Alright, first allow me to explain why I think martial arts is the best spiritual path. You cant fake putting your fist through a brick wall. Its very easy to verify if a teacher or master knows what they are talking about, unlike every other spiritual practice. Now im sure a load of people here have done martial arts and have never even touched upon enlightened martial arts techniques, unfortunatly there are very few martial arts that are really focused mainly on that. A lot of them will touch on it briefly after you have been practicing for a very long time but most instructors you find havnt really gone into the esoteric aspects of it very much. The top 3 martial arts that do are. Tai-Chi:To a limited extent tai chi touches upon the esoteric and about half the people who do it report feeling energy or chi sensations, this is because tai-chi is a 50:50 mix, its both an external martial art and an internal martial art. (external=Smash, internal=Energy) not really fantastic at either but alright. Chi-Gung: (also pronounced ki-Gung, Quigong and a load of other names) This is 100% internal style martial arts, about twice as powerfull as tai-Chi, almost everyone who has ever done a Chi-Gung class has experienced Chi/Energy sensations, esentially its a perfect moving meditation, pure jedi style energy martial art. This is the one I would recommend. Shorinji Kempo: This is the only form of kempo I have done, I expect other forms of kempo to have some similar atributes, 90% external, 10% internal. At advanced levels they teach you about energy, meditation, and using energy & preasure points to both disable and recussitate someone. A healing combat martial art, very cool and I found it better than Shaolin Kung Fu although in the same vein.
Well said. Martial arts is where Physical and mental discipline combine. When our mind and body function as one unified whole, who can stop us ? Martial Artist's Bible.
Nahhhh - only beer is best for mind-body coordination. 'Course, training isn't bad. In all seriousness, Dark, I think the particular art is less important than the teacher and lineage passing it on, and the student who receives the art. As an uchideshi to Tenzan Fumio Toyoda, I feel a lifetime's gratitude to my late teacher, founder of the Aikido Association of America, for passing on the notion that the opportunity for spiritual development can come in every moment of living. Gambatte.