Hello,

Based on your experience in metta, how does this practice affects human bodily and mental functions and activities? Since the practice and performance of any kind of martial art involves all human bodily and mental functions, is it possible to see new martial arts based on and derved from metta?

What do you think of training millitia in metta?


Thank you,
Marino

Yes I think so.  Have you heard of Corky Quackenbush?  He tries to apply the concepts of metta to Aikido.  Specifically he finds metta changes the body and cultivates the weird internal power that the founder had, that few of his disciples seem to have.  My problem with Aikido though is that if you look at the techniques they train in, they don't really square at all with what real attackers do.

I think you could apply the same idea to any of the other internal martial arts as well.  

I have been trying to follow such a path using Tai Chi. I started because a Tai Chi/Karate is a few minutes from my home and the nearest meditation center is a few hours. I think that Tai Chi lends itself well to metta because normally one generates qi and then emits it in various ways using a sequence of postures/forms. So what I like to do is generate metta and emit it through the various forms.
 
I have only been working on this for a couple of months so I will have to see if it leads to the sort of benefits I hope for (insight into the three characteristics and an increase in compassion and joy) Also, as of this writing I have not become impervious to fire, poison, or weapons ;)

I don't think you're going to have any opportunity for metta while somebody is seriously trying to kick your ass.  My training in a very rough martial art, where we fought hard, and a lifetime working security assures me of this. That said, dispassion, produced by samadhi, is what you aim for. In dispassion, there is no ill will towards the opponent. The mind is clear, open and ready to respond to an attack.  That's why Zen was the religion of the samurai. In vast spacious awareness, there is no fear of death and action is immediate. Metta can be practiced at other times. Maybe sending good wishes to the other guy while he recuperates.