[quote]Roual wrote:
The other night I was watching The Last Samurai, and it reminded me of an article I read a while back by Mike Mahler where he recommends meditating for 20 minutes either after a workout or before going to sleep.
Ignoring my completely random thought process, I was wondering who on here meditates regulary, how they do it (I gather there are several different methods) and what benefits they get from it.[/quote]
I’ll bite.
Definition of meditation (yip, ripped it right off Wikipedia): “self regulation of attention, in the service of self-inquiry, in the here and now.”
I meditate every time I train. As a matter of fact, the focus on the hard parts of the workout are exactly what meditation ought to be – forcing you to concentrate on one thing. No, there is no religious gobbeldy-gook here since I am an atheist. There is nothing inherently religious about meditation, it is just one more way to make your mind work.
More background: I have done martial arts (jujutsu) for over 30 years so I’ve seen all sorts of systems and how they approach meditation. Aikido and various types of Kung fu for instance used to be billed as “meditation in motion”. There is no reason in the world pulling a PR can’t be done as part of a meditation and, matter of fact, I suspect that is a better way to meditate that what I’ve seen most religious/New Age types try to do. E.g., you have to be seriously “one with the bar” = “acutely aware of every nuance as it moves” to hit that heavy deadlift. This training requires very specific focus and intent (mushin and kime are the Japanese terms that go into this).
I’m not supposed to say this, but a lot of elite athletes have mushin, kime, aiki and all those other supposed secret martial arts things down better than the vast majority of martial artists do. For one thing, they are not hobbled by stupid explanations of the concepts (“How do I punch hard sensei?” “Oh, you just extend your ki!” Oh brother…)
As always, I might just be full of shit…
– jj
