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Kevin Leavitt wrote:
I just simply beleive that many of us get too caught up into the emotional issues surrounding fighting, self defense etc without really truly understanding the real core issues of why we are training. Everyone trains for different reasons, the problem is I think there is a great deal of cognitive dissonance that occurs in the process and the people that founded the arts do not match up with the people that are now studying them.
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I'm reminded of a conversation purported to have occurred between some well-known actor and Sir Lawrence Olivier (the actor). During the discussion the other person said something to the effect of, "Oh, Lawrence, why do we do it? Why do we give so much of ourselves, our insights, to the public." Olivier looked at him and said, "We do it for 'look at me', 'look at me', 'look at me' ".
In other words, behind a lot of the spiffy-sounding rationales for doing things, when you cut to the chase people are doing things for fairly simple and self-serving reasons, Kevin.
To add to the above anecdote, let me add one more. I saw a student ask a native-Chinese martial arts instructor, "What is the true philosophy of Taiji?". Having about had it with wannabe westerners playing "Little Taoist", he looked up and said, "The basic philosophy of Taiji is first to get through to their center and kill them.... if they kill you, your philosophy is no good."
Those two anecdotes of 'why we do things' and 'what we do them for' probably cover most things, when you cut to the chase.
FWIW
Mike