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Sep
10
Monk as Image
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I’ve seen this picture many, many times—it’s even the cover of a Rage Against the Machine album I have buried somewhere in a box. The monk who gave his life to protest the treatment of Buddhists’ in Vietnam was Thich Quang Duc. If you haven’t heard the story, he dowsed himself with gasoline, sat down at a busy intersection in downtown Saigon, and lit himself on fire, as a form of protest–whoa.
I’ve been staring at this picture for an hour, and it’s simply incredible.
The reason I came upon this picture again in my life is that I was looking for symbols of monks. Why? Well because it is my marketing assignment. My “image for West Side” assignment (don’t worry West Side’s new image won’t be a burning monk). But I was looking at the things I want West Side to be (we’re actually these things now).
1. Technical
2. Friendly
3. Sacrificing for our students
The thing that keeps coming to my mind is the image of a monk. I actually wrote about being a jiu-jitsu monk in this very blog. The idea of preparing the temple for worshipers as well as being a worshiper yourself, appeals to me. So, my idea is to have everything we do be kind of modern monkish—urban monks that teach the religion of jiu-jitsu.
So, two of the things we want to portray are easy: monks are friendly, and they have sacrificed their worldly life to study and teach their respective religion—they have sacrificed. The last thing is being technical. I imagine monks in their cells pouring over volumes of ancient texts to become knowledgeable—they study—and with study and practice become technical. In the case of Shaolin monks, it’s their constant practice that makes their Kung Fu very technical.
The image of West Side will be modern monks. The image of the school will be Buddhist temple (sanctuary) meets tattoo shop (I love street art, tattoo art, grafitti, etc.). I’ve been doing a lot of research on Tibetan monks and they use a lot of skulls in their art work—yes!
The image of Thich Quang Duc’s self-immolation is a very intense and moving picture. It’s disturbing, yes, but it is the ultimate in self-sacrifice. I don’t plan on setting myself ablaze in the name of jiu-jitsu, but I do respect the mental and physical control these monks possessed to show their dedication.
West Side is technical, friendly, and sacrificing—jiu-jitsu monks of the martial arts world.
I think the chicken suite is enough. No need to set yourself on fire with gas. Is this where the tired “I’m fired up” came from?