Can you separate buddhism form Martial Art or can't you?

[Oahngoji]

How does Buddhism relate to Martial Arts? The breathing techiques? The philosophy?

[y2_sub]

You can separate budahism from MA training , however ,you cannot seperate the spiritual values

[Monkeymagic]

Over the centuries Buddhism and chinese martial arts have been intermingeled and crossed paths. Maybe many buddhist monks practiced martial arts many years ago and developed various chinese arts, such as varieties of kung fu.

Martial arts is a general term which can relate to a huge variety. As you can see on this forum there are many different martial arts sections. not all have roots of connections with Buddhism. The Japanese martial arts probably have more of a connection with war. The japanese adopted forms of buddhism into their culture after they had developed martial arts of their own and adopted others.

Your question is a good one and one which you should look into more yourself.

[Soo Min]

Seperating strictly the religion of buddhism out of martial arts? Buddhism as a religion is just a religion. It has a set of customs, beliefs, and rituals. These can be eliminated from martial arts practices.

For practical reasons, however, I don't think much of the spirituality should be seperated from martial arts. Spirituality (meaning the virtues, the philosophy, ki movement) can greatly enhance one's performance.

But then again, it really comes down to how much of your martial art you consider to be a lifestyle and how much is just a sport.

[alsey]

i think the two are separable, but i also think they complement eachother very well.

buddhism deals with life and death. martial arts deal with life and death in a short specific space of time, a fight. this was more obvious when martial arts involved killing someone on a battlefield for instance. to understand life and death, to be free of the fear of death to go and do what you must are goals of buddhism and they help greatly in martial arts training.

the other thing is that buddhism helps you to empty your mind. in simple terms this frees you of distraction so you can perform your art as well as possible.

the 'enlightened' warrior is able to practice his art to the limit of his physical ability. someone with a less disciplined mind will be restricted by their mind. this doesn't just apply to martial arts, it applies to everything.

to the buddhist, meditation improves everything in their life. if a buddhist practices martial arts, then his meditation will improve his martial arts. if he practices cooking, then his meditation will improve his cooking.

this is why the two are so interwined. for a samurai, for example, to abandon buddhism would be like making a concious effort to get worse at everything in his life, including his bujitsu.

[bushido_man96]

Sure. I am not a buddhist, and I study MA.

[Anbu Alex]

You can separate budahism from MA training , however ,you cannot seperate the spiritual values

i totally agree with that fully the thing is martial arts were not always with buddhism it just so happens that the two coincide with each other and compliment each other very well other martial arts sometimes blend with other religions, some CMA go well with Taoism, Some Japanese with shinto i dont think its necesarry but on a fundemental it's about violence but on a higher level its about not fighting cause there is no reason to so like y2_sub said i think the spiritual and mental values are the same

[bushido_man96]

Here ya go. "Martial" means "war," right? Now, not every culture that has gone to war over the ages, let alone been successful in war, has been a buddhist culture, right? So there ya go....easy answer.

[Tef]

Actually, i think that MA and buddhism completment each other. For example, you don't need any things other than another person in order to learn martial arts. And most MA weapons are made from natural things. personally, MA has made me more interested in Buddhism because of the things i've learned at dojo. I'm currently looking for a temple in my city.

[parkerlineage]

There is absolutely no spiritualism in my art whatsoever, not even chi/ki/qi, which is why my parents chose it for me above others.