher.

This is something demostrated time and time again on the mat. How
many times have you come across a student you see struggling to
escape a dangerous position?- say the side mount. They are using all
their strength, bench pressing the guy off of them, using their own
ideas, falsely relying on their new, weak foundation as a source of
enlightenment... As a teacher you have compassion and so you give
them an instruction, "No. Relax. Breathe. Now turn a bit to your
side, make a frame, and move your hips away from him. Now come to
your knees or replace the guard." The student follows your
directive, escapes the position, and in turn gains faith. But it was
your faith in the techniques of jiujitsu that enabled you to impart
the knowledge to him in the first place. As a result of developing
his faith, your faith also becomes reinforced, and everyone grows
together.

And imagine, Cakravarti Thakura had this all figured out almost 5,000
years ago. This is all just a summation of his text. He probably
would have been awesome at jiujitsu huh? Maybe he was...

-Sundara