The RZA!
I have the names of some of my teachers tattooed into my skin. A dude I've learned a lot from is the RZA from Wu-Tang Clan.
In his own words:
"Just as you must come through a woman’s womb to attain physical birth, so must you come through Wisdom to achieve mental birth. And like childbirth, Wisdom often comes with pain. Pain, joy, fear - all have borne in me wisdom, which, like water, is an ever flowing spring from a bottomless ocean, a flow of life that takes the shape of any vessel, that reveals itself in all bodies and all moments. For Wisdom is the Way."
(I just saw Eric Koston up the street!)