Should martial arts practitioners meditate? Does meditation help improve martial arts skills?
Where you learn Asian martial arts, meditation training is considered important. Some people think it must be done.
But have you ever been properly trained in meditation? Was there anything better compared to meditation training at temples, meditation centers, and yoga schools?
The teacher who teaches meditation tells you to just close your eyes and sit down and say nothing. If just sitting and close your eyes, what is the difference between sleeping? Do students meditate when they sleep at school? (In Korea, students who sleep in class use the excuse that I am meditating.)
Why do martial artists have an obsession with meditation? Without doing it properly. Are you just following it because Japanese samurai have traditionally meditated?
You need to know why martial artists should meditate. In general, the effects of meditation are: First, like mindfulness meditation, to give relaxation to modern people who are tired of life. Second, To gain religious enlightment and insight into the world. Third, meditation training helps improve martial arts skills.
In this article, I’m going to discuss which meditation methods help martial artists.
Wrestling and boxing can also be classified as martial arts. There are 50 Eskimo words for ‘snow’. Likewise, in East Asia there are several words to classify martial arts. Martial art is simply a English word that refers to fighting skills. Martial arts in East Asia add mental training to fighting skills. There is no way to translate into another culture’s language. In East Asia, boxing and wrestling are classified as fighting skill and are not considered martial arts. It is not about dividing or judging by any superiority.
People in East Asia know that martial arts and fighting skill are different. It’s a different sport like soccer and baseball. Martial arts in East Asia are a combination of fighting skills and meditation. It is for practical purposes to practice martial arts and meditation together. This is because meditation training helps to improve martial arts skills.
If a martial artist meditates, it should help improve martial arts skills. There are many kinds of meditation.
- Loving-kindness meditation
- Body scan or progressive relaxation
- Mindfulness meditation
- Breath awareness meditation
- Kundalini yoga
- Zen meditation
- Transcendental Meditation
If you are a martial artist, what meditation method to choose? There is a right answer to this question. It’s no.6, Zen meditation
There is no superiority in meditation. Zen is not the best in meditation. Because it was a meditation that people in east asia could easily choose at that time.
Buddhist temples are very common in East Asia, and monks are always doing Zen. Buddhist monks should be regarded as athletes in meditation. The goal of Zen is religious enlightenment, and Buddhist monks are sports players who rush towards it.
What mechanisms of Zen Buddhism have helped martial artists improve their martial arts skills? If we find this mechanism, we can change it in a modern way and apply it to other sports.
Zen Buddhism does not seek to fall into a trance or relax. Zen Buddhism seeks to gain wisdom through zen meditation, which does not mean to be wise in a general sense. The wisdom of Zen Buddhism is to gain a new perspective on the world. When a person wearing sunglasses removes it, the colors of the world will look different.
Zen Buddhism teaches that when the clouds are gone, the moon comes out. It is to say that without wisdom, like clouds are covering the moon, we cannot know the nature of the world. Does understanding the nature of the world with wisdom help you improve your martial arts skills?
Yes. Traditionally, many martial artists have been helped by zen meditation. If Zen is not just sitting, how should meditation be trained? Zen is not as calm and comfortable, but as intense as MMA. Specific ways to improve your martial arts skills through meditation will be covered in the next article.
