Chris Parker
Grandmaster
See the latest issue of Black Belt magazine for an excellent article on the benefits of meditation in the martial arts. It contains a lot of support for my assertions that sitting can greatly benefit your movements, kata, and martial mind. Or should I say, no-mind.
Have a great week.
-James
Hi James,
I'm going to go back to this, if you don't mind. The new issue is out here now, and I was giving it a quick look-over during my lunch break today, however I didn't see any article that matches this description. The closest was an interview with an ex-Marine who has trained in Shaolin Kung Fu, BJJ, and MMA, which mentioned zazen in one brief answer to a question, but that was not what I considered any support of your contention here.
Basically he was asked about the "ancient warriors", and said that samurai didn't suffer from post-traumatic stress due to things like zazen, calligraphy, haiku, and flower-arranging. He failed to realise that that was not accurate (in a number of ways), and also got his historical details wrong in terms of how long the samurai fought across Japan (he gives "300 years", when it was closer to 600. He probably mis-used the figure from the length of the time of peace brought in by the Tokugawa Shogunate....).
What was the title of the article you are refering to, so I can have a closer look for it next time I'm near a newsagent?