Humility

This weeks thought is humility. Looks like an easy concept.We all understand the word...it's the opposite of a pompous know-it-all. The thesaurus uses words like come down off ones high horse, look foolish, feel small, draw in one's horns, bring to one's knees, meek, modest, submissive and Kyoshi's "favorite" unoffended. We find humility inour karate classes and in all military organizations ... giving proper titles and respect ... salutes ... bowing ... phrases like ... yes sir ... aye aye captain ... arigato Sensei and onegai-shimasu ... If I have an attitude that I know this already then I don't have humility and I can't learn. Humility is the essence of what it's like to be a white belt. We never want to loose this quality. To be able to recognize that someone knows more than you do and be unoffended enought to glean from them what you need to know is humility.  It's impossible to be pompous and learn anything! Humility is something we can't fake. It is important to be "unoffended" from a sincere humble place and not from an egotistical holier than thou attitude. It is curious that all the true "Masters" of their art exude the most humility. One wonders what came first the Humility or the Mastery. And one last thought failure is one of the best teachers of humility. When we fail we are humbled and then the learning begins.