Meditation for Martial Arts

Meditation for martial arts has long been considered absolutely crucial in order to develop a true warrior or martial artisit.

In this post we will look at meditation for martial arts in history, modern day martial artists and meditation and also discuss the benefits or meditation for martial arts and how to start meditation practice.

Meditation for Martial Arts Historically

Historically, the most famous and effective martial arts also included meditaiton in their practice and training.

In fact meditation was seen as integral to martial arts and development of character as a whole.

Chinese Buddhism and Daoism Martial arts and Meditation

The most famous martial artists in the world today are probably Shaolin monks. These warrior monks are well known for their grueling physical training, their agility, strength, speed and power.

In addition to their fighting skills, Shaolin monks are devout Buddhists and as per their Buddhist beliefs, meditation is a key part of their daily practice.

meditation for martial arts

In addition to historical Buddhist meditation practice by Shaolin, Taoist forms of meditation practice have been practiced by kung fu practitioners for centuries.

Martial arts style that focus on internal qi and developing these systems in addition to fighting applications have practiced meditation for many generations and see meditation as inseparable from their martial arts training.

These styles include Tai Chi, Bagua and Xing Yi which have their origins in the Daoist religion which includes symbols such as the Yin Yang.

Japanese Budo and Meditation

Zen Buddhism which was established by Boddhidharma (The Indian Buddhist monk who traveled to China to spread Buddhism) has a long history in Japan.

Samurai were known to be followers of Zen Buddhism and the meditation training that is part of Zen Buddhist practice.

The state of no-mind, empty mind and free-mind were sought by practitioners of Zen Buddhism in order to freely express martial arts, fighting and military techniques without fear or thoughts of doubt.

The Japanese Ninja was also known as a fearless and deadly warrior whom also deeply practiced meditation as part of their training.

Kuji Kiri or “9 Syllables” is a series of hand positions that Japanese ninja used in the process of meditation.

Recent scientific studies into the Kuji Kiri have found these meditative hand movements are able to help relieve stress and sharpen the mind.

Karate practitioners, Sumo Rikishi and Judoka are also known to incoportate meditation as well as their physical training in order to calm the mind, focus and relieve stress in order to recover from tough training sessions.

This look into the history of martial arts and meditation is to highlight that in the past, martial arts training was often inseparable from meditation and mental training.

Kalaripayattu an ancient fighting system from Southern India involves mental exercises and meditation in addition to the weapons training and unarmed combat.

Muay boran the ancient boxing of Siam which is the origins of today’s muay thai also included meditation practice and the influences of Buddhism and religious practice.

Modern Meditation for Martial Arts

In the modern martial arts era of cage fighting and professional fighters, meditation is practiced by some of the top martial artists to compliment their physical development.

Fighters including Conor Mcgregor, Lyoto Machida, Jone Jones and Rickson Gracie are known to practice meditation together with their martial arts training.

Bruce Lee, considered one of the greatest martial artists of the modern era and maybe of all time, also regularly included meditation practice as part of his martial arts training.

The focus of meditation in today’s professional fighting sports is less on spiritual development and more on mental clarity, focus and relieving stress and promoting calmness.

In the modern era of professional sports, the “flow state” is widely sought after by fighters and professional athletes alike.

They seek to enter the “zone” and a state similar to Zen mindlessness where they let their training take over and allows their skills and techniques to naturally come out.

Benefits of Meditation for Martial Arts

Now we have looked at meditation historically within martial arts and in the modern professional sports era, lets look at what benefits meditation can help the modern day martial artist with.

C Wilson Meloncelli from the “Hack the Flow State” website discusses 4 major benefits of Meditation for MMA fighters in his post here.

The summary of his 4 main points are that meditation:

  1. can help increase attention span, improve alertness and overall help you learn martial arts or any skill better
  2. can assist with visualization to increase performance
  3. assist in getting into the ‘flow state’
  4. can help speed up recovery

There are deeper benefits to meditation also that can assist any martial artist and that should be part of any martial arts training.

Meditation helps you stay calm

By being able to control your breathing, your thoughts and emotions through meditative practive, a martial artists can train to remain calm in the stress of a battle or fight.

Remaning calm allows for energy preservation and the ability to “see more” in terms of openings and opportunities to attacks and strike.

Meditation can help you become a better person

Developing compassion and the desire to help other people are all attributes of a martial artist beyond just being a great fighter.

Having this compassion for all beings will make it easier to handle stressful situations or when others try to start a conflict with you in everyday situations at work or on the road or in public transport.

Being a person a some martial arts skills also means controlling your emotions and not fighting unnessicaryl.

Meditation will definitely help with this.

Meditation can make you healthier

Slowing down the heart rate, controlling breathing and reducing stress are all part of meditation practice.

These benefits also will contribute significantly to your health and potentially increasing your life span.

Mental health and combating emotions such as stress, depression and sadness can all be enhanced through meditation and improve your overall health in the long run.

How to Start Meditation

The simplest way would be to devote some time each day to just trying to calm your mind down and not let your thoughts run wild.

This is very tough to do at fist and even 5 minutes of sitting quietly without distracting thoughts can be difficult.

Over time if you are committed to your meditation practice it will get easier. But overall it is still quite tough as the mind is the hardest thing to control for a human being.

I would definitely recommend the practice of Falun Gong (aka Falun Dafa) if you are interested in getting started with meditation.

As a form of Qigong with moving exercises for internal energy cultivation as well as sitting and standing meditation, you can learn Falun Gong (aka Falun Dafa) completely for free.

You can learn at home in your own time and practice anytime, anywhere really.

Here are some simple steps to get started with meditation:

Select a quiet time and place to meditate

This would be my biggest tip when getting started. You really dont want to be distracted or disturbed by loud noises, conversations, T.V or mobile device.

Often times early in the morning or late at night are the most quiet times for most people in their normal lives.

Try to start meditating early in the morning

This way you have less of the days distracting thoughts to deal with.

In addition to your outside environment being quiet in the early morning, your mind is also more quiet at this time not long after you have woken from sleep.

Learn Meditation methods for Free online

I would not recommend spending money to learn how to meditate especially just starting out.

There are many free online resources you can use to get started.

For example, you can learn the full meditation exercise for the Falun Gong system using videos online such as the one below, available in many different languages at falundafa.org.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n-eYG0y8u5I

Types of Meditation

There are also different types of meditation you can take up and see what suits you and your training schedule best.

But in martial arts and religious practice in general there are two main types of meditation – Sitting Meditation and Standing Meditation.

Some would also include moving meditation such as the walking meditation by Buddhist monks and the martial arts movements of Tai Chi.

But in the basic sense meditation without movement or minimal movement can be classified into sitting and standing meditation.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5kIAGvFyCm4

Sitting meditation includes legs crossed and hands conjoined for most meditative practices with no movement and eyes closed.

Standing meditation also includes eyes closed but with very minimal movement in order to change hand positions.

How Tough is Meditation to Learn

In fact meditation can be quite simple to learn.

The simpler the better.

The practice itself can be quite tough.

In Falun Dafa, the form of meditation and qigong I practice you are required to sit in the lotus position and meditate for 30 minutes to an hour.

This can be very painful for the legs as well as being uncomfortable for the mind as well as the body.

The standing meditation too is tough as it requires holding postures for a long period of time while trying to keep your mind quiet and endure the pain.

So while mediaiton is simple to learn the practice itself can be quite tough.

But you can really start anytime and build up from a few minutes up to several minutes or half an hour to an hour over time and the benefits you will see in your mental clarity, clamness and overall health will be well worth the effort.

Also you cannot achieve such benefits through any other form of practice outside of meditation.

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