Martial arts and religion
I realized that over the last few months I have been banging on what I don't believe so much that I have not mentioned what I do believe so I decided to find something I did believe but that could not be proven and move from there. I noticed a lot of guys on here have some martial arts training and I wanted to talk about the parallels I have experience between marital arts and religion.
To give you my background I have been studying martial arts since the mid-80's and have taken about four years off in total time between my start and now. In that time I have studied tae kwon do, aikido, wing chun and jujutsu. My lifelong experiences in the martial arts have had a parallel to my experience in religion.
When I was a teenager still in high school I studied Tae Kwon Do. It was my intro in the martial arts and knowing nothing about the martial arts at all it was my reality of all that was martial at that time. I remember people coming in from other arts, kenpo, Judo and various schools of karate to practice at the tae kwon do school. The school was pretty old and established and many guys had been there for some time by the time I got there. A lot of them had studied Tae Kwon Do most of their lives and knew very little of any other martial art. When the kenpo, karate or judo guys that visit would bring up points about their martial arts many of my senior students would disagree with them and say things like
"one kick to the head and fight is finished"...Or "tae kwon do is a more modern approach to martial arts"
I went away to college and started training with guys in other arts first time and realized that why some of those guys were awsome at Tae Kwon Do many of the seniors from my old school's total martial arts knowledge and theory was very small by comparision. I had skills at the time that other guys didn't have as developed but because my focus was so very narrow--kick punch---I really had a small amount of knowledge. Still being a teenager I just accepted I had a lot to learn.
I spent some time training with this guy and that guy not really going to a school until the early 90' when I found an aikido school. I joined there feeling comfortable with that school because there were a number of amatuer kickboxers and tae kwon do people there.
When I joined Aikido I heard new things from seniors at neigboring schools. I got a small dose of taoism and buddism at that time and was introduced to the notion of a pacifist martial artist. I still worked on sharpening my concussive skills and it irked some of the seniors from neighboring schools who would say things like, "If your aikido was strong enough you wouldn't need to work so hard on kicking and punching." and "Aikido is a martial art that promotes peace, by practicing strikes you are go against what Aikido is."
I went along and ended-up in a jujutsu school which is very comprehensive with an emphasis on various aspects of martial skills but becasue it is so diverse, obvisouly it is difficult to focus on any particular one without negating the others for that time. Because it was so diverse there was little negative comments to other arts and to meathods of combat. Only theories (endless theories!), experiments and guided training by teachers and senior students.
I still study martial arts today and probably will for the rest of my life. I told you this story for two reasons. One I believe that today my hand-to-hand skills are viable, but it is impossible to prove that to anyone at anytime without throwing down....which I am not willing to do to prove a theory. And two that my experiences in martial arts
have been similar to my experiences in religion.
On the belief, I have had two violent encounters with dogs, one fist fight four fight break-ups and took away one club by force that was going to be used to hit me and most recently took away car keys from a drunk friend using a wrist lock. But really, realistically speaking I am not able on paper, to provide proof of my martial skills, how valid some of theories I buy into will work, or prove martial arts are helpful to anyone in anyway.
I don't have any proof I could prevail if a knife or stick was used on me but feel that I could. It is just a belief that I have that cannot be tested. I might lose on paper on an forum as to why I could prevail in most situations with a knife or stick, bat ect but in the end I would still log out and have the same belief.
I can't prove that I have had any mental improvements from mediation or any health improvements in my adult lifetime from martial arts, but I believe that I have. I can't prove my mental enhancments, my confidence enhancements my physical wellness enhancements or my hand-to-hand enchancements but yet I whole heartly believe in all of them.
I bought-up the stories of my tae kwon do and aikido days because to me they have a parallel to religion inasfar as some of the members have absolute conviction in certain things that I dissagree with but that I can't prove but can qualitfy. The biggest example would be when the Aikido guys looked down on consussive techniqes. I would contend to them (and still believe that it is so) that concussive techniques enhance and complement aikido very well. There are people I could tell that today to and they would say that I really don't understand Aikido.
One of my favorite martial art philospers is Peyton Quinn. He talked about the same attitude that he found in Aikidoist and chalked it up to the Hawthorne effect stating in his book, "A Biker's Guide to Brawlroom Brawling." that many times in Aikido schools he found that they had "inbreed" (my word not his), some techniques so much because they fell into the paradign of aikido well and it is within the confines of their school, away from outside influences, that they had divorced themselves from the reality of the techinique(s) outside of the school. I am paraphrasing it..that is not a qoute. But the one or more disfuntional techniques (which are debates in and amoung themselves) don't make the whole art invalid to me. I found aikido as well as all my other training, very positive to me and would not take my aikido time back if I could. How different is that from religion?
The question after my endless rambling..is do you have to prove a theory for it to be valid or can you just qualify because proving it is not possible....When is the intangable philosphies of the world valid and when are they discarded as a means to live your life? How do you apply things that you do believe but cannot prove to religion?
Below are a list of refences to things I mentioned and didn't explain. I did not use them as references to articulate my post.
Peyton Quinns home website:
http://www.rmcat.com/index.html?fresh=1
Tae Kwon Do
http://www.barrel.net/
aikido
http://www.aikiweb.com/
http://www.aikidoonline.com/
I realized that over the last few months I have been banging on what I don't believe so much that I have not mentioned what I do believe so I decided to find something I did believe but that could not be proven and move from there. I noticed a lot of guys on here have some martial arts training and I wanted to talk about the parallels I have experience between marital arts and religion.
To give you my background I have been studying martial arts since the mid-80's and have taken about four years off in total time between my start and now. In that time I have studied tae kwon do, aikido, wing chun and jujutsu. My lifelong experiences in the martial arts have had a parallel to my experience in religion.
When I was a teenager still in high school I studied Tae Kwon Do. It was my intro in the martial arts and knowing nothing about the martial arts at all it was my reality of all that was martial at that time. I remember people coming in from other arts, kenpo, Judo and various schools of karate to practice at the tae kwon do school. The school was pretty old and established and many guys had been there for some time by the time I got there. A lot of them had studied Tae Kwon Do most of their lives and knew very little of any other martial art. When the kenpo, karate or judo guys that visit would bring up points about their martial arts many of my senior students would disagree with them and say things like
"one kick to the head and fight is finished"...Or "tae kwon do is a more modern approach to martial arts"
I went away to college and started training with guys in other arts first time and realized that why some of those guys were awsome at Tae Kwon Do many of the seniors from my old school's total martial arts knowledge and theory was very small by comparision. I had skills at the time that other guys didn't have as developed but because my focus was so very narrow--kick punch---I really had a small amount of knowledge. Still being a teenager I just accepted I had a lot to learn.
I spent some time training with this guy and that guy not really going to a school until the early 90' when I found an aikido school. I joined there feeling comfortable with that school because there were a number of amatuer kickboxers and tae kwon do people there.
When I joined Aikido I heard new things from seniors at neigboring schools. I got a small dose of taoism and buddism at that time and was introduced to the notion of a pacifist martial artist. I still worked on sharpening my concussive skills and it irked some of the seniors from neighboring schools who would say things like, "If your aikido was strong enough you wouldn't need to work so hard on kicking and punching." and "Aikido is a martial art that promotes peace, by practicing strikes you are go against what Aikido is."
I went along and ended-up in a jujutsu school which is very comprehensive with an emphasis on various aspects of martial skills but becasue it is so diverse, obvisouly it is difficult to focus on any particular one without negating the others for that time. Because it was so diverse there was little negative comments to other arts and to meathods of combat. Only theories (endless theories!), experiments and guided training by teachers and senior students.
I still study martial arts today and probably will for the rest of my life. I told you this story for two reasons. One I believe that today my hand-to-hand skills are viable, but it is impossible to prove that to anyone at anytime without throwing down....which I am not willing to do to prove a theory. And two that my experiences in martial arts
have been similar to my experiences in religion.
On the belief, I have had two violent encounters with dogs, one fist fight four fight break-ups and took away one club by force that was going to be used to hit me and most recently took away car keys from a drunk friend using a wrist lock. But really, realistically speaking I am not able on paper, to provide proof of my martial skills, how valid some of theories I buy into will work, or prove martial arts are helpful to anyone in anyway.
I don't have any proof I could prevail if a knife or stick was used on me but feel that I could. It is just a belief that I have that cannot be tested. I might lose on paper on an forum as to why I could prevail in most situations with a knife or stick, bat ect but in the end I would still log out and have the same belief.
I can't prove that I have had any mental improvements from mediation or any health improvements in my adult lifetime from martial arts, but I believe that I have. I can't prove my mental enhancments, my confidence enhancements my physical wellness enhancements or my hand-to-hand enchancements but yet I whole heartly believe in all of them.
I bought-up the stories of my tae kwon do and aikido days because to me they have a parallel to religion inasfar as some of the members have absolute conviction in certain things that I dissagree with but that I can't prove but can qualitfy. The biggest example would be when the Aikido guys looked down on consussive techniqes. I would contend to them (and still believe that it is so) that concussive techniques enhance and complement aikido very well. There are people I could tell that today to and they would say that I really don't understand Aikido.
One of my favorite martial art philospers is Peyton Quinn. He talked about the same attitude that he found in Aikidoist and chalked it up to the Hawthorne effect stating in his book, "A Biker's Guide to Brawlroom Brawling." that many times in Aikido schools he found that they had "inbreed" (my word not his), some techniques so much because they fell into the paradign of aikido well and it is within the confines of their school, away from outside influences, that they had divorced themselves from the reality of the techinique(s) outside of the school. I am paraphrasing it..that is not a qoute. But the one or more disfuntional techniques (which are debates in and amoung themselves) don't make the whole art invalid to me. I found aikido as well as all my other training, very positive to me and would not take my aikido time back if I could. How different is that from religion?
The question after my endless rambling..is do you have to prove a theory for it to be valid or can you just qualify because proving it is not possible....When is the intangable philosphies of the world valid and when are they discarded as a means to live your life? How do you apply things that you do believe but cannot prove to religion?
Below are a list of refences to things I mentioned and didn't explain. I did not use them as references to articulate my post.
Peyton Quinns home website:
http://www.rmcat.com/index.html?fresh=1
Tae Kwon Do
http://www.barrel.net/
aikido
http://www.aikiweb.com/
http://www.aikidoonline.com/