Fighting Meditation has a long history in China. This art travelled to Japan where it became known as Bushido and the fighters as Samurais. At that time, death through fighting was very real. The warriors used fighting meditation as a way to stay calm when they were in danger. This gave the warriors the best chance to survive. In a fight, it gives us the best chance to win. If we panic, are over excited or unfocused, we will not give our best in a fight or in our life.
In the past, one master said that war is the foundation of all martial arts as it tests and trains us and pushes us to our limits. Of course, this was before bombs and guns and modern warfare. While I don’t agree with this master, I do believe that we need to challenge and push ourselves physically to get the most out of ourselves. This is the philosophy of the Shaolin Temple.
Just as The Art Of War is now applied to life and business, the Fighting Meditation from the Shaolin Temple of Zen can also be applied to life and business as much as it can be applied to fighting.
Here’s 5 Ways That Fighting Meditation can help you succeed in a fight and give you valuable spiritual insight and clarity in your life.
- 100% Focus - When we kick and punch, our mind does not wander anywhere else. We don’t have time to dwell on the past or future or what if. We have to keep in the moment as we fight. Fighting becomes our meditation. We lose our focus, we lose the fight.
- The Breath Of Qi - The quality of our breath is vitally important. If we don’t breathe deeply enough, we’re not oxygenating our body and we quickly get tired. The breath of Qi gives power to our kick and punch. The breath of Qi gives power to our life.
- Knowledge Of The Way - In a fight, our stamina is tested to the limit, we can’t punch, jab or kick in the hope it will land, we have to know exactly what we're doing and why we're doing it. We have to know when to stay relaxed and when to use power. We have to know our opponent as much as we know ourselves.
- No Defeat – When we train, we create fighting situations so that nothing surprises us. We prepare ourselves for any situation and stay calm and relaxed. This is the same in our life, if something doesn’t go as expected, if we're unprepared, we can easily be defeated. Fighting Meditation helps us to be flexible and able to turn any situation around to our advantage.
- Melt Mental Barriers - We often create mental barriers in our mind as to what we can and can’t achieve in our life. Training to the limits of our ability unconsciously breaks through our barriers and gives us confidence in our life. We train so that we are no longer conscious of our training. This means the training trains us.
Fighting Meditation is an internal journey that we make with our mind and body. We train so we are no longer conscious of our training. Whatever we do, we do it with not thought. The more we train, the more we spontaneously become free from conscious thought. In a way, it’s mindless mindfulness! It’s very hard to explain. I can try to explain the taste of my favourite noodles from Xinjiang, - which I miss now that I live in London - but you will never understand, you need to taste them for yourself.
“Let the teacher be the needle, let the student be the thread.”
My 28-day Fighting Meditation online program is available to stream. Click HERE to begin your journey.