Jiu Jitsu and The Ego – Humility

With this new series of emails about my latest book, Jiu Jitsu and The Ego, we are going to study a different idea from each chapter with the goal being that you can apply these concepts to your life and training in a meaningful way.

I hope you enjoy this excerpt about the necessity of humility in (and outside of) training.

From the Chapter, “Humility”:

“… This is why exceptional people are drawn to infinite pursuits. Or perhaps, why infinite pursuits create exceptional people. There are always more mountains to climb and guards to be learned. Mastery is a process to be embodied rather than a destination to be achieved, and awareness of the seeming dichotomy of one’s greatness and limitation.

This is the opportunity presented to us through the difficult climb toward mastery in Jiu Jitsu. The peril of the journey creates a space between our Ego and our true selves. The magnificence of the art calls to us, challenges us, and the Ego’s siren song which pulls the bad black belt into the rocks falls on our deaf ears.

In the climb up the mountain of mastery, we only can carry to the top what is essential. Anything else just impedes that path and becomes a burden. This is the process by which Jiu Jitsu dissolves the Ego.

Whatever that top of the mountain is for you, you cannot reach the summit carrying a heavy Ego on your back. Out of self-preservation this construct will impede genuine forward motion. The solidification of identity with what one is, rather than what one could be, hardens the construct at the expense of upward progress.

The constant reinforcement of and identification with the Ego will guide your journey through Jiu Jitsu into places of comfort and strength, to peaks already ascended, and its limitation will not afford you the opportunity to stretch yourself into the zones of optimal development. We must be explorers of the art, constantly seeking out new challenge. Humility is the natural response to this creative exploration. By befriending what we do not know, we simultaneously expand our knowledge and lessen our identification with our knowledge.

Each peak summited lessens the Ego’s grasp. On the mat, every new technique, tactic, and tool can have a similar freeing effect. The etymology of Humility comes from the Latin hummus, “ground.” How beautiful that the martial art which seems to evoke the most humility takes place on said ground. Deeper still, I think this ground is in reference to the ground of being, deep in the seat of our awareness.

This ground of awareness is our true home. When we reside here, we no longer can identify with the Ego. Our attention, the water of life for any psychological structure, stops feeding the illusion, and we become free of its grasp.

Remember the irony. The Ego purses mastery in Jiu Jitsu to reinforce its narrative, and yet it is the mastery of Jiu Jitsu which presents the ideal soil for Ego transcendence. There’s an adage in spiritual circles: the Ego’s greatest disappointment is enlightenment. For to become enlightened, the Ego can’t be there.

Enlightenment and Jiu Jitsu mastery have never been more closely connected.”

Wishing you a great week of training,
Chris Matakas