The voices / 197 fragments

Chris Matakas

Dates not recorded

Name supplied in the contributor-provided quotation collection. Basic attribution label; identity, lifetime and quotation authenticity have not been independently verified.

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Archive entries

01Undated

Jiu Jitsu has shown me that we are not confined to the lot which we inherit. We are not bound to these fetters eternally. They are temporal. We can transcend them should we sincerely choose to. Sincere effort is in fact the rarest virtue among man.

Chris Matakas / quote

02Undated

I wanted to get to the most essential aspect of my being, and look around for a while. I wanted to explore what I am in my most basic self. I wanted to chip away at all of the nonsense I have acquired through my twenty-nine years on this earth. I wanted to find truth. Thoreau went to the woods. I went to the mats. Jiu Jitsu has peeled the veil of daily life, and has shown me what lies beyond the curtain. We willingly accept the chains that circumstance forces upon us, and we grow to find comfort in them. We attach various fetters of day-to-day living to our being, and we do so with a smile. We accept these constraints for they come in the way of comfort. We accept conformity for it appears the path of least resistance. We strive toward the middle, and we run from ourselves.

Chris Matakas / quote

03Undated

Thoreau went to the woods. I went to the mats.

Chris Matakas / quote

04Undated

We call it training. Not because we are training for Jiu Jitsu. We are training for life.

Chris Matakas / quote

05Undated

I have seen far by seeing through the lens of Jiu Jitsu. I have exchanged a great deal of physical health for these insights, and these were trades worth making. My efforts were worth the return. I have sacrificed much in the name of this craft. Not for trophies or belts or prestige. For these fall away like dust. I pursued this art so fervently because it was not actually Jiu Jitsu I pursued. It was myself.

Chris Matakas / quote

06Undated

Jiu Jitsu can be a source of total transparency such as a mirror, but it takes a conscious choice to see what it has to say.

Chris Matakas / quote

07Undated

Do not seek victory, for victory in itself will not serve you. Seek to understand what made the victory possible.

Chris Matakas / quote

08Undated

An arm bar in a vacuum is worthless. It is the realization of the truths which constitute that arm bar that is the real treasure we seek.

Chris Matakas / quote

09Undated

The infinitude of Jiu Jitsu allows for the infinitude of the types of practitioners. There exists a game for each and every one of us which is specifically possible within the confines of our particular skill set.

Chris Matakas / quote

10Undated

For the sincere student, it mustn't be enough to simply understand Jiu Jitsu. We must seek to understand ourselves.

Chris Matakas / quote

11Undated

I believe that which you study is only matched in importance by the sincerity with which you approach it.

Chris Matakas / quote

12Undated

There is no concrete way to play Jiu Jitsu, and this is why so many different types of people find joy in it.

Chris Matakas / quote

13Undated

I use my understanding of jiu jitsu as a road map to learn other activities. I look for the similarities between the two, and use jiu jitsu as an allegory for whatever my new practice may be. I truly believe once you have learned one thing, you have learned all things because you have learned how to learn.

Chris Matakas / quote

14Undated

I train jiu jitsu because I love jiu jitsu. But I also train knowing that my practice in this art will allow me better practice in any art. If you have learned one thing, you have learned all things, because you have learned how to learn. I can think of no more worthwhile pursuit of education.

Chris Matakas / quote

15Undated

I have been given the rare opportunity to teach Jiu Jitsu for a living. This is a privilege that I wake up everyday grateful for, and a responsibility that I hold dearly. I understand how rare it is to be employed through a labor you genuinely love, and one which can be used as a vehicle for positive change in the lives of others. Even rarer still, I am often reminded of the quality of Jiu Jitsu I have learned, and the opportunity to have learned it.

Chris Matakas / quote

16Undated

In mastering one thing, you have mastered all things because you have learned how to learn.

Chris Matakas / quote

17Undated

Freedom from the thinking mind is our underlying goal for most of human activity.

Chris Matakas / quote

18Undated

This is what it means to be mindful. To watch the thoughts as they come and go without judgment while completely accepting what arises in the present moment.

Chris Matakas / quote

19Undated

You are the space in which these thoughts arise, but not the thoughts themselves.

Chris Matakas / quote

20Undated

For many of us, especially being so fortunate to live in a first-world country, the vast majority of pain we experience is due to the seriousness with which we identify with our thoughts.

Chris Matakas / quote

21Undated

This is a trust that you just cannot find in modern society for there are no conditions to forge it.

Chris Matakas / quote

22Undated

The rare opportunity to exist, no matter how brief, is worth the pain left in the wake of its disappearance.

Chris Matakas / quote

23Undated

No one's life will be harder because I exist.

Chris Matakas / quote

24Undated

Every opportunity with another was an opportunity to serve my fellow man. Every moment alone was a chance to grow and become more of who I already was. I instantly felt how great a life could be, and that was only made possible by service toward others.

Chris Matakas / quote