Incompatitbility of Budo and Christianity?

[hobbitbob]

I came across this question on another thread, where a poster said, in essence: "You cannot practice a Do and still be a Christian."

 

I am curious how many others on this forum have heard such statements,and how they address them.

 

Certainly much of this view comes from a misunderstanding of the concept of Do,and and its place in the practice of martial arts.

 

Taking as a starting point the concept of Do as applied to Budo, the purpose of practice becomes to perfect the self,and banish illusory aspects of the personality. If one were to accomplish this, one would become someone who eschewed violent conflict.

 

This has been misunderstood to become:

 

- To do martial arts you have to worship the Buddha (even Buddhists don't "worship" Buddha.).

 

-Bowing to your instructor/each other implies that you are seeting them up as gods.

 

-People who do Shotokan worship Funakoshi, people who do Aikido worship Ueshiba,etc...

 

-Because the Asian MA come from Asia (hmm...) and Asian countries are Buddhist, the martial arts are all based in black magic.

 

I am curious how self improvement is antithetical to "Christianity." Unless you are John Ashcroft, the message of Christianity is love and peace, both of which are very compatible with the concept of Do.

 

[Martial_Artist]

For me the martial arts is a tool. I have religion. Martial arts do not supplement for my religion, nor do they compensate or fill any religious needs. It is a tool that I merely use to support and satisfy another need: self-preservation.

 

Bowing is a sign of respect from a different culture, not a form worship--as my eyes see it.

 

So, for me, the martial arts are not a religion and have nothing to do with my practice of religion.

 

MA

[karate_woman]

I've never viewed martial arts as a form of religion. Sure there are rituals and traditions that are followed in a lot of schools, but they aren't meant to be religious. As for the Buddha, not once has the Buddha been mentioned in our dojo, nor have I been in attendance at another dojo when the Buddha was mentioned. We bow out of respect to our teachers, past and present, and for respect to each other; anyone who has asked has been told the same - it has no religious undertones.

 

No-one has had an issue with bowing in procedures in our dojo other than the odd question here and there. Having said that, I attended school with children whose religious beliefs made it unacceptable to stand for the playing of the National Anthem - they were given permission to sit in the hall outside the classroom. My point is that things don't have to be overtly religious for someone to object to participation in it based on religious grounds.

[daeinwolf]

It depends on how dogmatic one is. Personally, my religious beliefs do not conflict with my practices. In fact my beliefs are structured around my religious beliefs. But even when I was a Christian, my beliefs did interfere. As I said, it depends on how dogmatic the individual is.

 

Sastimos---Joshua

[fireka]

i belive the statment is easily reveresed. in fact, i persoanly belive i have grown as a christian through my martial arts training and study of the budo. Both factions require one to seek self perfection.

[JerryLove]

To many Christians, the problem lies in meditation and chi work. One common Christian belief is that God si soverign. As such, we have no power of our own, and any power we get is either from God, or Satan (who, irojically, also has no power).

 

Since meditation smacks in the contemporary mind of spiritulism, which is expressly forbidden as evil in the Bible (there's an OT requirement to kill mediums and spiritualists on sight), it's viewed as "of-Satan" and, therefore, evil.

[SaiFightsMS]

On the other hand there is a long history of mystic tradition in Judeo-Christian history. And there are many Christians who meditate on a regular basis and consider meditation to be a form of prayer.

[fireka]

i belive that ki is a power intrusted to us by god that after hundreds of years of study we have really only begun to tap into. but like all of mans skills, it can be used for both good and evil. the bible also says, we have a choice, we are slaves to know diety, god or devil. God gave us the power to chosse are path, as he gave us the power of ki. i do not summon the dead when i meditate or anything else, i belive, that is outside our normal prowess, i think that the human race as a whole, however, has greatly under estimated what god has forged for us to be able to acomplish.

[thrdeye15]

well im not realy Christian but i still belive in god and stuff but i think that ki/chi and meditation are NOT a religion. it may be something to do to get your mind clear when you are stressed and/or thinking way to much.

[ninjanurse]

I have already posted my opinion in the thread refered to so it will suffice to say that I agree with HobbittBob completely on this one! Sai also brings up a good point about Judeo-Christian history being FULL of mystical traditions. Perhaps a journey to the roots of the "Christian" faith is in store for those who question the conflicts of religion with "do".