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Old 03-08-2007, 07:38 PM   #62
eyrie
 
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Location: Summerholm, Queensland
Join Date: Dec 2004
Posts: 1,126
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Re: When you bow do you worship or just...

Nice post Josh... and I agree...

Even if you believe that the act of bowing is a vestigial remnant of a socio-cultural and/or religious ritual to which you personally do not subscribe to (for whatever reason), I think it is important to establish some sort of ritual to acknowledge and delineate the start and end of practice.

So, for me, the ritual act of bowing (either standing or seated), simply marks the beginning and end of an encounter, and which sets the tone for everything in between.

And as far as I'm concerned, MA and religion are two separate things - and should be kept separate. You wouldn't practice MA in a house of religion, so why would you practice a religious rite in a MA venue? And don't confuse religion with spirituality - they're not the same thing.

The real question is, what personal "meaning" (interpretative or otherwise) do you assign/ascribe to the ritual?

OTOH, if the particular dojo in question does indeed practice some form of Shinto ritual, then either you're in the wrong place, or you should pay heed to the words of St. Ambrose...

Last edited by eyrie : 03-08-2007 at 07:46 PM.

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