Blog#7 Mutual Wellbeing and Benefit
Jigoro Kano, the founder of the amazing Martial Art Judo, had two primary pillars that he rest his teachings on, one was maximum efficiency, minimal effort, and the other was on mutual well being and benefit. Both these concepts were revolutionary at the time and are still so important to the growth of the practitioner to help grow not just through martial skill but also as a human being. Mutual well being and benefit is such a powerful statement. It tells us how training should under the right circumstances be good for everyone involved. There can be this brotherhood/sisterhood that gets forged on the mats through a intense physical battle between two people trying to best one another on the mats through martial technique. Jiu Jitsu is often referred to as physical chess due to the strategic nature of the art. At a certain point in judos development jigoro Kano saw that people were getting boastful after winning a match and feeling deflated after loosing. I often reference his famous quote “ Do not let victory enthrall you, do not let defeat defeat you.. This sentiment is also echoed in the ancient yoga text the Bhagavad Gita, where Krishna teachers Arjuna the concepts of the varied paths within the yoga tradition. there is a number of times in the GIta where this concept is put forth. In 2.14 and 2.15 we see that Krishna is giving Arjuna tools to see that to neither be too attacher to happiness or distress. 2.15 Arjun, noblest amongst men, that person who is not affected by happiness and distress, and remains steady in both, becomes eligible for liberation. In 2.14 he says the happiness and distress come and go like the winter and summer seasons and one must learn to tolerate them. This is the same sentiment that is echoed by Jigoro Kano. This is where mutual well being and benefit are so important. If I shift my perspective from winning or loosing to one of that my hope in this individual training session is to refine and hone my craft as well as my partners craft. How would that change my mindset every time I came to jiu jitsu? it may actually get me to train more frequently as if I train from a place of I always want to win and dominate then on days that i am injured or just tired i will pass on training because i will not be at my best. This subtle shift of perspective is one of the things that Jigoro Kano said about competition that saddened him in regards to Judo. He saw that there was a culture around the winning that he tried to change by effecting the people through his philosophical concept of Mutual Wellbeing and benefit.
