"When you give your weakness permission to be because you understand that it is simply an expression of your strength, it tends to no longer be a weakness."

"Jiu Jitsu is a baptism by combat, and serves a purpose in the inner life of the individual that has always existed, but our modern culture fails to acknowledge."

"The possessions themselves were not the problem, it was my relationship with possessing."

"The road from white belt to black is long and arduous; most never reach the end. There are simply too many obstacles of daily life, and too much effort and attention required, for this to be something that the majority of practitioners achieve. This is why a black belt in Jiu Jitsu, especially from a reputable source, is the pinnacle of martial arts rank. It is valuable because of what must be traded for its achievement."

"We see that the vast majority of our suffering is needless, and simply arises from the misidentification with our thinking mind."

"Just know that the achievement of anything grand takes consistent effort year after year. Motivation can uphold you intermittently, but it has too few calories to sustain a life."

"Mastery lies on an infinite continuum, and as a result we will never reach the end. We can, however, see to it that we are as far along that continuum as our circumstance allows."

"Your job as a young adult is to become as valuable to the marketplace as you can. Your job as a human is to do so without working a day in your life."

"Nothing worthwhile ever came from divided attention."

"You are never as good as you think you are, and you are never as bad as you believe yourself to be."

"The secular world often finds its constituents disenfranchised and solitary as it has spent a great deal of time debating the religious community while failing to build a true community of its own."

"On the other side of self-doubt comes a confidence from faith in the process. Even though our destination may be a long way off, each day we rise with a subtle smile as if we have already achieved it, because, when we are truly committed to a task, we already have."

"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."

"Being part of the whole, as I grow so does that which contains me."

"Jiu Jitsu forges friendships in a way I've never known. Being involved in an art as intimate as this, where bodily connection is a must, the common cultural boundaries of personal space are broken. You will never see more hugs, high fives, and physical expressions of love than on the mats. Ultimately, this proves to be one of the most fulfilling aspects of our pursuit of mastery. Along the way, we learn to love others as we love ourselves."

"The very fact that you can observe this thinking mind is proof that you are not this thinking mind."

"It is in community where we find our very selves."

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

"Jiu Jitsu is meant to serve us, not the other way around. It is meant to make you more of whatever it is you already are. It is meant to separate the wheat from the chaff. It is meant to bring to conscious attention all that once went unseen. It is meant to make you more loving. It is meant to make you more wise, but less certain. It is meant to make us humble, yet supremely confident. It is meant to remind us of our frailty while simultaneously making us feel invincible."

"Any advanced student will tell you the best way to recover guard is simply not to get your guard passed in the first place."

"When your words enter the material world in the form of ink or on screen, you are immediately afforded the opportunity to judge their worth."

"I do not begin to think that I could possibly understand its inner-workings and the deepest truths of the cosmos with the 28 years that I have lived in Central New Jersey of the United States of America."

"To base your self worth relative to others is to play a losing game. If you are at the bottom, you will be filled with self-loathing. If you are at the top, you will be filled with self-aggrandizement and ego. This will most certainly be one of your greatest obstacles to achieving whatever degree of mastery you are capable."

"We must remember that regardless of our differences in rank we are all equal as human beings. You can always tell how caring and compassionate others are in their actions towards those "below" them. Of course you are going to treat your black belt professor kindly, but how do you treat the white belt taking their first class? In spite of the division in belt rank there must be no division as people."

"Society is a collection of selves perpetuating their myth."

"Mastery, to whatever degree your circumstance allows, is determined by a handful of choices repeated daily."

"You have become more and therefore expect more, but never become too purpose-driven to step back and realize just how far you have progressed."

"Autopilot is great, and removal of thought is one of the highest ideals of training. But removal of thought in the moment must be preceded by purposeful thought beforehand."

"There is an opportunity cost for everything we do. This is why we must have the awareness to ensure that what we are pursuing is really what we value, because the pursuit leaves countless lost opportunities in its wake. We choose one experience at the sacrifice of all other experiences."

"We must not learn to try harder. The key is to learn how not to try in the first place."

"A life of joy awaits the man who sits alone quietly in a room and determines what he himself believes rather than simply adopting the values of another."

"Jiu Jitsu gives me an ideal to strive toward. Technical mastery lies on an infinite continuum and completion of this skill is impossible. Every time I train I have something that I can improve upon, and this will hold true for each and every training session that lies between me and my grave."

"We seek to understand Jiu Jitsu as a vehicle to understand ourselves. We have different explicit goals, from getting in shape, learning self-defense or competition, but tacitly we all seek mastery of ourselves."

"There is nothing like another's perspective to remind you that your way is not the right way, it is simply your way."

"I train Jiu Jitsu because I recognize that I am a piece of the whole, and as I grow so does that which contains me. The whole of man advances with the growth of a single individual. Every life I influence is benefited from the fact that I have devoted such a large portion of my life to this pursuit. I will be a better husband, father, and whatever other future roles I may hold because of my time in this sport. In making me a better man, I know that society as a whole is improved."

"Imagine a true master of the art, someone with complete skill in every aspect of Jiu Jitsu. This master would not force anything. He would simply allow the roll to take whatever form it does, and in every position would act in the most efficient way based off what the circumstance dictates, and not what he himself prefers."

"The most obvious, most absurdly recognizable phenomena in day-to-day life often become the hardest to remain consciously aware of."

"Nothing feels dirtier than living a life that is not your own. No amount of money is worth my soul. I would rather be homeless and go out in a blaze of glory than subject myself to a slow and steady death of apathy and government by my environment."

"I firmly believe that life will continually try to teach you the same lesson, with increasing pain, until you heed the call."

"Empathy is a breaking down of the false constructs of division between the observer and the observed."

"My growth as a human being has been directly proportional to my growth as a marital artist."

"Your happiness is in direct proportion to the amount you serve others."

"The major events in our lives receive the entire spotlight, but ultimately your life will be defined by the same handful of choices you make each day."

"The only way to consistently perform at your potential is to ask: Am I better than I was yesterday?"

"Things can be added, but that doesn't mean that anything is missing."

"We are never truly ourselves as we are mid-roll."

"The medal from an old grappling tournament will not serve me today, but the courage I developed in its acquisition will. By investing in yourself, by using all endeavors as a vehicle to shape who we are, we exist in the present moment with a lifetime of growth behind us. I have loved many vehicles throughout the years, Jiu Jitsu more than any other, but the vehicle has, and always will, be a distant second to the driver."