peace or violence ?

I keep finding myself telling people that MAists alot of the time become more peaceful because of their art, and they don't beleive me so which is it, peace or violence ?

 

Martial arts is about violence. Thats entirely unrelated to how you live the rest of your life.

 

Well it's a double sort of thing. My Sensei explained it as you have to hold back and avoid fights no matter if you could throw everybody in the room on their heads. It can give you a macho "i can kick your butt" feel or more often the i have no need to fight and if i did i am comfortable w/ my technique

 

what I mean is have you become more peaceful within yourself ? i have the same feeling (i can kick everyone round this room feeling) but i have actually become a more peaceful person because of MA

 

I have aways been peaceful before starting MA and I am still very peaceful. The only thing that changed was that I feel safer to walk down the street in a bad part of the city.

 

I don't think we are peaceful or violent but reactive to what the situation neccessitates. If it requires great force we act with great force, if it requires nothing but a cunning word or diplomatic response then that is what happens.
I voted anything else.

 

But since you still got my beheaded ninja penguin as an avatar you shouldn't feel so safe walking into a room with big blue mats :woo:

 

How is killing someone overcoming violence with peace? You do understand that a large number of techniques seen in the martial arts are designed to do just that, right? Overcoming violence with peace is talking it out, taking your beating etc. If I hurt, cripple or kill you for whatever reason, thats not peace. You could make a case for chokeholds, but the rest is simply violence.

 

I have been doing martial arts for so long that I can't remember what I was like back then before it. But there is one thing I know, how martial arts have changed me: they have made me more peaceful. It's the very feeling that many have already mentioned here, the "I can kick everyone around this room if I want to" feeling. However, what it does to me is that I find it easier to just say "no" if someone tries to pick a fight. If the guy calls me a coward when I walk away, so what? I know that there would be nothing left of the guy but a wet spot on the floor if we had started fighting. So I can just walk away and deep inside me laugh at that ignorant moron.

Just my two cents.

- Roy

 

I like this question.

I see this about deciding to fight or deciding not to fight. Or, look at it from the size of the circle you are willing to fight in.
The person who is quick to fight, or looks for a fight is someone with a rather large circle and they feel like they have to fight any time someone threatens to or enters that circle. On the other hand , the more peaceful person has a smaller circle that he/she is willing to fight over. In other words some people will fight because they were bumped into at a bar by accident while other people will realize that it was an accident and let it go with out getting into a fight.
Practicing martial arts does something to shrink ones circle. In the dojo the highest ranking belt is always the last to fight. So too in the real world the person who has the greatest ability to fight is the last one to do so.(or so it should be).
Look at your own school. Observe how all the white belts or beginners are always so anxious to fight over any thing, but they are normaly clumsy and seem to either hurt someone or get hurt themselves. Also, look at the senior students and they way they fight. They are more graceful so they don't get hurt or hurt others as much and they are able to fight with timming and skill without just running into a battle.
As we study martail arts we become better at dealing with things that might other wise upset the nonmartial artist. Having the knowlegde to completely annialate someone does a lot to keep us from using it unless absolutely nessessary. The martial artist knows that once the arrow leaves the bow there can be no turning back, so a lot of thought goes into whether one should fight or not. It is actually more instinct than thought, but the trigger to act has more of a gurad built into it.
So, Peace or Violence? Having the ability to be violent might keep the well trained martial artist from being violent and will therefore chose to live peacefully.

 

No, I havent. Martial arts is a serious thing though. When I train, I use techniques that can restrain, knock out, cripple or kill. Unless I know and trust my opponent (an out of control friend for example), or see help on the way, Im not going to restrain them. Eventually I would have to let them up and thats a good way to get cut. I dont want to have a humiliated, unharmed opponent anywhere near me. That leaves putting them to sleep, popping their joints, or killing them. I dont have the skill to pick and choose. A lot of the time Im not sure exactly what does what. That being the case, should they be open for a figure four, a crucifix, a reverse crucifix or another technique of a dubious nature, Im taking it. Their safety is not my concern. Mine is. If I were to hold them and let them go, they could kill me. This is why in my daily life I dont employ martial arts training. I emply home training as I was raised to avoid fighting. For the most part Ive been succesful. If I dont want to fight, Im not going to. The whole "smack them around and let them go" is for highschool when security can save you and its likely a friend of yours anyway.

 

The martial arts were never about peace. The very words used to describe them "martial"-means of or related to war. They are a means of learning an efficient, practical way to remove a threat to yourself, often by ending the life of the threat.

Some arts have moved away from this, thus adding the "do" ending-meaning it is a path for self improvement,with little or no emphasis on real life combat application.


Having the ability and confidence that you can remove a threat if necessary often leads to a peacefulness. There is no longer the fear of a situation or person.

 

"But really, luck aside, how do you control the opponent except by first controlling yourself? And really, to control yourself, do you not first need inner peace? Now there's a deep question."

How is that deep? I know some very troubled people that would work me over real good. Inner peace has nothing to do with physically controlling others.

"Or maybe it's the other way around: maybe the "jutsu" ending arts moved away from the original purpose."

No, not really. I dont think that people started kicking and punching to improve themselves. The first punch was likely thrown to hurt someone. And I think that people got really good at it to hurt other people. What does punching and kicking have to do with being a better person?

 

I truely believe that MA can make you more peaceful person. Some people it makes them more aggressive. It makes me personally more peaceful. Things that used to bother me like stupid drivers or co-works that are nothing more than cattle. Cattle that some times I have to take a deep breath or else I think I would like to send them all out to get slauthered. A-hole people in malls or bars that you would love to nail with a car in the parking lot. All those people used to drive me crazy, now I just take a deep breath and feel sorry for them. I truely do feel sorry for them. Now if someone were to threaten mine or my familes lives then I will show them no mercy.

 

I really don't see where it changed me at all. I am still the same....so it seems, I don't know, maybe someone else may notice a difference in me
seriously though I have always been peaceful, violence only comes when i a pushed to the limmits:woo: but that's how I have always been.......
I think that if a person was peaceful before MA, and now they are violent...then maybe they should give up MA

 

You're in the ring-the jabs are coming-training takes over.You respond wthout thinking about it,no self control involved-reflexes.
Controling your hips-result of training,again reflexes. No emotional component involved. That's why you put in alot of training time,develops reflexes so you don't have to think(because you don't have the luxury of time).

Martial arts were developed by warriors and soldiers-gave better chance of surviving battle. Ideology and philosophical components were added later.

That's my story, I'm sticking to it-don't confuse me with facts.