Movement Arts That Are Non-Martial

[rideforever]

I would be interested to know about any, if anyone knows anything like tai chi that is non-martial ?

I suppose salsa is, but it doesn't have that slow awareness practice within it.
Yoga (asana) / ballet seem quite physically oriented, outwards.

There are three Christian origin traditions I am aware of, Eurythmy, Pan-eurythmy, Gurdjieff movements.
Any others that are developed ?   Any from the Orient ?

[Fa Xin]

Qigong?

[GreytoWhite]

http://store.chiflow.com/mm5/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Product_Code=soarCHIswim

[escott]

What is your goal?

Here is a long, well researched list.

 

http://www.egreenway.com/qigong/index.htm

 

[Vajra Fist]

 

This looks like a wonderful form.

[thelerner]

I'll put in long distance swimming, has the slow motion affect, builds endurance and knocks out the dragon middle man.  In Gabriel Roths Sweat your Prayer system the Stillness section has nice slow free style motions. 

[dwai]

Dao Yin is a moving practice and has many useful functions, primarily around health maintenance and improvement. 

[windwalker]

Had I not learned taiji, this is probably what I would have looked into

 

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Any others that are developed ?   Any from the Orient ?

 

this would be one.

 

 

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da­bai quan is based on Buddhist sutra da­ bai jou, according to it's 84 Sanskrit sayings. every saying has a correlated image of a figure and posture/movement. the traditional 63 steps is the representing/prevalent set. there is a newly formed simplified 21 steps, competition 42 steps , new version of 84 and 128 traditional steps.

 

Edited April 13, 2019 by windwalker

[doc benway]

Not non-martial but can be practiced as such - Chen silk reeling. 

Not explicitly moving but a treasure trove of subtle movement with deeper attention - zhan zhuang.

Not non- martial but deceptively subtle and peaceful - yi quan. 

[lifeforce]

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Edited April 25, 2019 by lifeforce

[windwalker]

18 minutes ago, lifeforce said:

Nobody has mentioned plain old walking. Probably the best movement art there is.

 

While true, there are specific ways walking that fit the op criteria.

 

"Walking meditation, also known as kinhin, is the walking meditation that is practiced between long periods of the sitting meditation known as zazen.

 

The practice is common in Zen, Chan Buddhism, Korean Seon and Vietnamese Thiền. Wikipedia"

[rideforever]

Kinhin is bringing the meditative state into the moving life.   I often practice it in the cafe whilst reading a book, I will pause after each paragraph, and ensure I am abiding correctly in the Pure Consciousness, normally by deeper self-remeberance absorption or embodiment.   And then read the next paragraph.   Likewise I often do that when I am cycling as you have that tunnel of movement and you can rest backwards into the one who watched through you.   Until it is permanent.

 

Few movement practices seem to develop something really tangible that is of the beyond, for instance working with qi.   And few have the kind of need to be developed deeply, when fighting there is great urgency to get better, and so these arts are quite deep and wonderful to practice. 

 

@VajraFist mentions Swimming Dragon Taiyi which I was very keen on some years back however I had the feeling that nobody teaching understands the energetic purpose of the arts.   Hans Menck in the video above, I emailed him at the time but he seemed not to know.  Others have said that it opens the extra-ordinary meridiens.   The root teacher Yu Anren seemed very vague.   There is one Chinese lady in Vancouver who does a beautiful version, and the following teacher Lu Jian is the only person I have ever seen who seems to understand the inner energies which I presume he has reverse engineered based on knowledge of other forms:
 

 

 

Five Rhythms I used to do a lot but I remain unconvinced of those who try to turn it into a path.   Biodanza is better imo, for human development.

 

 

[Starjumper]

Non martial - although obviously done by a kick ass martial artist.

 

[windwalker]

45 minutes ago, rideforever said:

And few have the kind of need to be developed deeply, when fighting there is great urgency to get better, and so these arts are quite deep and wonderful to practice. 

 

Interesting.

 

Things that directly address life and death tend to be great focus'ers on direct interaction with the practice. 

 

Often practiced and found by those whose practices require it, arriving at it formally through a practice, or informally through an activity.

 

Some refer to it as the gateless, gate.

 

[rideforever]

1 hour ago, windwalker said:

Things that directly address life and death tend to be great focus'ers on direct interaction with the practice. 

 

Yes, it's on a "need-to-know" basis one could say.   Similarly my understanding is that the part of human beings that is most conscious is the part relating to hunting, which has a more sophisticated sens of itself and flexbility (free will) .... and that spirituality re-directs this part towards the objective reality.

 

Humans and other creatures are dreaming even when walking, it would seem.

 

 

[rideforever]

It often seems to me that keeping one's head down is a good option.   

However what a human soul could do at its maximum extent as a part of the objective reality, is barely known, such light has rarely reached down through the layers into this strange realm.

 

 

[joeblast]

martial or non martial, good forms have good structure, its all in application and intent

[Dainin]

https://www.yogajournal.com/practice/somatics-yogas-west

[Starjumper]

On 4/18/2019 at 5:49 AM, J Warg said:

Will some Spring Forest Qigong (or any other non-fighting qigong) do it?

 

I get caught up in all the kiddie stuff and forget my own roots = )  This is my Grandfather Chen teacher, the notorious Feng Zhiqiang, doing Primordial chi kung, which is very good and focussed non martial energy work + some exercise.  This is what the serious old guys used to do and like, it has a decidedly different flavor than the stuff that  'became popular at TDB'.