I am going to congratulate you now. Right here at the start. The very fact that you have picked up a book about martial arts for those students who are injured means that you have a highly inquisitive mind.
A mind that is curious allows a person to step away from the ‘cattle’ mentality that exists in every culture.
Cattle mentality is a psychological disposition in which you do what you are told. You don’t think original thoughts. You think the same thoughts as those around you.
That is not necessarily a bad thing.
We are social creatures. It is how we survive as a species. We are designed to move through our day as one community of people. It is what has allowed humans to survive and thrive against more powerful forest creatures and overcome natural disasters that would wipe out individuals who remained isolated and apart from families.
A community is strong. However, there is a negative side effect to gaining group strength. When a person thinks like others, then that individual develops a logical process of thought that eliminates anything that doesn’t look like, sound like and act like everyone else.
We call this mental process, ‘prejudice.’ A prejudice is a community consensus about what is strong and what is weak. What is correct and what is incorrect. What is beneficial, and what is not. We look at other people who look different and have unfamiliar customs and then define them as unfavorable, or distasteful to our community set of values. We call these people who look and act different, enemies at worst, or at best, strangers.
We see people who look, talk, and act similar and we see them as allies. We aren’t born with prejudice. We learn it. It is a learned neurological reaction to move toward or away from another who looks familiar or strange. Our nervous systems see another as safe or dangerous or repulsive.
For instance, some people fear dogs, while others feel warmth toward them, while yet others perceive them as unclean beings. These are learned perceptions.
Once they learn these perceptions, they become automatic. Their nervous system reacts with panic or smiles at the sight of a dog approaching them, respectively.
Here is a list of things that cause our prejudices to ignite.
1. The color of the skin.
2, The shape of the face of the body.
3, The gender.
4. The strangeness or familiarity of a language when spoken.
5. The religious and secular beliefs declared.
6. The age-related condition of a person’s body.
7. The type of hair cut, make up, tattoos or clothes that adorn the person.
For this manual,
8. The level of mobility exhibited. Does a person hop on crutches, or glide in a wheelchair, or have a limb or two missing?
Historically, many of our warrior ancestors would kill a child who was physically different. For instance, the Samurai of ancient Japan went so far as to murder any child of the Samurai class who showed a dominant use of their left hand. The Spartan’s terminated any child who was Partially Abled Bodied in a sacred ritual of throwing them off a cliff. Adolf Hitler stated that the “weakest child” of each German family should be killed to strengthen the entire German race.
Each of these civilizations believed in a warrior’s code that would make their community stronger, and in this case, they did so by eliminating anyone who either looked different or weaker.
They did this because they believed it was best for the community.
You have begun following a path of logic that disagrees with this assumption.
How do we know this? You just picked up a manual that questions our ancestor's decision to excommunicate members who don’t look and move like the rest of them.
Why would you do that?
I imagine that you are fueled by something personal. Nobody spends precious moments in a day investigating something unless it benefits them.
So let’s rate your curiosity.
I see three primary levels of interest.
1. The first level is “mild interest.” You know of a person who moves with the use of a cane, crutches, or a wheelchair. They live down the street or work in the same office building as you. You are mildly curious. Perhaps your motivation comes from an outside source. Maybe your spiritual teacher has informed you that being compassionate toward the disadvantage is a grace. The founder of Christianity taught this. You have received instruction that if you show kindness now, you will be given kindness in return sooner or later.
However, that interest takes up no more brain space than your interest in the birds that nest in the trees above your head as you stand in your lawn looking up. You like the birds. None the less, if they were to die or move away tonight, you would forget about them within an hour. Their life has no immediate bearing on yours. Their disappearance would not change a thing about your projects or your family.
2. Alternatively, there is an “intense interest.” If you have a son or daughter or a best friend, perhaps even a spouse who has faced a paralyzing disease or accident, then your wish to understand how you can assist them to enjoy a full life occupies your thoughts for many moments throughout the day.
3. You have an “all-consuming interest." In this case, you are the one with the missing or paralyzed limbs. It is at this level that you realize with the shocking awareness that your body is your only home. It feeds and protects you. However, it is having difficulty doing those necessities. If you don’t solve this problem, you could die.
If this is true, what I say next will be experienced as though I am offering a blueprint to rebuild your home. It will not look like the home you had before the accident or disease, but with consistent effort, it can become as useful and as powerful as your body was before the injury.
This manual then is your path to discover a deeper, more satisfying reason to live and enjoy your life.
So let's start rebuilding a home. Yours or your student's.
Let's speak as engineers do.