Quote:
William Hazen wrote:
What does seriously thinking about Death and Killing have to do with the Martial Arts?
I "seriously" cannot recall the last time I thought about it while I was on the mat.
Sounds like another thread topic to me.
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Ah .. a joke, then ? The point of Hillman's book is that only the martial impulse can control the martial impulse -- internally and socially. If practice is not mindful of the harm we are near to doing AND striving to come ever nearer to that bound without exceeding "acceptable" (and serious) harm for the situation -- it is not really martial. It is sport.
"Martial" arts like wrestling and (modern) judo have rules to avoid serious wounding or death because the possibility is real and the physical doing of harm ("acceptable" harm limited to destroying stability or freedom or movement) is intentional. But they are not really trying to come ever closer to the boundary of serious harm without going over. That makes them sports -- evolved from martial arts.