Meditation

[Troy]

I was wondering if you could tell me how to meditate? Also, I'm trying to figure out which art I should start with....I've already leaned towards Jeet Kune Do. Thanks for any advice you people can give me.

Troy

[Brokenmace]

Hi, Troy. When you say "meditate" what do you mean? In other words, what are you trying to achieve? JKD has some meditation in it. It is used primarily to relax the body and help you control your physiological responses during a confrontation. It is a deep breathing program.

Other martial arts have different foci. For instance, many Shaolin shools still teach Buddhist meditation, the purpose of which is to attain "moksha" or liberation, as well as the other benifits of meditation (focus, calm, clarity, etc.).

JKD is nice because the instructor (if he is good) won't hold you back from exploring other martial arts, and will examine any techniques you bring in from outside to expose its weaknesses and strength for YOU! That is, a good JKD instructor knows how to get you to make something work for your specific body, goals, and fitness level.

An added bonus is that many JKD schools offer multiple arts, because they welcome diversity and knowledge sharing. This of course leads to multiple martial arts contacts outside the school. It's a great boon.

Good luck!

[Fighter]

Brokenmace is right. Theres alot of different ways to meditate, more info.

[Troy]

I am looking for a way to achieve relaxation, to get rid of all other worries. I don't know exactly how to start to do this, so....If you can help me, please do so. Thanks for the replies.

[Troy]

Also, could you tell me of JKD's deep-breathing meditation program? It sounds very important.

Thanks

[Fighter]

Id like to know this aswell.

[Brokenmace]

The deep breathing is VERY important. Control of the physiological response is second only to the ingraining of tactical response as second nature. If your heart rate tops 145 bpm, you lose fine motor control (no grabbing, you start to shake from adrenaline dump).

You won't be able to use your fingers effectively if you don't breath properly. And if you don't relieve survival stress within ten seconds, the adrenal dump will wrack your body, and you will lose tactical initiative. This may cost you your life.

So, you breath:

In for a slow two count

Hold breath for a slow two count

Exhale on a slow three count

The actual count is less important than the ratio of time between inhale-hold-exhale, which must remain the same. I've done 5-5-7, which works also.

You must breath from the diaphragm, not the upper chest. This also helps if you have asthma. This breathing program will reduce your bpm by up to %35! A good fighting heartrate is around 90-130, so %35 is ideal. If you are rushed, the breathing will still work at about %10 efficiency (so I've been told by different sifus). You will lose if your bpm go to 160 or higher, almost certainly, unless you are a highly conditioned athlete or hold a massive advantage over your foe.

Do this breathing after every workout. This will train the mind to perform this drill under fatigue and stress. You may feel slightly "buzzed" after the prescribed 10 minutes of breathing. This is normal. It is the result of increased oxygen flow, I am told.

While you are breathing, you should be sitting "Indian" style, pointer finger and thumb touching on each hand, hands on knees turned up, tip of tongue touching roof of mouth, jaw relaxed. Do not blow out air on the exhale. Let it flow out gently.

So you see, technique and style are at best a tertiary aspect of warfare. This is why JKD is principle based, not technique based. Many JKD practitioners are primarly grapplers, or kickers. They use these principles to guide the judicious use of their best techniques.

If you maintain tactical overmatch, you will win.

[Fighter]

Thanks, I found a book called How to Develop Chi Power by William Cheung. A great book on Meditation, Dim Mak etc. Anyone else read it?

[Brokenmace]

No, I haven't heard of it. But if it's any good, be very careful. Developing that kind of power using the common methods (such as Qi Gong) can lead to damaged health!

I knew a friend who had to go to a Tai Chi instructor and pay to take classes, because he tried the "chi" techniques of Qi Gong by himself from a book. After three weeks of those lessons, he developed chilled legs below the knees even though it was a Florida summer! If you've ever been to a Florida summer, it's no joke. It was another three weeks before his instructor got him to the point where his legs began to warm up again.

Just a thought.

Peace

[orlando]

meditation

there are many forms of meditation to choose from (and a lot of time will be spent mastering them!). what i do (and have been doing for years) is a form of self-hypnosis in which i sit (preferably in a quiet place) with arms to my side and legs slightly open, and what i do is just breath in deeply, hold for one sec, then release through the mouth. after a minute or so, try to visualize losing the feelings to your feet and slowly work your way up. when you can do this, your body will be in a meditatve form.
happy training!

[Fighter]

This site is all about Dim Mak if anyone is interested

http://www.dimmak.com