Martial Arts As Mind Power Over Body Pain

Athletes are known to endure much physical pain in their training and development. Martial arts exponents and practitioners then, would also have to break through certain pain barriers and what becomes really critical to their development is the extent of their psychological discipline.

Passion for a sport would be the key here. Passion for karate, for muay Thai, judo, kung fu, aikido, ju jitsu, tae kwondo and more variations of the martial arts would evoke deep, unconscious emotional forces as the fundamental driving motivation. This emotion would enable the student or proponent of martial arts to keep going in training, relentlessly breaking through all barriers be they mental or physical.

The Zen School of Buddhism has contributed mightily to the psychological side of learning the fighting arts. Zen teaches having a blank mind which equates to emptiness in the experience of Buddhist mindfulness meditation. This blankness of mind allows for quicker action when sparring in the dojo and in competitions. Automatic, habitual actions like blocking, punching and kicking can simply occur without any thoughts getting in the way, inside the fighter's mind.

Although Zen practice has given Japanese practitioners a distinct advantage over the centuries, there are other things to consider when the mind itself is the focus of observation and analysis. Factors such as a person's mission, purpose, plan and level of spiritual attainment are possibly important as functional determinants as well.

Mind power is a very mysterious beast. This is possibly because it intersects with the nature of The Universe through such things as the unified, quantum energy field (theory) and the extent to which psychological mindset interacts with real, physical events in the immediate environment. This article is too brief to allow an adequate discussion of the physics involved. Suffice it to say that meditation on these matters could result in enhanced feelings of connectedness with The Universe - even if the connection is actually an improved connection between the conscious mind and the sub-conscious mind.

Summary and Opinion

Martial arts involve standard routines and training disciplines in forcing sets of behaviors into robotic automation. The mind power feature enters the picture when the martial artist also trains himself or herself in elevated, reflective spiritual thinking. This is intended towards increasing the levels of wholistic harmony and focused concentration. When the fighter also becomes a psychological or spiritual master through, say, Buddhist meditation, then you have a self-built champion to contend with. That master could endure pain, transcend the social environment and perform his martial art with increasing creativity.