The Full spirituality of martial arts

[P Marsh]

I agree with your general point but saying that all of them are solely for killing/maiming is not quite right. For example judo and the other "do" martial arts (someone please correct me if Im wrong about this) such as aikido and kendo are meant primarily as a means towards self improvement. Learning to kick ass is the means by which one goes about that but it's not necessarily the end goal.

Yeah, hyperbole to make the point. Any martial art is sole purpose is physical confrontation of some kind. If you don't have it, you really can't call anything a martial art and pacifism (spiritualism tends to be ripe with it) really doesn't mesh well with supposedly learning how to fight.

No one has ever really designed a martial art simply for religious worship or ceremony, its just not practical.

[Lysol]

Martial Arts came first the over-indulgence of spirituality came later.

[/discussion]

Yes, martial arts can teach you not to fight and how to be a better lover and yada yada yada, but if those are your primary concerns, you can buy Gandhi's The Story of My Experiments With Truth and read it front to back. It'll take you far less time and cost you far less money.

Oh yeah, and it'll also be a lot more relevant than learning how to throw a jab.

[Ninnong]

Technically, the spirituality of martial arts is basically use what you learn for self-defense not aggression. It's not that complicated. No matter what you're told that's as far as it goes. And if a school tries to throw some tradition into it than it's not spirituality. It's just keeping a tradition alive. Does a replicated battle from the Civil War done once a year in the south (not sure if it's once a year but whatever the point is people do this crap) do any good for anyone? "It teaches us about history and our ancestors". So do the traditions kept alive in some martial arts. Of course, this didn't happen for me. The most tradition my old Tkd dojo threw in was a green tea ceremony when we got our black belts. My experiences don't reflect everyones and no one on this thread is really right or wrong. Live with it.