How deep is your style?

[Sasori_Te]

I think if you study an internal art then meditation would be more crucial. Not that external arts don't have internal aspects, but it's not nearly as important to develop internal "energy" especially early in the training.

[WapCaplet]

We don't mediate at all. We used to do the dojo kun at the end of each class that included a few moments (10-15 seconds) of quiet reflection on the class, but we haven't done that in over a year now. Occasionally the instructor will discuss mediation as a way to focus the mind and in turn result in better karate, but it's not emphasized.

 

I think our karate union tries to give the students the information, or at least let them know that that kind of information is out there and that it MAY benefit their karate training, but they leave it up to us to decide.

 

Wap

[markusan]

We do a short five minute meditation session at the end of class after the physical warm down. I take the students through a quick PMR (progressive muscle relaxation) exercise and a mindful breathing exercise.

 

I use the process to teach students to relax, and to practice mindfullness, and also incorporate breathing exercises. No change of mind state, there's not enough time. It also means that the younger kids are less hyped up when they head home. It's just like a bit of quiet time.

 

I think that, in the same way that you practice a physical technique like punching, you can practice a mental technique. It's not "deep". It is practical. I meditate for an hour or so a day privately and attend sesshin when I can. Again it's not deep or spiritual. It's just training, like at the dojang. And I find it makes life a lot easier.

[CloudDragon]

markusan, could you describe how it makes life easier? Does it work as a type of stress relief?

[Rotten Head Fok]

When I was in a school, meditation was offered to advanced students of 2yrs or more (I-chuan chi gong). TCC as I have learned can either be taught by meditation first before any movement or stances are learned; or movements and forms are at the least memorized then meditation is studied. Personally I have nothing but good things to say about meditation and what it brings to both internal and external arts. I can testify to the strength one derives from daily meditation and the ability to focus better ( in the sense of being able to let go and live in the moment). I also try, because I train alone, to make my training a spiritual experience by studying and queitly going over in my mind before I train CLF's fundamentals, theories, Chan Hueng's 10 principles. I feel that the more you bring, add, or use in your own personal endeavor to master an art becomes that much more enlighting to a relashionship that we(ourselfs) know what has been given mentally, physically, and spiritually (chi, ki, prana, etc.). Basically since I do enjoy the martial arts, I try to add as many ingredients as possible without spoiling the soup. How ever I know that Buddism is a part of my past masters life's , I am leary about getting to envolved because of the conflicts with other philosophies I have read.

[markusan]

That's a tough question Cloud Dragon. For me it certainly acts as a stress reliever. It works on many levels. For example if you have a particular reaction to a situation, like anger, fear etc. you use the meditation to explore that emotion, find out where it comes from and why(which is usually some trauma or other experience in your past). It's often hiding somewhere in some corner of your mind and just needs a bit of light thrown on it to make it surface. Recognising it and sitting quietely with it seems to weaken its hold on you and eventually it disappears altogether. By doing this quite systematically over time I believe you start to think more clearly, less affected by emotional triggers.

 

But that's just one aspect, and one type of meditation. Another I use regularly is insight meditation, or vippashna. With this you merely sit quietly, and when you drop into the meditative state you pose yourself a question that you want answered and explore it. The answer doesn't always come straight away, but it almost always comes. You know how sometimes you have a problem and the answer springs into your head when you least expect it, like when you're out walking or running. Well this is just a more systematic and deliberate way of doing that.

 

And most important, in the deeper meditative states you experience quite a rare feeling of peace, and the more you practice the easier it is to get there, and to maintain that feeling in everyday life.

 

It makes you realise that a lot of the thoughts that rise in your mind every second of the day are fairly baseless, so you tend to take yourself less seriously.

[CloudDragon]

Thanks markusan, sounds like it is a great stress relief and way to focus for you.

[CapitalKarate]

we don't meditate. our dojo is christian run and the spirituality of the stuff is taken out, we bow after going into attention stance and such and right before/after class and to the sensei after we talk to him, but we don't meditate. no offense to you guys but we think it seems kind of ridiculous and not worth the time. geeze, you'd think with all the "we"'s you'd think i were schizophrenic...am i? naw, course not. ok, good

[CloudDragon]

I was in a school that was christian run and they had "prayer" at the end of class. It was cool though because it was about 10 sec of silence and you could pray or take time to collect your thoughts and review the class real fast.

[Kyle-san]

no offense to you guys but we think it seems kind of ridiculous and not worth the time.

 

Now, without this seeming like I've taken offense I'll be asking a question or two. How do you know it isn't worth the time if you've never tried it properly? Can you say with 100% certainty that there are no benefits?