The Spiritual Path of Karate

[deutsey]

http://www.midshorelife.com/content/spiritual-path-karate

SNIP

It seems that in today’s pop culture the spirituality of karate is stereotypically portrayed as a Wise Old Master in a mystical Asian temple imparting cryptic sayings to his students. At the other extreme, the karate techniques used during brawls in the Octagon to beat people into submission give the impression that spirituality has nothing to do with such a violent sport.

However, the modern founder of Shotokan, Master Gichin Funakoshi, believed karate is above all else “a faith, and a way of life” very much grounded in the here and now (not in distant, mythical places). He also stressed that because of its deadly potential, karate should only be used as a last resort in defending oneself or others and that practicing its techniques without respectful self-control merely reduces one to animal violence.

More than anything else, practicing karate, according to Master Funakoshi, is really about cultivating one’s character and ultimately even one’s spirit. As a Zen practitioner, his appreciation for the martial art’s deep spiritual roots in Hinduism, Buddhism, and Taoism inspired him to name this discipline “karate”.

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PS: I adapted this from a lay sermon I gave a couple years ago at the UU fellowship I attend. For brevity's sake, I cut a lot of details out of the sermon (e.g., Bhodidharma and the Shaolin Temple). It's for a very general lay audience and my intention was to focus on Shotokan's modern origin.

[Bonobo]

1. Recommended.

As a BB in Matsubayashi-ryu, I would like to add that karate practice and how one does it can be an analogy for every aspect of one's life.
I urge everyone to engage in some type of 'practice', whether karate or not.