The Greatest Masters, the Simplest Lessons

Let me tell you a life lesson I learned from the greatest martial arts instructor who ever lived.

Well.. A bit of hyperbole there. Let’s say that for a series of different reasons and special circumstances as well as a lifetime of almost unimaginably focused work and exceptional intelligence, Guru Danny Inosanto is one of the human beings in the class of “arguably the best.” Not interested in the elusive “who was/is absolutely the best?” because there is no objective way to possibly measure such a thing, and such discussions are so tribal that the knives come out. So we’ll leave it at that.

But of all the excellent human beings I’ve been honored to know over the course of my life, Danny (who was Steve Muhammad’s Kenpo instructor, and therefore part of my lineage) may have the highest level of excellence at ANYTHING of anyone I’ve been able to sit down and talk with, who would recognize me on the street. And so I definitely watch him to try to understand: what made him who he is? Why is he so clearly a Master with a capital “M”? What of his journey is applicable to other fields of endeavor, like writing and general human evolution?

It is possible that the most FUN I ever had martial arts training was my three years at the Filipino Kali Academy down in Torrence. Maybe because of the art (Kali and Escrima are beautiful), maybe because of the people (like stunt arranger and balisong master Jeff Imada, my training partner Jim Green, my sister Joyce, my then-girlfriend Toni, and my best friend…