There is no room for hate in the spirit of the warrior and a true warrior stands against hate. An old Zulu proverb wisely states that “Those who hate, hate themselves.” Jikokeno (自己嫌悪) or “self-hatred” is often times the actual root of hatred. Hatred is something that is condoned and even encouraged in daily life and modern sports. We often see athletes and fighters pumping themselves up for an event using anger and hatred. On a certain level, using hate as a motivator can be effective. However, its usefulness is short-lived and its impact is often more widespread than the moment. Typically, when the hatred burns out, it tends to take all of the motivation with it. Anger and hatred have a way of bringing out the worst in us and cause us to do things which we inevitably regret. That is why O’Sensei did not believe in competition for this and many other reasons. O’Sensei believed that the martial arts were a vehicle towards self-improvement and not destruction. O’Sensei once said, “The Way of the Warrior has been misunderstood. It is not a means to kill and destroy others. Those who seek to compete and better one another are making a terrible mistake. To smash, injure, or destroy is the worst thing a human being can do. The real Way of a Warrior is to prevent such slaughter — it is the Art of Peace, the power of love.” It is easy to hate those that hate us, but aren’t we only feeding into the negative cycle of hatred? O’Sensei advocated “love” but what he is really talking about are things that come with that which constitutes love like kindness, compassion and understanding because those people really only hate themselves. Those people that trespass against us need our “love” much more than our hate because they are suffering more than we will ever know. Mark Twain said, “Anger is an acid that can do more harm to the vessel in which it is stored than to anything on which it is poured.” Anger and hatred weaken us and thus have no place in the martial arts. That is why at true warrior doesn’t hate and stands against it.
There is no place for hate in the martial arts and all hate crimes are despicable and inexcusable. We stand against Asian hate crimes and all racial motivated crimes. To understand more about
Today’s goal: Don’t hate. Stand up for those who need your help. Don’t let hate win.