Is Self-Defense Spiritual?

[Kung Fu Wang]

My Tongbeiquan teacher here in China used to run an enforcer business.

My Chinese wrestling teacher was an assassin for Chinese national party spy leader Dai Li 戴笠 (against communist party). His mission was to hide near a national party's general. If my teacher could find any evidence that general had any communication with the communist part, my teacher would kill that general. My teacher's last mission was target to Long Yuan 龙云 (ruler in Yuana 云南王). He failed in that mission. But he escaped. All his life, he hated dog.

Long Yuan:

 

[Sammy Naur]

All his life, he hated dog

Wow, it's funny you said that. See what I posted in the other thread. Didn't know you were a mind-reader.

Man and dog. A very martial spiritual connection, one of the oldest in human history.

There's a great movie about this, Alpha. It's about an ancient hunter and his dog, and the ending is surprise I won't spoil, but outstanding.

 

[Same Trick]

What "something" are you referring to? I'd be happy to clarify.

The - “Old karate saying: If you break my skin, I break your muscle. You break my muscle, I break your bone. You break my bone, I break your organ”

 

[Same Trick]

My Chinese wrestling teacher was an assassin for Chinese national party spy leader Dai Li 戴笠 (against communist party). His mission was to hide near a national party's general. If my teacher could find any evidence that general had any communication with the communist part, my teacher would kill that general. My teacher's last mission was target to Long Yuan 龙云 (ruler in Yuana 云南王). He failed in that mission. But he escaped. All his life, he hated dog.

Long Yuan:

View attachment 32312

It would seem that dogs haven’t been particularly liked from the Middle East to the far east. Only for the last 20-25 years having pet dogs been a thing in China

 

[Haruhiko]

I don't see "do" as being spiritual (in the sense of spirit being something ethereal or mystical, some outside force or concept that one internalizes - my definition), but rather something a bit more concrete. Funakoshi wrote Karate-do, My Way of Life and that title I think best describes "do" - the way you walk the path of everyday life using the concepts and methodologies of karate. "Do" is dedication, commitment, respect, self-discipline and improvement and morality.

Funakoshi's book came out in 1923 (don't know when "do" was first used, but this made it popular), the time karate was being established into the Japanese school system. Karate started to change from pure self-defense (jutsu) to a system of self-development and behavioral model as befitting an educational venue molding boys and girls. This grew into the modern popular view of karate.

While karate-jutsu developed many of the virtues of "do," they were a natural by-product of the art, not a major focus of it as in karate-do.

One can insert/visualize spirituality into their karate practice, like anything else, if they wish, but it's not an inherent part of it.

It's the do/jutsu rabbit hole again!

The whole Do vs. Jutsu discussion only gets a lot of play outside Japan. It's something that Donn Draeger came up with. It was an interesting idea, but, frankly, he was wrong. There is no opposition between the two concepts. To have a way (Do 道） you must have skill (Jutsu 術） to build it from. In order for skills to be coherent, they must be organized in a way. 道 is founded on 術、while 道makes sense of 術。　　

Do vs Jutsu. Again.

Blog about Japanese martial arts, gendai and koryu budo, koryu bugei

budobum.blogspot.com

 

[Wing Woo Gar]

It might offend, this time I don’t care if I offend. I’m just going to say it, if you don’t like dogs, there is something wrong with you.