There is no "self " in the Martial Arts, there is only the Martial Arts ...Well said.
For us as teachers there is only one most important thing , "our students" and a big part of our responsibility to them is to stay true in our own character.
CHARACTER:
The total sum of the qualities making up an individual: moral excellence.
How can this be done by lying about our own rank , What will happen when the student finds out? It will make the student lose faith in his teacher.
These masters may have lost their way along the way or maybe they themselves watched their instructors do the same thing, and they think it is the only way one goes about high ranking. Most of these people ( grandmaster so and so) don't train with anyone who could go about promoting them the right way in any case.
More truth is that when stuff like this happens it leaves even the good guys questioning the rank that they earned from these people.
What would happen if a guy (4th Dan) jumped up to his 8th Dan rank and then his 9th the next year. This happened here in Mass. The sad part is that he did not rank himself it was done by an another GM here in the New England area.
While I am sure it was hard for the 4Th Dan to say "thanks but no thanks" it goes to show how thighs happen here in USA.
What will his student say or feel .... " wow my master must be really good"... I don't think so. I would have to feel bad for the students.

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