Spiritual Arts Archives - StudyMartialArts.Org

Paying respect to the masters.

Kung Fu School Shrines

By David Roy Kelly on November 25, 2019 Spiritual Arts

by Phillip Starr This is a short article about something with which most of you are unfamiliar and probably have never seen…Kung Fu School Shrines. The school shrine in a Chinese martial arts school is known as “sun toi” in guangdong-hua (aka. Cantonese dialect) and is considerably different from the kamidana (“spirit shelf”) found in traditional Japanese martial arts schools. First, a kamidana cannot be set on the ground or at eye level. It must be above an ordinary person’s eye level. Second, a kamidana cannot be set up over an entrance, but must be built into a space which…

Remembering Miyamoto Musashi

Miyamoto Musashi, the Way of the Warrior

By David Roy Kelly on February 20, 2017 Spiritual Arts

Miyamoto Musashi (宮本武蔵?) (c. 1584–June 13 (Japanese calendar: May 19), 1645), also known as Shinmen Takezō, Miyamoto Bennosuke, or by his Buddhist name Niten Dōraku, was a Japanese swordsman and samurai famed for his duels and distinctive style. Musashi, as he was often simply known, became renowned through stories of his excellent swordsmanship in numerous duels, even from a very young age. He was the founder of the Hyōhō Niten Ichi-ryū or Niten-ryū style of swordsmanship and the author of The Book of Five Rings (五輪書, Go Rin No Sho?), a book on strategy, tactics, and philosophy that is…

Bruce Lee's Words of Wisdom for Daily Life

12 Timeless Truths from Bruce Lee, Master of Self-Mastery

By David Roy Kelly on January 10, 2017 Spiritual Arts

1. “Absorb what is useful. Discard what is not. Add what is uniquely yours.” Throughout your life, you’ll be inundated with information and people telling you what you should or shouldn’t do. Take everything with a grain of salt and decide for yourself what works for you. In life there are countless ways of doing things, there’s no right or wrong. Learn from others and discover what works for you and make it your own. 2. I’m not in this world to live up to your expectations and you are not in this world to live up to mine.” It…

This HighExistence course sets out 30 epic challenges to Enlightenment.

30 Challenges to Enlightenment

By David Roy Kelly on September 2, 2016 Latest News, Spiritual Arts

This is your chance to change your life forever…And join me on this journey to tame your monkey mind! HighExistence has designed a legendary self-development obstacle course! 30 Challenges to Enlightenment. Before you read further, you should watch the trailer to introduce the course. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ixaclCGkfzE Excited yet?! This thing is the culmination of the HighExistence team’s combined 25+ years of research in self-development, spirituality, science, and philosophy. They spent 6 months engineering the course, and it’s honestly unlike any self-improvement tool I have ever seen. Over SIXTEEN THOUSAND people have now joined the tribe for 30 Challenges to Enlightenment. What is 30…

9 Gems of Wisdom from the Dali Lama

By David Roy Kelly on March 11, 2016 Spiritual Arts

9 Gems of wisdom from the Dali Lama that will get you thinking about life and your place in it. 1. “Through violence, you may ‘solve’ one problem, but you sow the seeds for another. … 2. Love and compassion are necessities, not luxuries. Without them, humanity cannot survive. … 3. The universe that we inhabit and our shared perception of it are the results of a common karma. Likewise, the places that we will experience in future rebirths will be the outcome of the karma that we share with the other beings living there. The actions of each of…

Zen Buddhism, Koans and Enlightenment

By David Roy Kelly on March 10, 2016 Spiritual Arts

A koan is a riddle or puzzle that Zen Buddhists use during meditation to help them unravel greater truths about the world and about themselves. Zen Buddhism, Koans and enlightenment are intrinsically linked. These succinct paradoxical statement or question used as a meditation discipline for novices, particularly in the Rinzai sect are intended to exhaust the analytic intellect and the egoistic will, readying the mind to entertain an appropriate response on the intuitive level. Each such exercise constitutes both a communication of some aspect of Zen experience and a test of the students competence. The koan serves as a surgical tool used to cut into…

Learning taiji, fajin, hermetics and metaphysics in Chiang Mai.

Taiji Fajin, Hermetics and Metaphysics

By David Roy Kelly on February 20, 2016 Destinations, Martial Arts, Spiritual Arts, Thailand

Nullam lorem eros, posuere nec sodales at, aliquet. Ut luctus justo elit, sit amet sodales purus vulputate non.

Without air, we cannot breathe. Each of us is in the midst of myriads of worlds. We are in the center of the world always, moment after moment.

A Lesson on Breathing

By David Roy Kelly on February 19, 2016 Books, Recommendations, Reviews, Spiritual Arts

A lesson on breathing from ‘Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind’ by Shunryu Suzuki When we inhale, the air comes into the inner world. When we exhale, the air goes out to the outer world. The inner world is limitless, and the outer world is also limitless. We say “inner world” or “outer world,” but actually there is just one whole world. In this limitless world, our throat is like a swinging door. The air comes in and goes out like a swinging door. The air comes in and goes out like someone passing through a swinging door. If you think, “I…

“Separation of the body and soul” the Tibetan Sky Burial has been practiced for thousands of years in tibet.

Tibetan Sky Burial

By David Roy Kelly on January 16, 2016 Culture, Spiritual Arts

The Tibetan sky burial appears to have evolved from ancient practices of defleshing corpses as discovered in archeological finds in the region. These practices most likely came out of practical considerations, but they could also be related to more ceremonial practices similar to the suspected sky burial evidence found at Göbekli Tepe (11,500 years before present) and Stonehenge (4,500 years BP). Most of Tibet is above the tree line, and the scarcity of timber makes cremation economically unfeasible. Additionally, subsurface interment is difficult since the active layer is not more than a few centimetres deep, with solid rock or permafrost beneath the surface. “Separation of the body and soul” The Tibetan Sky Burial…

Walking Meditation

By David Roy Kelly on December 16, 2015 Health & Fitness, Spiritual Arts

In this article I discuss some of the benefits of mindful walking or walking meditation and how such a practice can bring the practitioner towards a path of mindfulness. A path toward mindfulness The oldest evidence for walking on two legs comes from one of the earliest humans known, Sahelanthropus. Walking upright may have helped this species survive in the diverse habitats near where it lived—including forests and grasslands. Today the habitat of the modern humans are urban areas, and walking no-longer is matter of life and death but a matter of quality of life. As a low impact exercise over 10,000 steps…