Professor Jason Hawkins returns to walk through two passages from his book, Light on the Gentle Art: The Jiu-Jitsu Sutras. He explains what a sutra is, a short and deliberately vague saying meant to start a conversation between student and teacher, then takes up sutra 1.19, "the outer space reflects the inner space." Ordering what you can touch, your body and your training room, makes room for a clearer mind. That is why his academy in Paducah, Kentucky, keeps to clean lines and three colors, and why he once kept an airline safety card on the wall to remind would-be instructors to put on their own mask first.

The second passage, sutra 2.31, holds that "force absent of skill is brutality." Jason says force is fine when it runs in the right line, like cutting with the grain, and contrasts the memory of correctness with the feeling of correctness. He admits that as a brown belt he refused to release a triangle while a blue belt stacked him, and spent four months out with his back, calling it "pure unadulterated ego." He also talks about the hollow body and buoyant energy under pressure, Joseph Campbell's idea of the hero as someone who takes full responsibility, learning strength when misaligned, and a simple rule: leave it better.

In this episode

• 0:00 Welcome
• 1:04 What a sutra is
• 5:19 The outer space reflects the inner
• 7:24 Start with the body
• 9:35 Put your own mask on first
• 12:45 Clean lines in the academy
• 15:53 Inner space and vulnerability
• 19:00 Buoyant energy under pressure
• 26:11 Force absent of skill is brutality
• 30:21 Cutting with the grain
• 33:28 The triangle that cost him four months
• 38:45 Taking full responsibility
• 41:54 Learning strength when misaligned
• 46:09 Leave it better

Watch on YouTube · Subscribe to The Jiu Jitsu Mindset