Zen and the Martial Arts

hoshin1600

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I'm coming at this from a different angle. I trained at a zen buddhist temple in Boston in the art of Shim Gum Do. This art was created by Chang Sik Kim during a retreat in which he was inspired to create this art in all its forms. It is not a well-known martial art and there are questions and issues related to it that I won't go into. The point is that this is a Zen master and his art is about that - self-realization. Sitting meditation is part of the training, but the art itself (I skipped sword training and studied empty-hand exclusively) - is moving meditation. I could write a book about how this changed my martial arts path from Japanese Karate, but I don't want to convert anyone. I would say that INSTEAD of sitting, I trained in the very complex and seamless movements of the forms of which I learned 23. I had experiences identical to those I'd reached in sitting meditation, but amplified a hundredfold. As others have said here - sitting doesn't help you learn to move, but it does help with concentration, relaxed awareness, discipline, etc. I need to MOVE - to have found this art which is in essence moving meditation, changed my life. The attention to momentum and gravity, transitioning from movement to movement is different than any other martial art in which I've trained, except for baguazhang which has that similar flow. The reason it is a Zen martial art, even if you don't subscribe to the creator's story (I do) - is because the art is complex enough that it engages you fully - your mind cannot drift when doing this art. In the general sense, any martial art or any activity you do which fully unites mind and body can be said to be a zen martial art. I still practice my first martial art - Uechi Ryu, and love its structure and elegance and fighting efficacy - but it stops and starts and so doesn't have that same flow. Again, baguazhang flows in this way - you can't stop your mind for a second to think of anything else - this is the zen state of mind. So sitting - even as a zen practitioner, I don't have the patience for it - haha. I use martial arts as zen training - after years of practicing an art that requires my brain to pay full attention to what my body is doing, I've found my path as a martial artist - perhaps it's a more internal path in that self-realization and energy cultivation are its main goals.

I am glad you found your path. I am sending a PM.
 

Buka

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I'm coming at this from a different angle. I trained at a zen buddhist temple in Boston in the art of Shim Gum Do. This art was created by Chang Sik Kim during a retreat in which he was inspired to create this art in all its forms. It is not a well-known martial art and there are questions and issues related to it that I won't go into. The point is that this is a Zen master and his art is about that - self-realization. Sitting meditation is part of the training, but the art itself (I skipped sword training and studied empty-hand exclusively) - is moving meditation. I could write a book about how this changed my martial arts path from Japanese Karate, but I don't want to convert anyone. I would say that INSTEAD of sitting, I trained in the very complex and seamless movements of the forms of which I learned 23. I had experiences identical to those I'd reached in sitting meditation, but amplified a hundredfold. As others have said here - sitting doesn't help you learn to move, but it does help with concentration, relaxed awareness, discipline, etc. I need to MOVE - to have found this art which is in essence moving meditation, changed my life. The attention to momentum and gravity, transitioning from movement to movement is different than any other martial art in which I've trained, except for baguazhang which has that similar flow. The reason it is a Zen martial art, even if you don't subscribe to the creator's story (I do) - is because the art is complex enough that it engages you fully - your mind cannot drift when doing this art. In the general sense, any martial art or any activity you do which fully unites mind and body can be said to be a zen martial art. I still practice my first martial art - Uechi Ryu, and love its structure and elegance and fighting efficacy - but it stops and starts and so doesn't have that same flow. Again, baguazhang flows in this way - you can't stop your mind for a second to think of anything else - this is the zen state of mind. So sitting - even as a zen practitioner, I don't have the patience for it - haha. I use martial arts as zen training - after years of practicing an art that requires my brain to pay full attention to what my body is doing, I've found my path as a martial artist - perhaps it's a more internal path in that self-realization and energy cultivation are its main goals.

We have a commonality, my friend, I grew up just a couple miles from that Temple. :)
 

Ben S

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We have a commonality, my friend, I grew up just a couple miles from that Temple. :)

Did you ever train there? It's an amazing martial art, but mostly unknown. You have to take the zen buddhism with it, which was actually a plus for me. I never did anything with sword, but training his empty-hand art taught me a lot about how to use gravity and momentum among other things. I haven't visited them in years - I'm on the northshore of mass now - and a solo practitioner, but still do the 20 forms I learned there - there's nothing else quite like them. Thanks for reaching out.
 

Buka

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Did you ever train there? It's an amazing martial art, but mostly unknown. You have to take the zen buddhism with it, which was actually a plus for me. I never did anything with sword, but training his empty-hand art taught me a lot about how to use gravity and momentum among other things. I haven't visited them in years - I'm on the northshore of mass now - and a solo practitioner, but still do the 20 forms I learned there - there's nothing else quite like them. Thanks for reaching out.

I was a little kid, hadn't trained yet, I don't know if it was even there at that time. But I passed by it a year ago, on one of those "one last look" kind of things about where you've lived. When you mentioned it, I thought "Hey, I know where that is!"
 

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