Jiu Jitsu is a revelation.
As in, the art reveals truths about ourselves and others with near-biblical potency and profundity. I mean this literally. The book of Revelations takes its name from the first word of the Koine Greek version. That word is apokalypsis, meaning unveiling, or revelation.
Apocalypse is a loaded word today in the West. We hear it and we think: destruction, cataclysm, demise. We forget the example of Shiva, that rebirth follows death.
We forget that rebirth follows death even though we practice that cycle again and again when we train. When we tap, we simulate death. We submit to the inevitable. The choke applied too long starves the brain of precious oxygen, and the light of our personhood is permanently extinguished, perhaps.
Fortunately, we can tap and start again. As far as we know, we don’t get the same fresh start when the ultimate apokalypsis, the ultimate unveiling, comes.
With each simulated death, and each fresh life on the mats, we’re given a chance to learn from our errors, whether those errors are technical or tactical, or something deeper, something psychological, moral, or spiritual.
But the apokalypsis, the unveiling, the revelation, only comes from the surrender. That requires a great deal of courage, especially in a life that demands endless perfection. So many of us cannot fail, though our failure is constant. We deny the apokalypsis.
We think we know, but instead we need to be Knowing to experience the Unveiling.
Category: Inner Work
Tag: Attitude
Recent Meditations
Recent Meditations