Prayer in the School

[White Warlock]

I would tend to agree with you ramy. Using martial arts as a means to sell your religion is no more honest than using religion to sell your martial arts.

 

The thing here is, dedicated practitioners view their martial arts as a way of life. Same can be said of a devoutly religious person. His religion becomes a way of life.

 

Because of this, people sometimes find a conflict. What 'path' should they follow? Each must stand on their own, but finding a way to bring both your 'ways of living' into a state of harmony... is sometimes a tricky task, especially if there is an underlying 'alternative' belief system associated with the martial art system you study. And that's another factor. Many traditional martial art systems already do serve as vehicles to express a belief system (pa-kua and aikido being two obvious examples).

 

Tough call, and something i suppose i should chat more about here, when i'm in the mood for heavy and emotional debate. At the moment, i'm not.

[Gloi]

If any school I trained at tried to bring prayers/religion into the martial arts class, apart from the zen type stuff that is actually connected to the traditions of the art I would be out of there like a flash.

[MichiganTKD]

I never understood the need to have "Christian" Martial Arts schools or organizations. Martial arts are not religion, and religion should not be mixed with martial arts. Granted, Oriental martial arts developed out of a Buddhist-Taoist-Confucian culture, but the moral principles espoused in MA training can be applicable to many religions. If you want to be religion, go to church.