God?

The two traditional practices that we work with - Uechi Ryu Karate Do and Ashtanga Vinyasa Yoga - are not systems of philosophy or belief (and that includes the Qi gong we do along with our Karate practice). They are training curriculums. 

But there are references in the directions we are given to Qi, animal archetypes, and even God. So doesn’t that make them philosophical belief systems? 

Nope. These concepts are practice techniques.

For example: 

If you imagine energy flowing out your fingertips, your arm will be stronger than if you just tense your muscles - that’s easily demonstrated. If you strike your Karate partner as if your limb is moving through the target rather than smacking the surface, your partner will tell you that you are generating more force. If you imagine you have deep roots in the ground, you will tend to stand straighter and move with greater stability and balance. 

These are all applications of what we call Qi.  Does Qi actually exist?  

Who cares?  It works.

Questions like “does Qi exist” can be left to the scientists and philosophers; as martial artists we don’t have time for such speculation - our work is urgent and we need to use whatever gives us the best and fastest results. 

The animal archetypes work too. Working with the intention to step like a tiger will produce better results in less time than any mechanical tinkering. 

Is there some abstract, mystical power out there called “Tiger?” 

Who cares? It works.

In the Yoga practice, we are instructed to work towards union with the Divine. As with Qi and the animal archetypes, this instruction is not asking us to buy into a belief system. Still, for many of us the term is loaded. 

Here’s a way to get started on this - no harm in giving it a try, right? Imagine your best self. Who might you be if you were at the fullest realization of your best potential, all obstacles removed? What about the people you know, who would they be at their absolute best? 

Or, as a thought experiment, could you imagine some good quality like, say compassion, in its highest possible expression? 

The Yoga instruction is to try working consciously with our relationship to these ideals. 

I like this video about practicing while injured. At around 1:45 a student explains that she doesn’t have a lot of hope for her own progress in the practice but she does it anyway because “it makes me a better person.” 

That’s a pretty common experience; the practice (and I would suggest, particularly the cultivation of our relationship with the divine) seems to make us “better.” I have noticed that the chanting strongly shifted my own experience. 

(And by “better,” we hopefully don’t mean it in the way that comedian Sarah Silverman put it, “I did Yoga this morning and I just feel so much better…than you.” Ha!)

We feel “better” in that we don’t feel so afflicted by our likes and dislikes and we are less likely to lash out like frightened animals at those around us.  

Do you have anything in your life that you consider sacred? Do you have a relationship you consider sacred, or a sacred trust? What if you considered that maybe it’s all sacred?

I often tell people that when you engage with traditional practice you are on sacred ground.  That means that everything that happens in traditional practice, particularly your interactions with others, is charged. When people treat their experience this way, they usually get a lot more out of it.

But is that true?  Is traditional practice sacred? Is there a sacred-o-meter that can give us a reading of how much sacredness is present in a class?

Who cares? It works.

The instructions we are given in the Yoga Yamas and Niyamas are similarly not moral or religious precepts, they are practice techniques. 

The benefits of treating people better as spelled out in the Yamas may benefit those around you in some way but the primary benefit comes to you. If you stop lying and stealing, have a responsible sex life, and do less harm to those around you, you just might feel better. Worth a try.

If you take better care of yourself, as spelled out in the Niyamas - keep clean, cultivate contentment and discipline, read good books, and think about what is sacred to you - you just might feel better. Worth a try.

Does the Divine actually exist?  Who cares?  It works.