Perhaps worth mention are ‘martial arts’ practices such as from Asia. In such traditions, people learn skillful wisdom that has been passed on. There is pervasive benefits to such practice and community. One advantage is it can give healthy outlets for some aggression, directing feelings such as youthful energy in constructive ways. Many teach respect, such as bowing to yourself and other people.
This reminds me of a story I heard about Chinese tradition. Before the Maoists, there was pervasive practice of martial arts forms. There was a wide range of traditions that evolved across the country.
The local masters formed schools that worked with others to keep people safe, including healthy, through traditional wisdom carefully passed on. The martial arts schools would practice with their neighbors, integrating styles, and ultimately learning to work together.
Some of the schools were like local nobility and could tame people who might be street thugs or participat in gangs, in sensible ways.
Sparring with neighbors at local competition they’d learn others’ forms. If it were needed, it meant they’d work together better through practice. Thus if there was need locals could repulse foreign influence / forces.
There was a wide range of exercise traditions, not only fighting, but also ‘soft’ forms, like those of Tai Chi, or Qi Gong, and other methods. I have heard it said that there were thousands of forms of Qi Gong practice. I met a teacher who’d followed a Qi Gong school, because he was sick - he found it helped him to restore physical health when medicine couldn’t. There are amazing traditions of great wisdom that we could learn from.
One great tragedy is that of the Falun Gong and their tradition. A story I heard from someone who was Chinese was how it happened. The Maoist leaders decided to study the martial traditions, and energy forms, to find out which had merit, and what they could use. The Maoists gathered what they could from the locals, so that they could make their own ‘tradition’ that was a hybrid. They subsequently decided to not favor the old traditions, and instead focused on supporting Falun Gong instead of local, traditional skills that had evolved all over in various ways. After that happened, and the old traditions waned, it was decided that the Falun Gong could become too powerful, so it was stopped too.
There’s great potential in learning from various wisdom traditions, forming local groups, such as the founding fathers may have intended. We’re also able to learn from world history to better our lives - in beneficial ways that also help others, all at the same time.
