Spirituality and Movement

So Justin is talking about killing bunnies (playfully) on Facebook, right? Of course, my first reaction (to anyone who knows me well enough) is to post a song from Buffy: the Vampire Slayer "I Have a Theory". This has me going through various other songs from that episode (Once More with Feeling).

Last week, I assigned a book I had around the house to one of the members of Heartland so she could use it to compare her (martial) practice to the author's dance. Watching the songs on youtube reminded me of her assignment and made me wonder- what about others?

In the book "Grandmother's Secrets: The Ancient Rituals and Healing Power of Belly Dancing", Rosina-Fawzia Al-Rawi takes you on a journey to discover how Belly Dancing brought her closer to the divine, and the role it plays in the lives of women that practice it.

Most Jedi stress the importance of Martial Arts training for the sake of defending others. When I use to do ballet, it was to strengthen my physical balance (*smirks* still don't have much of THAT) and to produce something beautiful. When I did tumbling, it was for fun. I knew people that the only reason they did things like basketball or football was for the competition.

Consider a physical art that you participate in-it might be martial, sports, dance, even golf- do you feel spiritually connected while performing the art? What has it taught you?

If you don't consider it a spiritual experience, it might be something to consider next time you are in the dojo or dance room.

Not that many of you would pick up the book, it's a very "girlie" approach, but I would highly recommend "Grandmother's Secrets" for anyone who does not consider their practice spiritual in nature.

Very good points and none of this is meant to take away from that. On the topic of spirituality, a connectedness, and martial arts though I must interject that the connectedness becomes both the goal, a tool, and a part of the integral whole of martial arts. When you reach a point of completeness within an art, oneness within movement, great feats of "speed" (timing) "power" (chi) and "force" (application) become possible leading to what most consider superhuman (what I would say is the human element we have forgotten in a modern society) abilities. Catching a punch in mid air, deflecting a movement in the last second, transferring the energy of a block directly to the bone to break or bruise it but not the surrounding tissue. These things and more are both the path and the goal. Yet one can study their whole lives and only have one true "Flowing Moment" within the martial arts and that is also ok. For some it is a passion, for others they can bring those things together all the time, and for still others it may ring nothing true to them.

Did someone say golf! Your right, would you believe my greatest breakthrough in golf was pre-swing thoughtfulness (meditation?) on the balance between left and right aspects of my energy. Such subtle things can make a big difference - because my physical frame is not imbalanced, any imbalance within the energy within the body can distract efforts to have fine control over motor skills. That allows focus to shift 100% to reading the play and conducting the swing correctly. I'm not sure if thats spiritual though, and the closest thing to spirituality for me in golf would be trying to read the environment and hitting the ball whilst doing the least damage to that environment - as it generates a compassionate relationship towards the course which makes everything seem more valuable/beautiful/alive/free.