“I don’t like any of that religious stuff in my martial arts…”

You may not, but Buddhism is inextricably linked to the Martial Arts and it’s not religious in the formal sense.  Buddhism is simple, logical thinking in search of the truth – and that is in line with martial arts study.  A Buddhist is required to challenge what he is taught and to discover the truth for himself.  The term ‘Buddha’ means the ‘awakened one’, one who is awake to the truth.

It’s often referred to as the ‘atheist religion’ as it has no gods or deities, it doesn’t even refer to an afterlife of any kind.  For the Martial Artist it provides the perfect mental and emotional toolbox required to develop a sustainable method of training.

It always seems strange to me when martial artists spend ages listening to the latest business or lifestyle ‘guru’ – their discs and seminars cost a fortune and yet even the most progressive guru has yet to match the wisdom and mental toolbox of the Buddha.

The Buddha was a great martial artist, he was a Prince who had the best instruction in everything and he excelled at martial arts training.  He was a large person for his race and won many tournaments.  He was married with a child and set to become King with the passing of his father, but he became troubled by the idea of old age, sickness and death and decided to leave family and kingdom behind to find the answer to suffering.

“To do Martial Arts you have to be totally dedicated!”…. 

“To be good you have to sacrifice many other things in your life”….. 

“To get there you have to be single minded”….. 

 How often do you hear this?  How true is it?

Words can be confusing because they are a method we use for defining an idea and often they mean slightly different things to different people, but let’s look at the idea that you have to dedicate yourself to one thing to the exclusion of most others to be good at Martial Arts – because I disagree.

Martial Arts are a method of self improvement.  Therefore if they didn’t enhance the rest of your life, they haven’t done their job! 

Martial Arts should:

Improve your physical and mental health.

Improve your social skills.

Improve your confidence.

Improve your awareness.

Improve your relationships.

Improve your ability to concentrate.

Improve your ability to learn.

Improve your ability to listen.

Improve your career possibilities.

Improve your family life. 

The sun was fading to the west, spreading glorious pinks and reds across the afternoon sky.  It was the “dog days” of summer.  The fragrance of flowers hung in the warm, dry air in their last burst of life before wilting in to the autumnal brown.

I sat with my back against a tall, majestic oak on a pile of freshly cut grass and absorbed the magical changing of seasons, a time where one fades into the other.  Whilst we still had the warmth, leaves and late flowers, they also contained the premonition of winter as they gradually dried out, began to change colour and prepare to be harvested by autumns sickle…..

I straightened my back, sat on the “meditation bone” (tailbone) to close the “Hua Yin” and placed my tongue on the top palette just behind my front teeth. I deepened my breath by bringing it to the Seiki Tanden and thought of the Buddha doing the self same thing under the Bodhi tree some three thousand years before on the evening preceding his enlightenment…… 

I could hear dogs barking and children playing in the background, the gentle trickling of water from the nearby stream, an ice cream van was playing chimes somewhere in the distance, a gentle breeze brushed my face as an insect buzzed by……..

I could feel the gravitational pull of the earth, easing the tension out of my body, I continued to straighten my spine suspending my form between heaven and earth as mother earth took my anxiety, tension and stress……

Mother earth…….. healing, and nourishing, our physical form rising up from her and returning to her, meanwhile she feeds and heals us……  I felt my physical form sink down into the moist earth below to commune……..

As I became the earth I could feel the roots of the tree penetrating right through me as I fed and nourished them.  I felt myself travel right up through the tree, through the trunk, the branches and right out to the surface of the leaves, absorbing the sunshine and the rain to produce a perfectly balanced, still “earth monitor” watching all that took place around me……. 

What darkness lurks within the depths of man……..

Rip away the social face,

Tear off the generations of social conditioning,

And what do you find?

The slavering beast that lurks within……….

See the momentary glint in the eye as a pretty girl walks by,

The violent lurch within the breast as the car cuts in front,

The first tendency toward total immorality as a fistful of money is offered……

See the mob violence take over with little incitement…..