"The Meeting"
Originally Posted by
Empty_Cup
The way One Student wrote it, it sounds as though the BB was walking towards GMT in a threatening manner. I think your comment is trying to make it seem like something it's not.
I have never felt uncomfortable asking questions either at my school or Lexington.
I am amazed how fast a story turned into a war. Sometimes it makes one want to just keep things to themselves. But let me try to clarify as much as possible, before it is exaggerated even more out of control. Some may remember it different or better, and I defer to that.
As I recall it: there was a time at the school in Lexington, in the early 80's particularly I think, there were members who were between two "masters": their SD colleagues, and another school across town. Some SD people were also known to be dissatisfied with SD, but stayed to cause trouble, or to take the classes they couldn't get somewhere else, or to report to someone else what was being taught, or even in the process of starting competing schools, but with SD material.
Yes, it was to a big extent an exaggerated problem, in some minds right out of a movie. But there was a time in martial arts that if you belonged to a school, you were loyal to that school and that Master, and if you didn't want to be loyal, you said so and left. You didn't hang around and be two-faced about who your loyalties were with.
So it was known there were persons who were hanging around for that purpose -- to cause trouble. It could have been handled by a private "talking to" (wink wink), even a forced and secret "ex-communication." Or worse. It wasn't. it was decided to talk it out in a meeting where everyone could speak their mind.
So there was a closed door meeting, among a couple hundred black belt "brothers and sisters." Anyone who had been given the rank of 1st black or up was welcome to attend, no exceptions. GMS started by bringing up to everyone he was aware there were dissenters, and he wanted to get whatever issues there were out in the open, rather than let the cancer burn a hole in the school. So he opened the floor for anyone to say anything.
One person, who was known to be badmouthing the school behind everyone's back, while still attending class, took that invitation. He was a 1st degree, and not long at that as I recall, but I could be wrong. As I recall it, he made comments, not asking questions about lineage or origins or anything, but to essentially insult the senior students and instructors and bad mouth the material. As I recall it, and I have a very good memory of it, GMS simply told him, and very calmly, smiling, and in almost the exact words, "You maybe aren't qualified to make that judgment." There were no harsh words from anyone, other than the Malcontent, although the room was very tense. No one told him to shut up or challenged him. In fact, as i recall it we wanted to hear what he and anyone else had to say.
But the Malcontent then took it up a notch. Most of us know of the "legends" of challenge fighting in martial arts lore, that one can't go in another's school and "drop a challenge," or fight the head of a school, until they have defeated their top student. So after GMS told this guy that he wasn't qualified to judge the entire school or system, and maybe something to the effect that if he wasn't happy in the school he should leave and find another one, the Gentleman then put his arm out to push GMS out of the way, and actually put his hand on GMS's arm or maybe chest, and stating, "I'm not leaving I've got things I want to say," or something to that effect. It was then that the entire room stood up. Not because he "dared" to ask questions, but because he aggressively and physically put his hands on the head of the School. Don't tell me HSK or Syn7 or anyone else would have let anyone do that to their Sifu or Sensei and walk away.
But when the room stood in near unison to take up for their GM, the Gentleman yelled out, "Everyone of you can stand up, not a one of you can do anything anyway." Of course that made it worse, and there was more than one in the room who were then and there ready to take him up on that challenge. But as I recall it, 2 or 3 of the senior members, and I can't remember exactly who so I won't guess, got in front of him, and more importantly between him and everyone else, and told him if he thought that way he should just leave. He did, mouthing off as he did all the way out the door. He did not return and as I understood it joined and stayed with that other school across town.
One of the more senior students at the time, who's name I do remember but won't say, and who was an excellent practitioner in every way and without exception respected for his skill and character, but who you didn't mess with, at least not with bad intentions, after a few seconds of visibly steaming left the room emotionally upset -- angry as I recall. It was my distinct impression he was going out to give the Malcontent a piece of his mind, and maybe something else. I wasn't the only one who thought that -- 1 or 2 of the others, more senior still, went after him and brought him back.
So it wasn't a cult session where dissenters were humiliated and then ostracized, or where an innocent question was punished with violence or threat. It was a trouble maker given a chance to speak, in front of everyone, who became ugly. And instead of being then assaulted or worse, cooler heads calmed the situation and separated the catalysts and without violence. And the school was better off thereafter.
There is a lot of misunderstanding, even hate of GMS and SD. The questions about the origin of its materials, and the way GMS has presented or allowed it to be presented, are all there. The man and the system are flawed, and in some respects very flawed. Some have personally had bad experiences, and that makes me sad. But the rush to make everything out to be of evil motivation or retribution is not so justified. At least not to those with an open mind.
Just One Student
"I seek, not to know all the answers, but to understand the questions." --- Kwai Chang Caine
(I'd really like to know all the answers, too, but understanding the questions, like most of my martial arts practice, is a more realistically attainable goal)