On Nice Guys

Tracing the Circle – Weekly Meditations on the Practice

“On Nice Guys”

There are lots of nice people whose martial practice, from our point of view, is health-destroying and generally awful. But that doesn't take away from their niceness, and we are happy to have them as friends; We like nice people, who doesn't?

We also know bad people whose martial practice, again (and as always) from our point of view, is superlative; sometimes amazing. However, we wouldn't necessarily want to associate with them outside of a limited arena.

The students of both these kinds of people admire their teachers intensely and will defend them in every way.

This, then, creates the pitfall: people making a one-to-one correspondence between good character and good Martial Arts. 
"My teacher is a good guy."

The old wisdom that people of poor moral character could not become great at martial arts we believe is untrue. It used to be said that a bad person could not become a master of a system; That the virtue required for mastery would "weed out" those unfit.

Some of the most important qualities to achieve mastery in a system (other than good instruction) are burning desire and indomitable perseverance. These are qualities which may be shared both by persons of good and bad moral character. (or good and bad causes.)

I think no one would dispute that we need to be able to see the difference even if there is nothing we can do about it.