Okay Cobra Kai
If we took away the philosophical or spiritual roots of a combat art... Wouldn't it actually end up being BETTER?
- Thread starter Zombocalypse
- Start date
Agreed.
hoshin1600
Senior Master
I couldn't get through the entire thread. My impatience got the best of me. I had to quote this and respond.
Your philosophy and evolutionary whatever is severely lacking.
So yeah I'm calling you out on your philosopher ethos.
Go back and rethink your hypothesis because you clearly haven't done your homework and your own personal bias is directing your line of thought.
To be honest. The spiritual stuff is what helps people from losing their minds after going through something horrible or terrifying. I've seen a few people try to handle things without a spiritual focus and they told me how difficult it was. For many, things don't become manageable until they find a spiritual root to lean on. Unfortunately not all spiritual roots are of quality. There are some that are crazy and do more harm than good.
Last edited:
I would be willing to bet that BJJ isn't void of spiritual roots. I'm pretty sure people bring that to class with them and it shapes the type of practioner they become.
For me, I didn't learn or obtain my spirituality through Kung fu but it does shape my kung fu.
I think you are confusing spiritualism with religion. These are two separate things.
Jared Traveler
2nd Black Belt
Meaning in adversity is extremely important, and spirituality is also a critical component to life. I just don't find this in martial arts practice. I do certainly think it's important in martial arts application.
mograph
Master of Arts
Okay, thanks. Just so long as nobody here believes that "survival of the fittest" is about the toughest dude's surviving. It actually refers to the survival (to the point of being able to reproduce) of those individuals who are best fitted to the environment in which they live.
Learning to control fire and working in teams might have been our evolutionary advantages: not being the toughest animals in the region. The skill with fire allowed us to survive in colder environments: it allowed us to be better fitted to those environments.
Regarding Evolutionary Psychology, you might find this article interesting:
Learning to control fire and working in teams might have been our evolutionary advantages: not being the toughest animals in the region. The skill with fire allowed us to survive in colder environments: it allowed us to be better fitted to those environments.
Regarding Evolutionary Psychology, you might find this article interesting:
Evolutionary Psychology (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy)
plato.stanford.edu
When people said that they train MA for
- cultural study,
- self-cultivation,
- inner peace,
- new world order,
- save the universe.
- ...
I truly don't know what they are talking about.
To me MA is as simple as:
- fist meet face.
- head meet ground.
- cultural study,
- self-cultivation,
- inner peace,
- new world order,
- save the universe.
- ...
I truly don't know what they are talking about.
To me MA is as simple as:
- fist meet face.
- head meet ground.
There's more to it. Just like your example of the woman on the bus who was raped and no one helped.
When you learn to destroy, how will you use that ability? Will power corrupt you? Do you use your skills to help others? Will you teach others how to destroy? I don't mind teaching martial arts but I won't just teach anyone. Even soldiers have a moral code.
mograph
Master of Arts
… if we’re willing to learn, of course.
Jared Traveler
2nd Black Belt
Of course if you want to know how to be a great criminal don't ask an ex-con, he obviously got caught.
The vast majority of criminals are not smart or particularly great at commiting crimes. So often as a cop on a call someone would "inform" me that they had been to prison.
Like I was supposed to be impressed by that. I would always respond, "Why would you brag about that?" 
They would then realized how dumb that sounds. 
O'Malley
2nd Black Belt
Quite the contrary, claiming that aikido was designed from the outset to be ineffective makes for a convenient excuse for one's own technical flaws. It's actually a common rationalisation : "it doesn't work because it's the will of the old wise founder".
But however you look at them, facts are facts. Morihei Ueshiba was never a pacifist (the idea is so far from the truth that his son laughed to tears when he heard that in an interview) and never adapted neither his rhetoric nor his techniques to pacifist ideals (and this can be verified by first-hand testimonies, pictures and technical manuals from different periods). The technical changes were made by later generations (this has also been confirmed by testimonies, including by the current head of the Aikikai).
That's basic stuff and I did learn it but what is your point?
It's my understanding (vaguely) that much of the pacifism seen in current philosophy was introduced by his son when he took over. Does that have some truth to it?
I have read that his approach became more philosophical after conversion to Omoto, but I don't know if I've ever read that from a first-hand source or scholar.
It will be nice that all MA schools teach this to their students.
O'Malley
2nd Black Belt
Yeah him and Koichi Tohei. Part of the reason was to find a niche for aikido ("the peaceful martial art") and to make it more accessible for mass training.
IIRC when he met Deguchi Onisaburo in 1919, he'd been training in Daito Ryu for four years and he really started teaching in the 20s-30s.
Jared Traveler
2nd Black Belt
Part of my job is to keep track of kidnapping incidents, so I came across this article today. Apparently this gym has a reputation for training criminals:
www.dailymail.co.uk
Shock new details emerge about why celebrity chauffeur was gunned down
Taha Sabbagh, 40, was shot at least six times on Thursday outside the Elite Fight Force gym in Sefton before being found slumped over the console of his black Mercedes SUV.
auntlisa1103
Orange Belt
Let me share an illustrative story from the dojang where I study.
There had been a sewer backup into the locker rooms. The cleanup was finished but the lockers in the men’s locker room were not reinstalled onto the walls yet, they were freestanding toward the middle of the room. It was time for mid-class break, and GM asked that the men/boys leave the lockers alone during break.
We get back from break and GM shouts, “Line up! Bali bali!” He is pacing the front of the room, fuming. Before we even get lined up, he starts talking. “The last thing I said before break was ‘leave the lockers aline’. So the first thing YOU ALL DO, is use them like a jungle gym!!” The only adult male brown belt in the room answers “No sir!” GM shoots him The Look and says “Uh….YES SIR!!” He looks directly at 6 or 7 brown belts, all brothers, all between 8 and 15, and says, “This is a Martial Art. Do you know what that means? The word ‘martial’ means military. This is MILITARY SELF DEFENSE. Military personnel use these techniques in life or death situations. That means, you could seriously hurt or even kill someone with these techniques some day. If I can’t trust you with simple instructions like ‘leave the lockers alone’, HOW can you expect me to trust you with a flying round to somebody’s HEAD?! You are BROWN BELTS now. You have GOT to start USING your HEADS!”
This is why we line up rank and file in class. This is why we answer yes sir/no ma’am. This is why we drill the five tenets and the student oath. This is not limited to teaching people to destroy each other. It’s about helping build good humans.
There had been a sewer backup into the locker rooms. The cleanup was finished but the lockers in the men’s locker room were not reinstalled onto the walls yet, they were freestanding toward the middle of the room. It was time for mid-class break, and GM asked that the men/boys leave the lockers alone during break.
We get back from break and GM shouts, “Line up! Bali bali!” He is pacing the front of the room, fuming. Before we even get lined up, he starts talking. “The last thing I said before break was ‘leave the lockers aline’. So the first thing YOU ALL DO, is use them like a jungle gym!!” The only adult male brown belt in the room answers “No sir!” GM shoots him The Look and says “Uh….YES SIR!!” He looks directly at 6 or 7 brown belts, all brothers, all between 8 and 15, and says, “This is a Martial Art. Do you know what that means? The word ‘martial’ means military. This is MILITARY SELF DEFENSE. Military personnel use these techniques in life or death situations. That means, you could seriously hurt or even kill someone with these techniques some day. If I can’t trust you with simple instructions like ‘leave the lockers alone’, HOW can you expect me to trust you with a flying round to somebody’s HEAD?! You are BROWN BELTS now. You have GOT to start USING your HEADS!”
This is why we line up rank and file in class. This is why we answer yes sir/no ma’am. This is why we drill the five tenets and the student oath. This is not limited to teaching people to destroy each other. It’s about helping build good humans.
drop bear
Sr. Grandmaster
That is or was James te hunas gym I think. Pretty sure we fought a few of those guys.Part of my job is to keep track of kidnapping incidents, so I came across this article today. Apparently this gym has a reputation for training criminals:
Shock new details emerge about why celebrity chauffeur was gunned down
Taha Sabbagh, 40, was shot at least six times on Thursday outside the Elite Fight Force gym in Sefton before being found slumped over the console of his black Mercedes SUV.
Last edited:
Similar threads
