Martial Arts and their Religious Philosphies

Blooming Lotus

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-bodhisattvas lack peace and what was that statement??? Being a ch'an buddhist myself excuse me while I wipe my milk I just sprayed all over my screen . Quite clearly, someone needs to google and find out what exactly they're talking about. try www.russbo.com or www.houstonshaolin.com ;)



Firstly, if you don't understand the multi-diminensional aspects of the system you are studying, how in crimineys do you except to have full understanding and be able to express that in your art??? You are comprimising and it's the same old tma vs mma argument, come sport vs traditional perpetuation , and even in mma ( for all their anti - tma fighting words ) there are traditional aspects relating directly back to the philosphical root belief system even in each demi aspect of the style it came from , expressed in our ma via different structure, and strike direction, power generation, jing alignment and balance distribution etc etc.

chan and shaolin buddhism practices kungfu to facilitate their meditation and don't even spar in practice, but could no doubt use it effectively in defence if necc......mma often has focus on ring fighting and even alot of traditional arts that DO spar have more focus on street defence or combat as sport , which is nothing like what it was in conception, therefore base principal application and interpretation must adapt.

IMO, philosophy in ma is in crux in relation to meditation, form performance and continuation/ affectionado style ( except wushu also a performance art but less spiritually based) ; mma ( including your mantis and karate/ MT etc) is about gearing for the ring and more sport orientated and other traditional styles like WC and crossover adaptions from the sport sector above, are geared to todays street defence. Not to say the others aren't effective in various aspects on the street, but as a whole style, there I believe is the crux.

Ima is a whole new kettle of fish, and differs greatly to external arts in that by understanding merdians and points and concepts of tcma and qi used in martial application, a whole new realm of options external practitioners don't know they're meant to be defending against , opens up . From there, you have various ways of movement and thought tangents , breathing techs and chi cultivation methods that also vary from style to style / philosphical system to system.

It IS an aspect , but to say it's necc for your own maing objective is dogmatic at best..... but if you DO that comprimise, know your reason and ( whether or not you have any desire to ) understand that you missed the point :p

Cheers

BL

btw : buddhism has no god in their "religion" and neither does daoism. For most of us these are just a philosphical ideal to strive to and use to achieve our goals peacefully :0

Quote
"Find peace in your practice"
Gene Ching
 

BlackCatBonz

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first of all.......confusing the theories of TCM and those of the religions of taoism and buddhism are wrong. i dont mean any disrespect to anyone out there.....but this usually comes from people that take a cursory approach to gaining their knowledge of a given subject. whether you believe in god, satan, taoism, buddhism, hinduism, et al...
doesnt make a hill of beans difference in the understanding of "chi", "ki", "prajna", ad nauseum.......thats like saying penicillin doesnt work because you dont believe in it (some do).
for my second point......and i know i am going to catch a lot of flack for this,
in 99% of martial arts......the fighting theory was developed before any sort of philosophical or religious values or morals were put in place in the art, so to speak.
the idea of having "moral values" as a part of the learning is to temper the bujin or practitioner, to know when the right time to use it is.......or as a means of justification of using said art.
thirdly.......there are a lot of practitioners out there that dont believe in "chi", "ki"....but that doesnt make them any less of a practitioner or martial artist. But it does change the focus of how their particular might be taught.

shawn
 

The Kai

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TCM, (accupuncture, herbology) is a attempt to restore the balanace of the forces of Yin/yang with in the individuals body, Taoism is the philosophy that 1st outlines the theory of Yin/yang. I can see where someone might think there would a connection between the two!

t-
 

BlackCatBonz

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actually......if you are a real follower of TCM, most people would say it pre-dates taoism by about 2000 years. the book "yellow emperor's classic of internal medicine" is based on word of mouth stories between the yellow emperor(huang ti) and his physician(chi po). lao tzu, who is often referred to as the father of taoism was around between 600 and 300 BCE, although he is just considered a legend by many.
huang ti nei ching, and tao te ching were written around the same period though, between 3rd and 1st centuryBCE.

shawn
 

Colin_Linz

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I practice an art that is a religion, Shorinji Kempo. Shorinji Kempo philosophy is based on Kongo Zen Buddhism. I consider myself Buddhist, but it is not necessary to be Buddhist to train in Shorinji Kempo, you are only asked to learn and understand the philosophy, and the philosophy would be compatible with most belief systems I think.

So how would the art change without this philosophical component? I don’t think that it’s understanding of pressure points and ki would change as these are purely mechanical, not some magic belief system. What could change is the focus on the way we train and the end result of techniques. Shorinji Kempo has at its core a belief in using its techniques for self-defence only, and then in the least violent way. We use atemi strikes and a number of joint locks, throws, and pins to try to end the conflict quickly with the aim of controlling the attacker. Our throws and pins are designed to create pain without permanently damaging the joint. Someone using these techniques without the proper control or motivation in using them could cause severe damage. So by bypassing the philosophy you can be creating problems within the society you live and possibly change the art into something more brutal.
 

arnisador

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http://www.bridgeport.edu/pages/3872.asp

A 15-day tour of the celebrated sites frequented by the great Chinese philosophers including their places of origin, academies and natural surroundings that inspired them. We will furthermore visit two renowned Daoist sites of interest: the White Cloud Temple in Beijing and A Daoist hermitage at the peak of Mount Tai, as well as key places of cultural interest including The Great Wall, Forbidden City and the Summer Palace in Beijing.

 

hwarang

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honestly martial arts has proved to me there is a god without it id be a freakin crackhead and probably dead.. not only that i think that if a 130 lb shaolin monk can do a handstand on his fingers then there has to be a god lol
 

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