Meditating Before Sparring

[supacomboy]

great posts! now i got some work to do. lol

[krapygua]

mortons, i bet all that meditation goes flying out the window once you get punched in the mouth.

kendo mokso is to simply rest your mind and clear it. not put all these imaginary ropes attached to this or attached to that, or sending energy here or there. all your energy is already within. just tap into it. your mind is supposed to be empty, not filled with illusions and imagination. perhaps in tkd the mental preparation is different. "no mind", hear of that before?

what musashi is talking about is debana waza. attacking right at the moment your opponent begins his stroke. extremely difficult to pull off, but very effective.

[rezurex]

i was taught the meditation method known as "dan jan hoh" not sure if the spelling/pronunciation is right, but thats the way i heard my sabomnim say it. basically with a clear mind you take 10 seconds to breathe in through your nose very slowly, then take 10 seconds to breathe out the nose very slowly. As you progress into meditation you slowly increase the amount of time you take to breathe in/out. Experts with high training can increase it up past one minute... after a period of meditating i can get up to 30 seconds or so. In the beginning i used to count the seconds out but after years of doing this daily i just do it by feel and as such it is much easier for me to keep my mind clear. The best place to do this would be somewhere quiet with clean air. In asia i would hike up to the mountains and meditate in this manner, and the experience is almost like giving your mind a clean bath. nothing is quite as refreshing as a good meditation session.

Also you should sit comfortably, if you are in a position of pain you would not be able to meditate properly. of course in the dojang you must do what your sabomnim tells you to do... but for beginners it would not be a bad idea to sit in a chair for meditation, which you can try on your own time. but at the same time i would stretch the ankle/feet area so that you can eventually kneel down in the proper manner without feeling pain.

any questions just ask :)

-rez