Humans are different from animals because we possess civility and duty is a natural component of human civilization. Every society has duties: Duty for your parents because they brought you into this world and gave you the gift of life and selfless support; duty for your teachers because they have taught you your knowledge and your strong morality, which in turn has given you your present positions; duty for your neighbors in order to show respect and love; duty for society because it gives honor and support; duty for your company and your martial art governing association because it creates your livelihood; duty for your country because it protects you and your family.
All of these different aspects of society are needed in order to create social harmony, and each one of these aspects also has its own laws and moral principles that must be followed. All individuals must give back to this family, society, and country to develop its success. This giving back is all of our duty. Therefore, our duties are a citizen’s duty, family duty, community duty, military and country duty. Duty is beyond responsibility. Duty is an obligation, which must be fulfilled in order to maintain honor. What governs duty, the unwritten law of honor.
A martial artist’s duty is closely connected to the integrity of the art’s name. Our duty is to proudly develop and build our art’s name in order to give honor to the next generation of practitioners. Martial art styles are not business stores. Your duty is to support your art’s identity in order to maintain quality and to leave a positive legacy. This duty requires that we build one governing organization of our martial art like a country’s singular government. This way all masters and instructors can work together under one roof to support their art’s reputation and show their loyalty. This type of cooperation will ensure that the quality of the art will be passed on.
Because martial artists should be working to strengthen their art, it is a master’s, instructor’s, and student’s duty to follow their art’s laws, rules and regulations. This should be done in a selfless manner and without a bad ego. In addition, they should never compete with one another under their own art. Competition of techniques and business practices between different arts is fine if it is done justly and promotes positive values. However, competition of techniques and business practices within the same art creates disharmony between its practitioners. So under a particular art’s name, it is the duty of its practitioners to work together in order to develop their strong and harmonious martial art identity.