Cattāri Brahmavihārā

For a little over a year I have been practicing Kenpo and Muay Thai and, as I am wont to do, I’ve gotten more and more attached to it. In addition, I have become increasingly attached to the way in which my body has begun to look as a result of the conditioning and exercise routine I have put myself under. And, it was only tonight that I realized that I had developed an unhealthy obsession with it. All of which brings me to my point: what am I practicing anyway?

I have to admit that I have gained a tremendous amount of satisfaction and learned a lot about determination and willpower through this journey but the martial arts of Kenpo and Muay Thai are fundamentally about harming others. In fact, this morning I had a twenty minute consultation on Skype with one of the head instructors of Sifu Adam Mizner’s HME school of taijichuan and it was incredibly valuable for helping me to get to the realization that blossed later in the day.

In short, the martial arts are about killing and harming and, as Paul (the instructor) said, they weren’t made to help their practitioners live longer or better lives. That conversation and the Dhamma desana that I listened to later by Sifu Adam have put me firmly on the path of training in the HME school as my main practice of the arts. Of course, I have made a commitment to follow through with my Kenpo training but I will do so without the added worry of needing to become more forceful and aggressive as to do so seems akusala.