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- Path: sparky!uunet!gatech!asuvax!asuacad!ahacc
- Organization: Arizona State University
- Date: Wednesday, 23 Dec 1992 01:54:13 MST
- From: <AHACC@ASUACAD.BITNET>
- Message-ID: <92358.015413AHACC@ASUACAD.BITNET>
- Newsgroups: rec.martial-arts
- Subject: Re: Spiritual<->Physical
- References: <1992Dec22.053746.22592@midway.uchicago.edu>
- Lines: 29
-
- John says:
- =========================================================================
- I was very interested by the Indian(Asian) person's writing
- of the Indian martial arts. Buddha using Indian techniques in developing
- the East Asian precursor to modern martial arts means something. It would
- strike me that the Religion and the martial art would have much in common.
- Why is this? The martial art is a discipline. Many people would
- laugh at the training of students of the martial arts-saying it is a
- waste of time, that one could be enjoying onesself instead. The same
- thing is true of devotees to a religion-who would try to study the seemingly
- absurd rituals and statements of the prophets or leaders of the religion.
- =========================================================================
-
- The parallels are fascinating and they reside on more than one
- level. At the risk of disolving any veneer of humility I might have:
- the "religious" aspects of the martial arts are one focus of my article in
- the current _Journal of Asian Martial Arts_. Check it out.
-
- In brief, the martial arts may be seen as being religious in
- functional, psychological, and social ways as well as by more
- traditional perceptions of the nature of religion.
-
- By the way, I also plugged rec.m-a in _Aikido Today_.
- So, you'll forgive me next time I plug _Aikido Today_ in
- rec.m-a ...
- ---
- -Andrew Crawford
- <AHACC@ASUACAD>
- <AHACC@ASUVM.INRE.ASU.EDU>
-