Let me skip the mental and the physical. These are great subjects all unto themselves involving many things but when it comes to spiritual we tend to “fall into the comfortable groove” of our culture and belief systems. What our ancestors, martial ancestors that is, believed in regard to the spiritual is the question here and the answers are not as clear or definitive as one might expect.
First, there is not much in the historical sources, especially in English as translated more often than not by non-Asians scholars, that actually define this spiritual aspect to martial arts. Often it comes down to interconnecting that non-physical aspect to those spiritual studies, if you will, of non-religious cultural studies and belief systems like Zen, Zen Buddhism, Confucianism, Taoism, and so on. All not truly of a religious nature as we westerners would associate religious toward, i.e., a supreme being and so on.
We westerners tend to slide into our own cultural quasi-religious connections as can be seen readily when the following tend to lean heavily toward references as to “faith” in training, movements, beliefs and so on. Personally, this is not exactly what I would take as the “spiritual” results of training and practice of martial arts.
the Spirit required for training
believe in your movements
lack of believing in the movement, a lack of faith
the instructor has to do is work to instill their faith in the movement
they have not developed the Spirit, or Faith in their technique.
a question of Faith in his method
The Spiritual of Martial Disciplines: First, lets take a look a the fundamental principles that underline all martial disciplines. The closest term I find to spiritual is Mukei [無形] meaning abstract; immaterial; moral; intangible; spiritual with the first character meaning, “nothingness; none; ain’t; nothing; nil; not,” and the second meaning, “shape; form; style.” Often the characters/ideograms are associated with other characters to describe things like “intangible cultural assets” and so on. Yet, this does not do justice to what this author associates with spiritual aspects of martial disciplines.
When I begin to contemplate the spirituality of martial discipline I tend to start with the two principles of theory and philosophy. They are, “Universality, Control, Efficiency, Lengthen Our Line, Percentage Principle, Std of Infinite Measure, Power Paradox, Ratio, Simplicity, Natural Action, Michelangelo Principle, Reciprocity, Opponents as Illusions, Reflexive Action, Training Truth, Imperception and Deception AND Mind, mushin, kime, non-intention, yin-yang, oneness, zanshin and being, non-action, character, the empty cup.”
The western concepts tend to lean heavily toward the declared “spirit of bushido.” This means a concept of a spiritual shield that allows the samurai to fight to the end. This spiritual soul of Japan was then considered the spirit that bound firmly and with unity the entire nation especially with war in mind. It was about the acceptance of death, its acceptance as a part of the samurai belief toward a morally driven hierarchal observation toward their leaders in the application of warrior spirit in death through application of martial prowess in war.
In reality, in martial spiritual theory and philosophy as possibly passed down from martial ancestors it is the acquisition and development of qualties such as character of the practitioner in thought and attitudes of a non-physical nature involving the seat of emotions and character, the soul if you will (without assuming the soul as the intrinsic seat of humans under a religious belief in supreme beings, etc. as taught in European and Western religious cultures.) It is that essence, ethos and motivating force that drove the samurai, the warriors of Japan with similarities to the Okinawans as well as the ethos of influences from other Asian sources like the Chinese.
Look at it also as a temperment or disposition of mind and outlook toward life especially as it pertains to conflict and violence. It is that activating or essential principle that influences a person especially in the study, practice and most important application of martial arts. It is that dominating attitude that contributes to a spirit toward moral accepted behavior. It is the development of personal beliefs leading toward the inclination, impulse, or tendency of the kind that is culturally morally accepted by the whole that is society.
It is and can be the mental state or mind set of character expressed in action and word derived from a firm and assertive nature that presents an attitude of reflection, change and actions in every day life with special emphasis toward conflict and violence, the just, correct and moral application of martial arts in conflict and violence.
It is best described in a very basic way through the general intent and meaning as presented by such ancient classics as the I Ching, the Tao Te Ching, the Analects and in martial arts ken-po goku-i, the spirit of the law of the fist.
As you can see even in this attempt to describe a very personal belief of spirituality in martial arts the actual end results can only be determined through the studies of the individual martial artists. It helps us discover the spiritual of martial arts through the physical and mental efforts of study, practice and training that are the hallmarks of all martial disciplines.
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