"I'm Wasted And I Can't Find My Way Home"

Ha, ha...
I know I've posted this before, but it always makes me happy!
Pure Hippie goodness.
We had a band practice in the Saloon last night, kind of a warm-up for the big June party, and we played this.
We've got the instrumental part really good, but lining up the vocals is tricky with the walk-down on the guitar.

It gave me pause to reflect that in our discussion on Martial "Art", the subject can be viewed from very different perspectives.
I myself play music (Guitar and other strings) and write (sometimes I have even been paid for writing). That is what I call "Art"

-So, there is no doubt my experience in martial arts is colored by my experience in other "arts".
I seek the art. I like to think about it and feel it.
It's not just doing "push-ups", or getting hit and kicked for me.

Maybe I am just getting old.
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Here are the best comments we received on the subject:

From Jess O'brien, author of "Nei Jia Quan"

j said...
I think it's a good idea to make a distinction between something that is primarily a Combat Sport and something that is a Martial Art.

Although there are places where they both cross over and interact, they should be looked at as apples and oranges.

I'd say that there is no equivalent of Asian Martial Art in the American society that I was raised in.

Our sports fulfill what Asian martial arts fulfilled in Asian society before the 1980's or so when sports entered the scene in China.

There weren't really widespread sports in China until recently, CMA filled that role.

They are functionally equivalent but not the same.

Like religion, Christianity and Buddhism are both religions, they fulfill the same roles in society. But the religions themselves are quite different with different goals, methods, etc.

Western Sports are as deep and rich and wonderful as Asian Martial Arts. But they are not the same and both come with way different cultural assumptions, training methods and worldviews.

Both are fun! And both are great. Saying they are different doesn't demean either of them.

There was a time when Chinese were ashamed of their CMA and took to Western sports to "modernize". Whereas there was a time when Americans were wild for Judo and Karate and left our combat sports behind. Both cases were a mistake and a more balanced approach of appreciating both makes more sense to me.

MMA is a semantic mistake in my opinion, it should probably be called NHB or something like that, as it has very little to do with Asian martial arts. But then again, things get very tricky and complicated! Tai Chi is not a combat sport, but perhaps Judo is? My definition is far from perfect.

Good topic to discuss and think about!

Jess O

And from "Nemovic", who also (with Kostas) provided us with a cool link between Alexander The Great and Buddhism:

nemovic said...
DJ you are writing related to the comment from "Religion, Morality, and Martial Arts":

"So we see that the intellectual, philosophical element in Chinese martial arts has been included in their training for over one hundred-years!
"That's a pretty good track record for me. I consider it evidence of the evolution of Chinese martial arts in a time of increasing industrialization"

I wonder if the quote can be read the other way around, since the martial arts stopped to be practical for every day life they became idealized....an upper class that was forming itself from the benefits of industrialization started contemplanting (just as we do now) about the "deeper" meanings of the martial arts..my opinion is that at that point martial arts lost the touch with reality and became dead, a playground for intellectuals.

Maybe the brutal working class boxing is the real "art"??

I myself practise ving tsun, that is considered an semi-internal art, but I see the danger to become "intelectual" and involve to much in the details of technique rather to stick to the target........

keep posting m8....

(D.R.) Thanks to all the Dojo Rats out there who contributed!