Seeing Through Makkyo.

When a person enters the Dojo they usually do so with something in mind, some preconceived notion shaped by outer stimuli such as movies, cartoons, television shows, even books and games.
The public has this idea that because someone has a 'black belt' they are somehow a phenom fighter and also have some mystical wisdom and calm they are expected to wear about them at all times.

Sensei used to tell me to leave my preconceived notions at the door and that it was his job to shatter those notions along with the person that had brought them - to make the person go away.
It was a constant test of worthiness where you were given part of the puzzle and expected to present the rest thus jamming your foot in the proverbial door before the Teacher could close it in your face and laugh at you from the other side.

So we carry these notions with us when we come to training and carry some idea of ourselves with us when we go about our day.
What sort of notions we carry with us are to be considered as Makkyo, illusory, without substance, just a mirage, an image in the clouds, a distraction without purpose causing us to forget the real purpose of what we are doing, whether it be training or something else.

Collecting Techniques is a form of Makkyo, just as attaching importance to one 'style' or 'school' or 'lineage' as opposed to another, distracting from the true underlying essence... The practice itself.
Most come to training thinking it will, in some way, make them a badass, that they will learn a bazillion techniques and be able to flip someone and kill them with their pinkey finger.
What is the point of that? If such a thing were actually possible, what would be the point of that? Power? Ego?
The fact is that hurting is easy and a person really only needs about five 'techniques' in order to be very effective at it (in point of fact there are only variations on maybe five or six principle movements in the Martial Arts).
The hard part is in taking practice a little deeper and making yourself a little better as a person at the end of the day, for the sake of helping people.

Even then, maybe that is nothing more than another notion that could use some breaking down as it can also serve as a distraction.