I have a question and please feel free to be brutally honest if necessary.
In your opinion can someone be serious about Yoga and serious about Martial Arts at the same time?
This could be my Christian background talking (serve only one master), but I tend to think that, in being serious about both, you need to find a way to think about it where one supports another. For instance, if you do martial arts because this gives you a different mode of movement and therefore a different opportunity for self study or a different approach to meditation, then you might be supplementing your yoga with your martial arts. Conversely, if you do yoga because you want to bring healing movement and clarity of intent to your life as a martial artist, then yoga might take ‘second fiddle’.
They’re just both so big, and this is my way of having two philosophically big things in one life and being serious about both.
Or to sum up, anything you are serious about needs to point to the “one thing” that your one life expresses. This one thing may or may not fit into a predefined category.
Depends on your definition of and purpose for each.
[QUOTE=Techne;19493]This could be my Christian background talking (serve only one master), but I tend to think that, in being serious about both, you need to find a way to think about it where one supports another. For instance, if you do martial arts because this gives you a different mode of movement and therefore a different opportunity for self study or a different approach to meditation, then you might be supplementing your yoga with your martial arts. Conversely, if you do yoga because you want to bring healing movement and clarity of intent to your life as a martial artist, then yoga might take ‘second fiddle’.
They’re just both so big, and this is my way of having two philosophically big things in one life and being serious about both.
Or to sum up, anything you are serious about needs to point to the “one thing” that your one life expresses. This one thing may or may not fit into a predefined category.[/QUOTE]
Technically all martial arts give you different mode of movement and a different opportunity for self study but not all give you a different approach to meditation. However what I train is under the heading of Traditional Internal Chinese Martial Arts and that has a lot of Qigong with is a type of meditation. But ultimately you are training to fight if necessary. However my view of traditional martial arts as opposed to sport is that you are training for something that you hope never happens. In other words you have no plans to go out and start a fight or even get in one, as a matter of fact if at all possible run away to avoid a fight.
[QUOTE=InnerAthlete;19497]Depends on your definition of and purpose for each.[/QUOTE]
Would you mind explaining that a bit more.
My limited background in Yoga has a rudimentary definition of Yoga that is likely not exactly right and I am working at trying to figure out what that is exactly.
My definition of Marital Arts is far more developed but then I have had over 30years to develop that and only about a month to work on what Yoga is, that is beyond what I thought it was when I was doing basic power Yoga.
I guess I am thinking that if I come across a Filipino Escrima school (Stick and knife fighting) ,that I did not know was there and if I am seriously trying to follow Yoga I shold not be thinking ?Wow that?s cool?.
have you found Arjuna’s story yet? (and, check for the long version in a private message.)
For what it’s worth, I’ve often thought that self-defense is an aspect of ahimsa.
[QUOTE=Techne;19502]have you found Arjuna’s story yet? (and, check for the long version in a private message.)[/QUOTE]
Thank You and no I have not found Arjuna’s story yet but I will look for it.
[QUOTE=Asuri;19507]For what it’s worth, I’ve often thought that self-defense is an aspect of ahimsa.[/QUOTE]
OK and now I have to look up ahimsa too.
Thanks
well if you look to the bhagvad gita, the answer would be yes. You could always look into your heart and find your belief. What is your motivation behind it?
[QUOTE=SCMT;19489]I have a question and please feel free to be brutally honest if necessary.
In your opinion can someone be serious about Yoga and serious about Martial Arts at the same time?[/QUOTE]
I will have a “counterquestion” : have you watched the movie serial Kung Fu with David Carradine ?
In the movie he was a martial art master, but with a deep spirituality, Buddhist type. Was his spirituality so different from yoga ? He knew even how to dematerialize and materialize back himself…in the movie.
[QUOTE=SCMT;19500]Would you mind explaining that a bit more.
My limited background in Yoga has a rudimentary definition of Yoga that is likely not exactly right and I am working at trying to figure out what that is exactly.
My definition of Marital Arts is far more developed but then I have had over 30years to develop that and only about a month to work on what Yoga is, that is beyond what I thought it was when I was doing basic power Yoga.
I guess I am thinking that if I come across a Filipino Escrima school (Stick and knife fighting) ,that I did not know was there and if I am seriously trying to follow Yoga I shold not be thinking “Wow that’s cool”.[/QUOTE]
Of course.
You ask if they can be done by a person at the same time.
If yoga (to you) is a method of using the physical body to contract muscles while lengthening them then you have both a definition and a purpose in the same principle (for you). Does that fit in with whipping Escrima Sticks around? Quite possibly; as either a complement or a contrast.
If on another hand you view Yoga as a practice used to bring the vital force up from the root of the spine, from the nature of the animal, into the heart center for the mindful (rather than accidental) evolution of human beings and their consciousness, then perhaps another discipline who’s essence is to cultivate or stoke a force in that lower nature AND perhaps wield it for fighting or defense…may not mix so well.
But that would be something you would have to determine for you inside of you as in a yogic perception it cannot be one answer for all. Yoga mandates discernment. Discernment is determining what is right for you. Yoga does not have a place for judgement and that is a determining about what is right for someone other than you.
Historically, wasn’t it Bodhidharma that brought yoga to China where it evolved into various forms, and martial arts derived much of their body mechanics and philosophy from it ? In Chinese medicine, the Deer exercise is pretty close to aswini mudra. There are other examples of similarity but the main question is whether you have to follow one path and not the other to get to the place, oneness, they both espouse ; and they do both espouse oneness. Aikido makes much of ‘blending’ with your opponent. Bruce Lee talked about the moment of striking being part of something larger. I saw the judoka, Gracie, in the most recent " Hulk" movie showing Bruce Banner, Uddiyana Bandha and Nauli . There is just one truth with an infinite amount of perceptive aspects. If everyone followed one path that never changed that would imply a static universe , which it isn’t. Like Innerathlete said, follow your own path, take what you know is true and if it is true, it should be able to coexist as one with the other. They have a martial art in India, though I can’t remember much about it, I’m sure it follows principles that are close to asana. A perfected body has perfected reactions etc. If it ever gets to a point where one gets in the way of the other - you’ll know which one calls you louder. Best Wishes.
Namaste SCMT,
I have a very dear and old friend who is now a 6 dan jujitsu sensei, he is dedicated to his art and the knowledge, wisdom, insight and sensitivity he has is something many yogis can only wish for.
He is for me a yogi in every sense of the word (and I know there will be gasps and doubts from some members here on the Forum) except that he doesn’t practice physical asanas. His physical asanas is his weekly dedication to his art and the practice of it. He knows yoga philosophy, he follows the eight limbs of yoga (except asana) to the tee, he go to ashram and satsang with me on a regular basis, he is an initiated kriya yogi as well as an initiated trantra yogi (and here I refer not to sexual tantra, but the white magic part of tantra), so from my pov, yes you can serve two masters. Like he told me once, yoga has given a new dimension to his jujitsu practice.
Hope this helps.
[QUOTE=Pandara;19521] He knows yoga philosophy, he follows the eight limbs of yoga (except asana) to the tee.[/QUOTE]
I am curious - any reason for this?
Hi Flex,
Curious about which part, the philospohy, the eight limbs or the not doing asana? Or all three?
To answer in short, he doesn’t do the asana as he view his jujitsu practice as his asana, but he likes the other other aspects of yoga, i.e the eight limbs and the philosophy and includes these in his life. Reason - well, as he once explained, it was a buddhist monk who took yoga to the east and developed out of it jujitsu as a form of exercise and self-defence for the monks. I take his word for this, I am not so clued up with the history of jujitsu. Sorry.
Thank you so much to everyone.
[B]justwannabe[/B]
Thank You I have actually read the Bhagvad gita, I am not claiming I actually understand it however :). I will have to think about that.
oak333
Thanks
[B]InnerAthlete[/B]
Thank You that made things more clear. I think Escrima is cool but I am a serious student of a Taijiquan Sifu and have been training with him for 15 years. Yes Traditional Taijiquan is a martial art but it is not the same as many and does have its own way of cultivation and looking for ones center.
Your answer is much appreciated
T
[B]TonyTamer[/B]
Thank you and yes Bodhidarma is credited for the Chinese martial arts that come form Shaolin (although many Chinese historians now have there doubts about this) but what I have trained most comes from Taoist roots, not Shaolin, but I do get what you are saying and I do believe that both you and InnerAthlete are correct and I need to follow my own path. I am just wondering if this path will not one day reach the road less taken or eventually reach a conflict. But I will cross that bridge when I get to it I guess.
Thanks
[B]Pandara[/B]
Thank You
I am far from a Yogi in any way shape or form but I have seen something similar in 2 people I have trained with in Martial Arts and one was jujitsu the other is my current taiji Sifu but my taiji Sifu has never even considered Yoga he has been training taijiquan and only taijiquan for over 50 years. As for my jujitsu sensei from years ago, it would not surprise me if I found out he had at some point trained yoga. I shall have to think about this “two masters for a bit”
Thank you very much for responding
T
Thank you to all for the help.
say hypothetically you train yourself in martial arts, because you like it and the people you train with like it. You never use it outside of being trained. then one day someone wants to harm your family. Protecting somoene from getting hurt by someone, does that make you non yogic? ONly you can find your right answer.
I see here that martial arts have a lot in common with life energy-prana.
Thanks everyone but I do now feel that you can do both and my Yoga teacher also agrees.
However currently I can’t do either…I broke my foot.