bydand
Senior Master
A different thread started me thinking of religion in the arts. While each region has their own religious thoughts, do they by necessity follow the arts from that region? What I am trying to ask is: If you practice a Japanese/Korean/Chinese art and want to progress further than the inital beginning ranks of BB, do you have to "follow" whatever religion is "associated" with your art?
I will give my thoughts, but really want to know others thoughts as well.
I do not think you need to follow whatever religion is associated with your art. I fully belive that I can look at something in a "Buddist","Tao", "Hindu" or whatever way while still following my "regular" (whatever one is raised in, or follow) religion.
I think the MA's as a whole are missing out on a large part of their training by leaving out the aspects of the art that might fall into the "Religious" catagory, for fear of losing students and being labeled. I think every art has these points and we should be more open to them without trying to pidgeon-hole them into various religions from around the world. Look at meditation for example, whoaaaaaa Scotty you are getting into that "Eastern" mumbo-jumbo. I have actually heard that when I started into Ninjutsu and we did a class on meditation from someone who NEVER stepped foot inside the door of the dojo. Plus the fact he was proud that he never would step foot inside the dojo, because he thought "dojo" was eastern for "church". (Even showing him the definition in Websters wouldn't change his closed mind on the meaning.) I wish I had the answer on how to "package" the whole Arts so all aspects would be accepted and we could all finally benefit from what we train in.
Your thoughts??
I will give my thoughts, but really want to know others thoughts as well.
I do not think you need to follow whatever religion is associated with your art. I fully belive that I can look at something in a "Buddist","Tao", "Hindu" or whatever way while still following my "regular" (whatever one is raised in, or follow) religion.
I think the MA's as a whole are missing out on a large part of their training by leaving out the aspects of the art that might fall into the "Religious" catagory, for fear of losing students and being labeled. I think every art has these points and we should be more open to them without trying to pidgeon-hole them into various religions from around the world. Look at meditation for example, whoaaaaaa Scotty you are getting into that "Eastern" mumbo-jumbo. I have actually heard that when I started into Ninjutsu and we did a class on meditation from someone who NEVER stepped foot inside the door of the dojo. Plus the fact he was proud that he never would step foot inside the dojo, because he thought "dojo" was eastern for "church". (Even showing him the definition in Websters wouldn't change his closed mind on the meaning.) I wish I had the answer on how to "package" the whole Arts so all aspects would be accepted and we could all finally benefit from what we train in.
Your thoughts??