Fighting Buddha: Martial Arts, Buddhism, Kicking Ass and Saving It

FIGHTING BUDDHA details a forty year journey in martial arts and meditation training and 25 years of Buddhist practice. Using autobiographical anecdotes, along with martial art fighting strategies, Buddhist folk stories and koan and sutra teachings, it explores both the benefits and detriments of each practice, as well as how they complement each other as a singular practice. Martial arts technique done in the controlled environment of the Dojo and meditative experiences dependent on the environment of the Zendo will never have an appropriate application unless trained, practised and tested under real circumstances. For the martial artist, this prompts the question of whether traditional training in the Dojo can actually be utilised in a real situation and for the Buddhist practitioner, whether the rituals, scholarly study and meditative experience of the Zendo can translate into skilful action outside of it. These questions are a constant theme throughout a discussion that addresses the struggles of beginning training and practice, the importance of identifying goals and choosing a teacher and training in support of them and, most importantly, how to determine whether the training can be assimilated into real application. There is, also, a discussion of the difference between violence and the use of force as it relates to The Buddha's teaching of "cause no harm", exploring the common misunderstanding that meditative moments are exclusive to only select activities and explaining why the true test of a martial artist's skill and of a Buddhist's application of mindfulness is during a situation that is the least conducive for it. The book concludes by defining enlightenment and the black belt and addressing the most common misconceptions about them, in particular, that they are not the end results of one's practice, but the beginning.