Meditation and MA practice

[SPJ]

Meditation either sitting, standing or moving--

I found it relaxing the mind and body or quieting the mind from lingering thoughts and emotions.

it is like wiping the daily "dust" so that your mind is emptied and clear as a mirror.

we are able to "see"/understand/appreciate things as things are.

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[laugarkuen]

I find the centredness sp? and concentration developed through meditation very beneficial to my training.

Also meditating on certain areas of my practice and approach to MA helps me.

[bodhitree]

I didn't vote because, I feel it can be great both mentally and physically, but I don't think it is absolutely crutial for a martial artist to meditate. If a martial artist is naturally focused and relaxed he doesn't need meditation. That being said a scatterbrained stressed out person (like myself) could benefit from it.

[SPJ]

Yes. meditation does help health by quieting the mind or thinking of nothing.

lower blood pressure, "reduce" stress or tension level etc.

daily life will accumulate a lot of distractions over time.

some quiet time to "relax" our mind and to refocus it to the task at hand be it analysis of things or physical work.

some basket ball team does this before game, I think.
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[scholar]

It helps to define meditation as well. For a lot of laypeople, meditation implies religious contemplation, and a lot of people do meditate that way. For MA though, I find myself having to explain to people that the meditation we talk about is focus training for the attention. People can turn that to religion if they want, prayer, etc., but we only talk martial application. This separates orthodox schools from incompetent nutjobs like "Taoist T'ai Chi Society" and "Healing Tao".

We also especially tell the public that there are secondary health benefits, but again they are ultimately contingent on martial ability, at least the ability of the teacher. No martial ability, no safe, effective teaching. Students can can benefit from our stuff without punching each other, but they benefit a lot more with even a basic martial understanding of the curriculum.

I said all that to say that I give equal weight to the first two choices.

[Ironman]

Qigong meditation is related and an intregal part of the white tiger gung fu. For example we have meditations for three star, iron body and other stuff....

[samson818]

I find meditation to be more difficult than physical martial training.

Quieting the mind can be difficult when you are used to distractions to focus on such as pain from mabu.

There are many types of meditation.
I try to combine my zhan zhuang/jam jong and quiet my mind at the same time.

[qiphlow]

There are many types of meditation.
I try to combine my zhan zhuang/jam jong and quiet my mind at the same time.

ditto.

[Hishaam]

I voted for the first choice, as Scholar mentioned not only it helps you relax but also focus on the moment of course generally speaking since there are many other benefits.