Why Martial Arts & Yoga are a scam, spiritually & commercially speaking

Martial arts are masculine spiritual paths to enlightenment, which technically (yes not practically) should emphasize simplicity & austerity (earth element) as the primary means to ascension. It doesn't often spiritually work due to the following:

1. People naturally get into it due to excess water element spurred need to show off, get a thrill, or an activity due to boredom or inactivity (or movie inspiration), or for excess fire element as proactive self defense usually due to some unpleasantly experienced danger or threat, which although is definitely possible, very unlikely these days. 

Life naturally has problems & shortcomings, and it is important to learn how to respond to persevere & control the situation (the martial part) via the physical-mental masculine fire element, calmly & compassionately (the art part) via the relatively high non-physical feminine air element, creatively & intuitively via the dual-gender any-form ether element, but most importantly by surrendering desire as endurance via the non-gender no-mind 6th element.

That takes years & years of long & rigorous deep training, which most don't have the patience let alone the depth let alone the aspiration for. Even then, the body may be more relaxed in a stressful situation, but the mind may still be seeking to wreak unspeakable havoc, aided by martial knowledge & skill.

2. People otherwise soak up all its water, meaning try to acquire the fun part of it with little to no regard to structure nor culture (in depth with the aid of history and open-minded willingness to learn) along with too many techniques by trying to remember therefore memorize them all creating clutter brain, therefore becomes impractical even survival wise. 

It also creates excess commercialism out of its unlimited arts, schools, strains, dojos, clubs & organizations, related politics (between arts, schools, strains, clubs, even within same network or strain), registrations, classes, seminars, workshops, club network workshops (tai kais), terms, rituals, sequences, techniques, uniforms, ranks (via belts, badges, & bands), certificates, equipments (including padding, targets, and weapons, especially swords and their ornate sword mounts, not to mention related armor, stands, cutting mats, mat stands, other uniforms, and maintenance kits & services). Ironically, this is a result of over emphasis on the feminine water element, despite martial path being advantageous due to the masculine (fire) element.

3. People often become vengeful, controlling, and even arrogant having amounted tons of knowledge and even strength (maybe even super powers) developed with all the pride to defend. It is often falsely demonstrated to work in a live action role play, or spar with a heck ton of unrealistic rules. 

However, a Warrior is an authority figure. Think police, army, and related judicial system; there is a level of authority involved, so that confusion is understandable. This is a consequence of over emphasis on fire element, the element of order & control.

(True change is not about bold loud action. It is about letting go of all that clouds you from the Truth. It is about giving up rush for calm, vengeance for kindness, lust for love, pride for humility, and who you can be for What you can not be)

Martial arts do not even often work commercially either - because aside from being distinguished from martial sports for being non-physical arts that emphasize mercy & non-aggression (even formlessness) - for the following reasons:

1. theistic religion practitioners do not often appreciate practices that do not involve a god, which martial arts generally do not condone, as they are primarily Buddhist or Taoist arts. Some are Shinto or Hindu but not many, and do not often involve worship in any way, but some level of idolizing is prevalent.

2. theistic (especially monotheistic) religion practitioners do not often appreciate practises that have more than one god. Some martial practises involve a god or gods, even it where teachers or spirits of that, ancestors, greats of past or even Nature.

3. theistic religion practitioners often do not appreciate practices that involve a god(s) other their own.

4. religions generally do not condone violence, although all martial arts obviously involve some level of violence (or intimidation) for control over the situation to minimize ... violence. Yes, evil to control evil. It works just like any form of punishment in judicial system, but preferably more preventatively, that is before any violence is already committed.

5. religions do not generally condone dharma meaning duty (involving some effort, usually some level of knowledge and skill) other than possibly their own bread & butter (done ethically and/or kindly as a relatively lower form of spiritual practice). 

We all know (or should know) that spirituality is not separate from life, and in fact is best from within (without necessarily involving any separate spiritual practice), ideally with some sort of spiritual practice method(s). In fact warrior dharma is one of the highest, as it involves (to varying degrees) superior intelligence and/or strength, knowledge, skill, endurance, courage, self sacrifice, and ... heroism. It is also a rising fire element dharma, which, is only half physical in terms of frequency or density.

6. religions do not generally condone health and fitness, but we all know how important health is for survival (required for enlightenment) if not for minimizing suffering (which helps prevent causing it, even if just by aiding in one's duty) although most people use fitness to show off their superior physique, usually for monetary gain. 

To be fit & healthy requires a level of physical diligence, especially nowadays, thanks to our poor diet and lack of physical activity.

7. people generally get into it for proactive self defense or vengeance or for fitness (excess fire element), otherwise for the thrill or social needs, even just to show off (excess water element), and not for spiritual growth. 

This politicizes it because then it would be watered down to martial sports with painful (sometimes bloody, sometimes lethal) competitions, which voids it of its higher right hand element of non physical aggression without violence & competition: mercy & compassion of feminine air element. Otherwise it gets commercialized therefore politicized through martial arts itself with its unlimited ranks, sequences, certificates, weapons, etc. along with other possible forms of competition, possibly leading to serious injury, or death.

8. It can become impractical self defense wise (check #2 in the previous list). Yes some people do sign up to learn self defense.

Of course, not all religion practitioners are ignorant, closed minded and self righteous. Some are more open minded due to superior social and/or educational backgrounds, and some are just more intuitive or at least deep critical thinkers by character, regardless of their educational background.

Yoga may seem like a plausible solution to this conundrum, but just as people generally don't emphasize austerity of masculine earth element, they won't generally emphasize kindness of feminine air element that condones compassion & non physicality, instead over emphasizing selfish & highly physical social & sense indulgence of excess water element.

Ironically, you can see that (mainstream) Yoga has actually become too masculine because of over emphasis on health & fitness of fire element because it has become too focused on (countless) postures that develop strength and flexibility. There is also unstoppable competition between all the unlimited (and unstoppably popping) clubs & forms.

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