This is a great comment thread.

I started Jiu Jitsu back in 1990ish. FUN FACT: Ueshiba was a Jiu Jitsu master. He founded Aikido because Jiu Jitsu had been outlawed. When Japan’s feudal class was disbanded in the late 19th century, Jiu Jitsu and other combat arts of the samurai were made illegal. Ueshiba, concerned over the potential loss of the Arts of Jiu Jitsu, broke out a segment of JJ, named it Aikido and stated it was the study of a spiritual or philosophical way of living. Judo, which became Japan’s national sport, was also founded by a Jiu Jitsu master for the same reason - to keep the art alive.

Martial arts significantly changed my life. For example, one of its premises is to teach you how to “be calm in the face of adversity.” Which came to mean, for me, how to be calmer in everyday life. Martial arts quickly became far more about how to approach life with a more relaxed demeanor, than an inevitable sense that at any moment someone’s going to jump me in a dark alley.

There was another massive aspect that eventually became apparent: training the mind. I am not sure that most of us understand what that expression truly means. I sure didn’t.

In part it meant learning how to still the mind. The concept of ‘mushin’ or empty mind is perhaps a bit misleading. Because while on the one hand it is about being empty, it does not imply the kind of emptiness that suggests nonresponsiveness. It does not empty the lake of water, but rather calms the water. The idea being: if you have too many thoughts, you can’t think. Or, put another way, if you have too many thoughts, you can’t accurately sense or hear- there’s too much noise or interference.

If we persist in mind training, using martial arts as the vehicle, it goes into the area of consciousness, and the connection that we have to each other. It touches on concepts such as the holographic mind, championed by people like quantum physicist David Bohm. Our concept of ‘center’ becomes a slow but radical series of insights, sometimes amazing and sometimes a bit disturbing.

So, what I’m touching upon here is that the martial arts, under a superior teacher, can take us on a journey inward unlike anything we’ve ever imagined. While on the one hand it can help us defend ourselves against the conflicts of a physical attack, its higher forms and deeper underlying principles teach us to overcome the conflicts buried deep within our own minds. Or at least help us to become more deeply aware that such conflicts, and even deeper mysteries, do, in fact, exist.

I’m just a regular guy, who happened to stick with this kind of training for a long time. Just sharing here, for what it’s worth.