Walt Bayless

I became obsessed with Martial Arts when I was very young, and I have been training enthusiastically ever since. And like most people, my reasons for pursuing the Martial Arts was to feel strong and stable and safe, to eventually become like my heroes in my books, or on the big screen. Nobody could touch those guys or break their spirits. Or ruin their day with some simple rudeness or violence. So I was going to become one of them and that was that.

But an interesting thing happened to me along the way: I discovered only the opposite of what I had hoped for. Through all of this rigorous training, I found out that I was actually weak and unsafe, and even unpredictable at my very core. In short, I was still vulnerable. Ouch! In fact, what I really discovered was that everyone was vulnerable! Even Bruce and Chuck and Arnold! No exceptions! Everyone. It was simply part of the human condition to be weak and volatile and massively flawed, a brutally inescapable part.

The truth is that we are all very soft and tender, and inexorably dependent upon each other for happy survival — all of the worst things you could possibly admit to yourself in our hilariously absurd tough guy/tough chick culture. After all, we’re supposed to be ruthless, independent and machine-like at the very least — and all the rest of that televised/popularized nonsense we are hammered with from childhood. But what a crock! What an impossibly futile pursuit! Clearly, we are not machines or autonomous super beings at all! No, we’re just human. Stinky, sweaty, wrinkly, goofy, scared and insecure little creatures — whether we admit it or not. And all the martial arts training or money or fame or anything else isn’t going to change that fact.

But this news wasn’t actually bad in the end. I found out that mastering true jiu-jitsu, or “the gentle art”, was really all about accepting all my weaknesses, and then developing real power through thinking and living softly. It was love in motion.

It’s actually amazing how powerful you can become by simply accepting your soft, unpredictable, delicate little nature. It’s honest and brave and truly  noble for starters. But it isn’t about power after all is it? At least not power over others as we’ve been taught to believe and crave. It’s about the power to accept and adapt and to ultimately be at peace with the truth of who and where we really are at the moment. That’s all. Yep, power over ourselves.

I’m still working on that too by the way. Boy am I ever.

But what a concept, right? And it’s pretty huge if you think about it. In fact, it is everything to master yourself and your fear. And so what real jiu-jitsu is, or should be, is training through various physical situations properly so that you can apply those sweaty metaphors to the most important parts of your real life. In other words, jiu jitsu is a puzzle outside that’s meant only to help you figure out the puzzle you have… inside.

How do you do that, you ask? Well, I’ll get into technique and the details as soon as I can. But really, this basic understanding is the place every student really needs to start from. And it’s where the master finally returns to in the end.

I hope that makes sense

Take care and we’ll chat more soon.

Love and thunder,

Walt Bayless