Blind Hero Worship

I have no idea who might have been the greatest martial artist of all time. Too many men and women have passed through history unnoticed for one to make such a claim for any individual. And many who have been noticed for greatness never had the opportunity to compare skills with certain others in their field, due to time or location constraints. However, I do know one thing. I have met students of the greatest martial artist on multiple occasions. You see, nearly every martial artist I meet believes their instructor is the greatest practitioner of the arts to have graced our Earth. This is the problem of blind hero worship.

Everyone is selling something. This is not good or bad, only reality. We each sell an idea, opinion, belief, or product by our very existence with other human beings. It is essential for anyone trying to make a living by acting on this salesmanship to understand the importance of building up your product. Martial arts instructors must build their product also, and this product is the instructor's skill and knowledge combined with his or her ability to relate this information to their students.
Unfortunately, some mistakes are often made in this sales process. Sales experts proclaim and defend the superiority of their product over the competition and many salesmen come to believe their own claims. When the product you are praising is your own ability and knowledge, this encourages self absorption. Self absorption is individually, and yet all at once, the source, equivalent, and result of pride. In fact, "pride" could be considered layman's terms for "self absorption". In the essay "Tao of Gung Fu: A Study In the Way of the Chinese Martial Art, Bruce Lee states that "Pride emphasizes the importance of the superiority of a person's status in the eyes of others. There is fear and insecurity in pride because when a person aims at being highly esteemed and achieves such status, he is automatically involved in the fear of losing his status. Then protection of his status appears to be his most important need, and this creates anxiety."
It is here, at the protection of status, that one loses sight of true mastery of martial arts. It is now essential for this individual to guard this self fulfilling state of mind.

Martial arts instructors ensure this status by systematically drilling their students to believe that no one can compare with their skill and wisdom. The instructors insist on tittles such as "Master" or "Grand Master". Co-instructors will repeat the head instructor's sales pitch, only with firm belief in it's reality, and the students pick up on this behavior, resulting in hero worship.
Hero worship leads to blind acceptance of an individual's ideas as truth and therefor, the rejection of all others. Co-instructors and students are now philisophically blinded to outside influence and will be unable to tolerate a difference in opinion. About a year ago I visited one particular martial arts school to observe the instruction and curriculum. During the conversation after class, one of the co-instructors vehemently stated that the head instructor was better than Bruce Lee. By merely remaining silent, instead of joining the hero worship, I was revoked for my "pride" and told that I didn't understand martial arts. A few minutes later I was asked to leave for mentioning another instructor's name.

In the end, the problem of hero worship is the result of one individual who feels the desperate need to acquire and maintain status as being superior to others. True experts in the martial arts are those individuals who have both the incredible skill and knowledge and have no fear of not being esteemed. Such is the essence of self sufficiency and the first step towards true mastery.