“Never fear another challenger, no matter how large;
Never despise another challenger, no matter how small.” - Morihei Ueshiba
The best martial artists use fear to their advantage. Osore (恐れ) or “fear” is defined as “an unpleasant emotion caused by the belief that someone or something is dangerous, likely to cause pain, or a threat.” Every person has fear and all of our fears are relative. The problem is not so much the presence of fear but in how we deal with it. Morihei Ueshiba said, “Never fear another challenger, no matter how large; Never despise another challenger, no matter how small.” With the addition of “never despise another challenger, no matter how small,” O’Sensei’s assertion helps us to understand discernment and the development of equanimity in our training. Equanimity is the ability to have composure in the face of adversity and its attainment is one of the highest skills in the martial arts. One way to develop a mindset that is not swayed one way, or another is through something I like to call confrontation therapy where the martial artist confronts that which causes them fear. They confront it because they want to see what is on the other side of that fear. In confronting our fears, we could find out that our fears are true, or we could realize that they are unfounded, just some story we tell ourselves, or just something that we make bigger the more we focus on it. Regardless of the outcome, we learn something about ourselves. For instance, every person has someone in their school that they don’t particularly like for one reason or another. Because that person causes us to be uncomfortable or afraid, we avoid them. Avoiding them, on a certain level, gives them an invisible advantage over us because their mere presence controls us. Because they control us, our minds are not equanimous. Understanding this, we actively seek them out to train or engage with them. We may or may not become best friends with that person, but by sitting with our fears or feelings, we take the edge off it and dissolve their advantage over us. With every fear we confront, we come to realize that we can be our own worst enemy and that we sometimes give our fears more power than they deserve. All martial artists are trying to become undefeatable. Carl Jung said, “Knowing your own darkness is the best method for dealing with the darknesses of other people.” Thus, to become undefeatable, we must know ourselves and confront our fears. When we become undefeatable, fear alone won’t be able to stop us. Ralph Waldo Emerson said, “He who is not everyday conquering some fear has not learned the secret of life.” Emerson could be alluding to the fact that managing our fears is the secret to life and that it is a skill that needs to be practiced every day. Perhaps that is why the Japanese say, dojo de naki, senjou de warau (道場で泣き戦場で笑う) or “Cry in the dojo, laugh on the battlefield.” Everyone has fear and so do martial artists. The only difference is that the best martial artists have learned how to use their fears to their advantage.
Today’s goal: Remember, Mark Twain said, “Courage is not the absence of fear but acting in spite of it.”
Watch this to better understand using fear to your advantage