Avoiding Chogyam's Supermarket

Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche was not your average Tibetan Lama, but he had a key lesson for today's budding martial artists. In between getting married, which monks aren't supposed to do, and founding a university in Boulder, Colorado, the Rinpoche wrote a book called 'Cutting Through Spiritual Materialism,'. In it, he described the array of teachings on display in America in the 1970s as a a 'spiritual supermarket.'

Mr. Trungpa, born in Tibet, 1938, was recognised as a reincarnation of a great teacher of meditation and Buddhism. He was to become on of Tibet's most famous, but most controversial ambassadors. He had great charisma, and according to his many students, teaching ability. But he also indulged in 'crazy wisdom,' which including sexual cavorting with numerous students and drinking alcohol heavily. He died in 1987.

But his ideas live on. 'Spiritual Materialism' has an important message for martial arts students bombarded and tempted by a smorgasboard of books, magazines, websites, YouTube clips and choices of styles. The message is beware. In sampling everything, you can end up learning nothing deeply. Styles like Jeet Kune Do, for all its great merits, enable the habit of the martial arts collector/junkie, by telling students to 'take what is useful and discard what is useless.' I, Sumo Semar, are as guilty as anyone, with a stack of CDs, DVDs, magazines, and books to prove it. My white belt, after five years of training is further evidence.

This post isn't meant to argue against educating yourself, especially in world of so much Bullshido. Perhaps just a plea, if not to remember Chogyam Trungpa's advice, perhaps the example of John Coltrane, a master of the 1950s style of cool jazz. Coltrane was famous for his wild improvisations, seemingly without form. But a landlady of his said she heard him practicing scales every night.

Salam Budo and...Merdeka !