Buddhism and the Martial Arts
Life is chaos. How we deal with that chaos is the key to living life without having life merely throw us about. Buddhist thinking holds that “Life is suffering.” It doesn’t say, “Life is terrible” or “Life is unlivable.” It’s how we use martial arts to deal with the chaos, not so much with the combat, that makes life livable. It can even bring us happiness.
An examination of the philosophical side of Buddhism, as opposed to the religious side, has a lot to offer people, martial artists in particular. That’s because more than a few arts, styles such as China’s Shaolin kung fu, Japan’s Shorinji kempo and Korea’s bulmudo, are closely tied to the culture of and the mental processes taught in Buddhism. As such, a cursory study of Buddhism can give us insight directly into these specific arts and indirectly into the arts we practice.
Shi Yan Ming, master of Shaolin kung fu.
A familiar adage advises us to “Seek not to be like the men of old; instead, seek what they sought.” That’s what we must pursue if we want to
