Zen Sports: Martial Arts

[Guest]

This is the 8 Brocades and 5 Animals that I practice. It is a bit different than what I do, but close enough. This is not my teacher in the videos, but somewhat close to what we do. I do these everyday with Tai Chi practice.

8 Brocades with English

5 Animals in Chinese. The sequence is:

Tiger
Deer
Bear
Monkey
Crane

Gassho,
Daiman
ST/LAH

[Washin]

Hello Daiman,

Thank you for sharing your story. I find it inspiring. Your practice experience and background are impressive.
Also, thank you for sharing the Master Dae Bong's video. Interesting technique

Gassho
Washin
st/lah

Thank you Washin. You inspire me also in many ways. It is great to have a Dharma brother who also cherishes the practice of Taiji and QiGong. The Wudang form is a very beautiful form.

Gassho,
Daiman

[Hokuu]

I think I missed it somewhere along the road but when exactly do I get such a Buddha physique? Should I zazen more?
IMG_6268.jpg


Gassho
Paul
Sat today & Lent a hand

[Jundo]

I think I missed it somewhere along the road but when exactly do I get such a Buddha physique? Should I zazen more?
IMG_6268.jpg


Gassho
Paul
Sat today & Lent a hand

I have Buddha physique ... Buddha is like Elvis, he went through many changes ...

. large-stone-cast-laughing-fat-buddha-ornament-bu12-giant-happy-buddha__57213.1710750021.jpg

.

Gassho, J
stlah

[Junsho]

When I was a kid, I receive a diagnose that I suffered with migraine. My doctor said that I needed to practice sports with high intensity, to avoid crisis (good advice to people that suffer with migraine). Plus, my health was very fragile and I constantly got sick. Also to make the things worst, in the school I started to suffer with bulling and I constantly arrived at home with wounds caused by the aggressions.

However, my father (a judoka himself) teach me to fight back and never give up. Thus, with 10 years old I started to train martial arts and since then, I did not stopped to train. During these years, the martial arts gave me self-discipline, confidence and I got stronger (in a very karate kid style the boys stopped to bully me, but this is another story).

During the years, I trained several different martial arts, specially Karate Kyokushin (that result in many injuries) and now, to avoid the constant injuries I became a Judoka. (Once, I started late, I am still a very bad one ). I also practice Iaido regularly, to improve my focus and coordination.

Once these martial arts requires an extreme physical condition, in advance, I regularly need to complement the training with another activities like running, cycling and calisthenics. Today, after so many years of experience in martial arts , the conclusion that I reached and I strong believe is that taking the correct mindset, the martial arts can help the practitioner with the necessary self-discipline required by our practice and also improve the overall quality of life.

Gassho
SatLah

[Green Ben]

My first introduction to the concept of Zen was in a martial arts context, but kinda strange one.
It was in the context of SCA armored combat, where participants in Medieval armor fight with rattan swords. My knight was trying to describe a head space he attained where he wasn't thinking about what he was doing, his training and muscle memory just took over. He called it a Zen-like state, I must have been 14 or 15 at the time, but it stuck with me.

gassho

ben

sat lah

[MarkusF]

Hi all,

there is an essay in the book of Graf Dürkheim "Wunderbare Katze" (only in German available) of Master Takuan proklaims the inner attitude a Swordfighter should have. Very very interesting. This could be available in English and describes the overlapping of both themes. Perhaps KI can solve the translation?!

Gasho
Markus
5th Dan Musojikiden Eishinryu Iaido
Mu Dan Kendo XD