10 Lessons on Finding Inner Peace from Martial Arts Movies

Enlightenment from Martial Arts Films

By Paul Asay

Thwap! Whiff! Shroop! Aaarrgghh! These are the sounds of a typical martial arts film. They do not suggest deep introspection. Rarely do samurais or ninjas clasp hands and sing camp songs.

But don't turn away yet, Grasshopper. Like "The Karate Kid" remake, coming to theaters June 11, the following martial arts movies offer lessons that go beyond flinging nunchucks and roundhouse kicks. After all, there's a philosophy behind nearly every form of martial art, and many of its best practitioners ritually find inner peace before they wreak outer chaos. Martial arts are about becoming a better person, inside and out: The whole breaking-bricks-with-your-hands thing is just gravy.

So put on your canvas gi, polish your katana, and enter the spiritually rich world of martial arts cinema, where enlightenment comes like—and sometimes with—a swift kick to the head.

'Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon' (2000): Embrace Love

In a country of more than a billion people, it takes some doing to be the baddest cat on the block--which is what makes Li Mu Bai so remarkable. This hired blade can float through treetops like a sparrow and thump Jack Bauer-like opponents. And when it comes to meditation, the guy's an absolute pro: he's got more tranquility than all of the medicinal marijuana outlets in L.A.

Yet Li's not at peace. Because of whom he's chosen to be--a fighting monk--romance is off-limits for him, and he must try to find true joy through meditation. Yet when he finally reaches a high level of meditation-spurred enlightenment, he finds instead an "endless sorrow"--a sorrow you can almost see brush across his ever-serene face.

Only when Li is finally beaten--not by an army, but by a tiny, poisoned dart--does the fighter discover the source of his real happiness: Yu Shu Lien, his longtime companion. "I want to tell you with my last breath that I have always loved you," he says. "I would rather be a ghost...than enter heaven without you. Because of your love, I will never be a lonely spirit."

Sure, the dart may have killed Li. But only one thing truly, and gloriously, conquered him: love.

Click here to purchase 'Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon'

'Enter the Dragon' (1973): Dispel Illusion

Han's Island must have sounded so nice in the brochure.

Han, in an effort to attract the world's best martial artists to his island for a private competition, stocked it with everything they might want: good food, beautiful women, and lots and lots of butts to kick. He hoped the lush environment and tantalizing attractions would keep his guests from poking too much around the island's underbrush.

But it takes more than a fresh mango and a pretty girl to distract Bruce Lee from his secret mission (given to him by the British government). "The enemy has only images and illusions behind which he hides his true motives," Lee's teacher once told him. "Destroy the image and you will break the enemy." In "Enter the Dragon," Lee is determined to dispel the pretty facade of Han's Island and reveal the drug-dealing pimp who owns it for who he is—and when he finishes the guy off, he appropriately does so in a room of mirrors.

Had Han survived his confrontation with Lee, he would have loved the age we live in—filled as it is with consumerism, sensory pleasures, and mirrors of our own making. But to find true happiness, we must try to look beyond the reflections and illusions we've made to find the truth behind it all.

Click here to purchase 'Enter the Dragon'

'The Karate Kid' (1984): Be Patient

Wax on. Wax off.

Such were Mr. Miyagi's first instructions to young Daniel Larusso early during the boy's karate training. And for four agonizing days, Daniel does very little else but wax Miyagi's car, paint his house, refinish his deck. Why, it's a miracle Miyagi didn't make Daniel build a sunroom. Four days gone, and what has he learned?

"You learn plenty," Miyagi insists. Turns out, all the tasks Miyagi assigned to Daniel didn't just spruce up the teacher's abode (though that was a nice perk). They also sharpened Daniel's muscles—primed them to automatically block punches. Nifty trick, that.

"First learn stand, then learn fly," Mr. Miyagi tells his pupil. "Nature rule, Daniel-san, not mine." It's a good rule for all of us to remember: Before we can become great at something, we must become good. And before we can become good, we often start not knowing how to do that thing at all. To excel at anything is often a long, sometimes painful process. But with patience, we can all get to where we want to go.

Click here to purchase 'The Karate Kid'

'The Seven Samurai' (1954): Defend the Defenseless

A small Japanese village discovers it's to be attacked by merciless bandits. The villagers have little wealth, little food, and no realistic way of defending themselves. But the villagers, tired of their homes being pillaged year after year, elect to fight back, anyway–or, at the very least, hire some "hungry samurais" to fight for them.

And hire them they do: Seven samurai, to be precise, though a couple seem to barely qualify. The warriors make a fortress of the village and, eventually, defend it successfully—but at great loss to themselves. Four fall, three remain to fight another day. "So again, we are defeated," says samurai Kambei Shimada. "The farmers have won. Not us."

But in the paradoxical nature of martial arts movie wisdom, Kambei is wrong. For in losing, these unconnected, aimless samurai have won honor, respect, and gratitude. These warriors opted to protect folks who didn't have the means to protect themselves—a noble and glorious mission. If these martial arts movies are meant to teach us how to better ourselves, sacrificing for others (not necessarily our lives, but with our time and money too) is a fantastic way to find our best.

Click here to purchase 'The Seven Samurai'

'Bloodsport' (1988): Honor Your Elders

Frank Dux and Tanaka didn't get off to a great start.

The two meet under the worst of circumstances when Frank tries to steal a sword from Mr. Tanaka's house. Tanaka catches him and—under some states' "make my day" law—could have cut the boy in two. Instead, he tells Frank that swords must be "earned." And then Tanaka volunteers to teach the lad everything he knows.

For years, Frank—along with Tanaka's birth son, Shingo—train at the knee of Tanaka. Shingo had always wanted to fight in a legendary (and highly illegal) underground rumble called the Kumite, and when Shingo dies, Frank begs Tanaka to let him go instead to represent the family.

"You are not Japanese!" Tanaka says. "You are not a Tanaka!" These are things that Frank—who now looks far more like a certain Muscles from Brussels than any Japanese warrior—already knows. But Frank, desperately wanting to honor his teacher, insists—and, of course, goes on to win. It just goes to show that while blood may be thicker than water, time spent well together forms a thicker brew still.

Click here to purchase 'Bloodsport'

'Kung Fu Panda' (2008): Believe in Yourself

In real life, pandas are a pretty good argument against evolution. They eat just one type of rare bamboo, give birth to just one cub at a time (which then monopolizes the parent's attention something awful), and blend in as well with their green surroundings as much as Lady Gaga would at the Daytona 500. Charles Darwin, had he seen a panda, might have tossed out his evolutionary theory and become a Southern Baptist.

Even in the anthropomorphic China of "Kung Fu Panda," pandas don't come across as contenders for "survival of the fittest" honors. Take Po—the rotund, adopted son of a noodle chef. So how, then, does Po gets mistaken for the legendary "Dragon Warrior"? Why in the heck does he become the guy to learn the secrets of the fabled Dragon Scroll, said to bequeath unlimited powers on those who read it?

Po himself would shrug his shoulders at these sorts of questions—just as we all would if we were given tasks that seemed far beyond our abilities. Almost all of us, like Po, tend to sell ourselves a little short.

But once Po saw the Dragon Scroll, it all came together for him. The scroll itself was blank: Po didn't need any secret wisdom to become the valley's awaited defender. He simply needed to believe in himself.

Click here to purchase 'Kung Fu Panda'

'Iron Monkey' (1993): Be Radically Good

What do you get when you blend Robin Hood, Batman, and Florence Nightingale in one package? Why, Iron Monkey, of course.

Based on a series of Chinese folk tales, "Iron Monkey" is about a doctor who secretly moonlights as a vigilante do-gooder, stealing from the rich, giving to the poor, and knocking the tar out of anyone who tries to stop him. And while Iron Monkey's battles might strike some pacifists among us as a little uncouth, such critics may comfort themselves in the knowledge that the vigilante, as his alter ego, dutifully nurses the very soldiers he injures back to health.

Beliefnet would be loath to suggest to any of its readers to follow Iron Monkey's example to the letter: While Iron Monkey became a Chinese folk hero for stealing gold from the governor's mansion, you'd probably just get several years of jail time. But when you consider the good you could do without breaking the law—donating your time, energy, and money to those who need it the most—you, too, could emulate the spirit of Iron Monkey. And perhaps, in 500 years, someone might make a movie about you.

Click here to purchase 'Iron Monkey'

'Shanghai Noon' (2000): Celebrate Diversity

Pop culture has seen its share of odd couples: Run DMC and Aerosmith, Sonny and Cher, Julia Roberts and Lyle Lovett. But few can rumble with Jackie Chan's Chon Wang and Owen Wilson's Roy O'Bannon in "Shanghai Noon."

Wang, a guard from imperial China, is on his way to save a Chinese princess in the Wild, Wild West when the bandito O'Bannon and his gang hijack Wang's train and kill his uncle. It's an inauspicious start, and from there things just get worse. Thanks to Wang, O'Bannon is abandoned by his own gang and buried neck-deepin the desert. Thanks to O'Bannon, Wang gets thrown in jail and becomes the West's most-wanted man since Jesse James. O'Bannon finds Wang's Chinese ways repressive and his long hair silly. Wang thinks O'Bannon is lazy, loud, and stupid.

Of course, it's only a matter of time before the two become the best of friends, because in PG-13 buddy-movie comedies—particularly ones that harbor ambitions of launching sequels—that's pretty much writ in stone. Still, Shanghai Noon's hackneyed message is a pretty good one: two characters from different cultures who learn to appreciate each other not in spite of their differences, but because of them? If only the Middle East followed the buddy movie template.

Click here to purchase 'Shanghai Noon'

'Hero' (2002): Let Go of Anger

He was known as Nameless, a wandering warrior without home or connection. He came to visit the King of Qin and tells him the story of how he dispatched three legendary assassins who were determined to kill the king.

Only one problem: The whole story's a lie. Nameless—whose family had been murdered by Qin's soldiers many years ago—was the real assassin, and his story allowed him to approach close enough to do his dirty deed. Qin turns his back to Nameless and thus, metaphorically, faces his own death. But as he does so, he and Nameless both discover—and understand the wisdom of—words written upon a scroll once held by one of the assassins. On it contained a warrior's most hallowed goal: "The ultimate ideal is when the sword disappears altogether," Qin says. "The warrior embraces all around him. The desire to kill no longer exists. Only peace remains."

Hearing those words, Nameless gives up his revenge and allows himself to be executed. Qin becomes the first king of a united China. And both remind us that bitterness and vengeance mean very little in the end. Peace, within ourselves, is a precious thing indeed—and something that can often be found only when we release the sword.

Click here to purchase 'Hero'

'The Forbidden Kingdom' (2008): Grasp Your Destiny

Jason was a martial arts expert, all right: the Boston teen knew all the best techniques…from the movies. Too bad he didn't have any real training in the martial arts. Because when he stumbled upon a staff that magically transported him to rough-and-tumble ancient China, it would have come in handy.

Luckily, Jason quickly finds two talented guardians—a drunken "immortal" and a silent monk—who manage to teach him some pretty nifty moves during a trek across the country. Even more luckily, Jason turns out to be the subject of a prophecy of some kind: It was foretold that he would free the staff's rightful owner, the Monkey King. And those who have been prophesied about can't die before the credits roll, can they?

Few of us can claim to be the subject of prophecy, of course. But all of us have destinies of a sort to fulfill—jobs we've been given or duties we're especially equipped to do. Sure, our destinies can feel a bit modest compared to Jason's, but they're no less important. And there's no better way to find fulfillment than to live the life that, deep down inside, we feel we were meant to live.

Click here to purchase 'The Forbidden Kingdom'