Quotes by Martial Artists - Page 3

Focus on making yourself better, not on thinking that you are better.
Bohdi Sanders
Respect is both earned and lost.
Bohdi Sanders
I can think of no more worthwhile aim than pursuing mastery in this craft while transcending one’s own limitations.
Chris Matakas
There is no higher calling than service to your fellow man, and to do so through your own personal mastery of a craft is a gift enjoyed by few. Cultivate this gift, and give it away.
Chris Matakas
I have never been as alive or awake as I have been through Jiu Jitsu.
Chris Matakas
Don't get set into one form, adapt it and build your own, and let it grow, be like water.
Bruce Lee
The idea that each of us can be directly spiritual is radical. Most religions are based not on teaching adherents to be directly spiritual, but in persuading them to trust in the intercession of ministers or priests. The problem with this approach is that we cannot gain access to spirituality except through the medium of a fallible human being. If we want to see Tao, we need only open our eyes and trust what we see.
Ming-Dao Deng
Do not allow negative thoughts to enter your mind for they are the weeds that strange confidence.
Bruce Lee
Better than money and fame, teaching martial arts to your children; giving them your time and confidence, is the best inheritance
Soke Behzad Ahmadi
Jesus was not a carpenter forever.
Chris Matakas
In the history of history, there has never been someone with your particular genetic make-up or life experiences. This being the case, we have no reference points with which to compare ourselves, and therefore it is futile to attempt to measure yourself relative to others.
Chris Matakas
It is not the opinion of the common man that matters, but the opinion of men for whom you admire and truly respect.
Bohdi Sanders
You must be shapeless, formless, like water. When you pour water in a cup, it becomes the cup. When you pour water in a bottle, it becomes the bottle. When you pour water in a teapot, it becomes the teapot. Water can drip and it can crash. Become like water my friend.
Bruce Lee
Life, is energy. It is the energy that makes your heart beat and makes you breathe, that causes the cells of your body to automatically grow and reproduce the moment you are conceived!
Tae Yun Kim
It is too facile to say that the way to follow Tao is to simply go along with the flow of life. Sometimes, like the carp, we must know when to go it alone.
Ming-Dao Deng
Focus on making yourself better, not thinking you are better.
Bohdi Sanders
My growth as a human being has been directly proportional to my growth as a marital artist.
Chris Matakas
No art takes places without inspiration. Every artist also needs effective knowledge of his or her tools (e.g., does a certain brush function well with a particular kind of paint?). What’s more, artists need effective techniques for using those tools.Likewise, to express ourselves skillfully with maximum efficiency and minimum effort, we need to investigate the most effective ways of using the mind and body since, in the end, they are the only “tools” we truly possess in life.
H.E. Davey
To know oneself is to study oneself in action with another person.
Bruce Lee
Because all actions and expressions stem from the mind, it is vital to know the mind as well as decide in what way we’ll use it. Everyone has heard of psychosomatic illness, and most of us acknowledge that psychosomatic sicknesses can and do occur. But what about psychosomatic wellness? How many of us have considered if it’s possible to stay healthy or cure various maladies with the positive use of the mind? And if we have thought of this, have we done much more than simply consider the idea?
H.E. Davey
The Hand (Kara-Te) is the cutting edge of the Mind
Soke Behzad Ahmadi
Jiu Jitsu gives each of us something that no other sport can. We have the opportunity to become truly great regardless of what circumstance fate has handed us. We have complete freedom and responsibility to achieve whatever level of mastery we wish.
Chris Matakas
It is our duty to ensure we have a peace worth fighting for.
Chris Bradford
To base your self worth relative to others is to play a losing game. If you are at the bottom, you will be filled with self-loathing. If you are at the top, you will be filled with self-aggrandizement and ego. This will most certainly be one of your greatest obstacles to achieving whatever degree of mastery you are capable.
Chris Matakas
The most fulfilled among us are those who serve others.
Chris Matakas
Do not get caught pursuing the goals of who you used to be instead of who you are.
Chris Matakas
You have been blessed to stand on the shoulders of giants. Make sure that someone stands on yours as well. This is the only way of human progress.
Chris Matakas
Those who don't know how to suffer are the worst off. There are times when the only correct thing we can do is to bear out troubles until a better day.
Ming-Dao Deng
The point of meditating is not to learn to sit quietly in a room. The point is to live that way in the world.
Chris Matakas
Truth is universal. Perception of truth varies.
Bohdi Sanders
Living exists when life lives through us … life is a living now!
Bruce Lee
If you wish to break with tradition, learn your craft well, and embrace adversity
Soke Behzad Ahmadi
This constant mental diatribe and the frustrations, worries, insecurities and muscular tension that ensues are the self.
Chris Matakas
Patience and Forgiveness are at the heart of A warrior's success, they help engender necessary intervals of space and time to evaluate difficult encounters.
Soke Behzad Ahmadi
It was my letting go that gave me a better hold.
Chris Matakas
Being part of the whole, as I grow so does that which contains me.
Chris Matakas
Who you are is always right.
Ming-Dao Deng
A goal is not always meant to be reached, it often serves simply as something to aim at.
Bruce Lee
When you realize you are no longer made of glass, you lose the desire to demonstrate that fragility in others.
Chris Matakas
In the present moment, no past achievement has any bearing, but we perpetually bring ourselves into the here and now; we are our constant companion. By carving the ineffable nature of my soul, rather than simply pursuing the "W," I am able to bring all of my past accomplishments with me into the present. They do hold bearing on today, not because of what I have done, but because of who I have become. This is what matters.
Chris Matakas
Man, the living creature, the creating individual, is always more important than any established style or system.
Bruce Lee
. . and so it is that A Sensei may impart his knowledge of the martial Way and nurture your fighting abilities, but you must learn the wisdom of finding other ways than martial skills to solve your problems
Soke Behzad Ahmadi
It is only when we admit our ignorance that we can hope to overcome it.
Chris Matakas
Men are like steel. When they lose their temper, they lose their worth.
Chuck Norris
We call it training. Not because we are training for Jiu Jitsu. We are training for life.
Chris Matakas
Nakamura Tempu Sensei viewed the mind as a segment of the body that could not be seen and the body as the element of the mind that was observable. He also likened the mind and body to a stream, with the mind as the source flowing down to the body. Whatever we drop in the stream will be carried down by the current. In like manner, our thoughts will influence the body and our well being.
H.E. Davey
A positive attitude is most easily arrived at through a deliberate and rational analysis of what’s required to manifest unwavering positive thought patterns. First, reflect on the actual, present condition of your mind. In other words, is the mind positive or not? We’ve all met individuals who perceive themselves as positive people but don’t appear as such. Since the mind is both invisible and intangible, it’s therefore easier to see the accurate characteristics of the mind through a person’s words, deeds, and posture.For example, if we say, “It’s absolutely freezing today! I’ll probably catch a cold before the end of the day!” then our words expose a negative attitude. But if we say, “The temperature is very cold” (a simple statement of fact), then our expressions, and therefore attitude, are not negative. Sustaining an alert state in which self-awareness becomes possible gives us a chance to discover the origins of negativity. In doing so, we also have an opportunity to arrive at a state of positiveness, so that our words and deeds are also positive, making others feel comfortable, cheerful, and inspired.
H.E. Davey
Health is the ability to realize our avowed and unavowed dreams.
Moshé Feldenkrais
I can think of no more worthwhile aim than pursuing mastery in this craft while transcending one's own limitations.
Chris Matakas
I do not begin to think that I could possibly understand its inner-workings and the deepest truths of the cosmos with the 28 years that I have lived in Central New Jersey of the United States of America.
Chris Matakas
Just as there’s usually a space or interval between people passing on the street, even if it sometimes seems very small, a space also exists between thoughts. In your meditation, see if you can perceive this gap between thoughts. What is it, and does it belong to the realm of time? If it does not, then it’s unborn and undying, beyond all conditioning, which is a psychological carry-over from the past to the present.Whatever thoughts or internal conflicts come up—do nothing. Do not try to force them to cease or change. And don’t “do nothing” to still the mind, quiet fears, or resolve conflicts—all of this is doing something. It only leads to more struggling and prevents you from seeing the actual nature of thought and internal conflict. Genuine attention has no motive.This observation or listening doesn’t involve effort. Effort merely distracts you from what’s taking place in the instant. A kind of concentration exists that’s not forced. We’ve all experienced listening or paying attention to something we truly enjoyed. At that moment, was effort required for concentration to take place?
H.E. Davey
Set patterns, incapable of adaptability, of pliability, only offer a better cage. Truth is outside of all patterns.
Bruce Lee
Devoting yourself to a particular art is invaluable. The art becomes our vehicle with which we drive down the road of life. We use this vehicle to learn about ourselves and this place, to conquer fears, to become more of what we already are. In my own life, I have found most valuable the transferable skills of learning from jiu jitsu to all other facets of day to day study. In devoting myself with such commitment to this art, in undertaking the task of understanding jiu jitsu to whatever degree by circumstance allows, I have unknowingly learned how to learn.
Chris Matakas
There are no trophies for the real victories in life.
Chris Matakas
In the modern world we are surrounded by so much abundance that we cannot see it.
Chris Matakas
The purpose of Karate is to guide you out of trouble by any means necessary, both in actual combat and in life
Soke Behzad Ahmadi
I have found that the morning is far more accessible when a good book awaits you.
Chris Matakas
Deep down I believe each of us is a well-spring of understanding and wisdom, but we simply never allow the space or time for this understanding to rise to the level of conscious thought.
Chris Matakas
The ultimate experience of being mindful occurs when we forget about everything, even the mindful self and doing. In that mode we are full of energy, utterly self-generated.
Sang H. Kim
Relationship is understanding. It is a process of self-revelation. Relationship is the mirror in which you discover yourself -- to be is to be related.
Bruce Lee