What's the correlation between practicing BJJ and spirituality?

I have heard people talk about how after joining a BJJ academy they have become more spiritual, it is said that being put in a vulnerable state gets you closer to god, i see many gyms have spiritual themes ( Atos for example ) . Since joining a BJJ academy i have personally been more spiritual and more aware of things that are bigger than me, bigger than us.

In the movie Choke, when Rickson is bathing in the river that he states is very cold , i remember he gets in the water and comes up and the first thing he says is " Thank you my lord! "

Is BJJ the gateway to the afterlife?

Does BJJ have a spiritual side to it that makes its practitioners become more aware of the " other side " ?


Am i over thinking this whole grappling thing?

 

Yes.

 

If you die in a BJJ match you go straight to Valhalla.

 

Jesus came to me when i was choked out once, he said "Bump and roll". I went and got baptized in the healing waters of lake minnetonka the very next day.

 

Quite the opposite I'd say - grappling is so damn no-nonsense that you get an extremely practical approach to martial arts.

Athletes tend to be more religious...
Brazilians tend to be more religious...

Maybe you just got more like the people you were surrounding yourself with?

edit:

Crap. All I did was drool.

 

This is going to be something that's COMPLETELY and 100% dependent upon the person practicing it.

 

There is a correlation between hardships and spirituality and training grappling is a sort of hardship.

 

There is a correlation between (christian) spirituality and poor redistribution of wealth. Brazil is one such place. Brazilians do brazilian jiu jitsu. It is either positive proof or anecdotal evidence, choose whatever you are accustomed to.

Luckily in my gym we only have a Brazilian buddist and a Brazilian marxist, so we just train and roll.

 

being spiritual is non-sense?

 

I don't know what your definition of spirituality is, but I wouldn't consider myself very spiritual.
I don't believe in any gods, deities, spirits or even fate.

Then again I've been doing BJJ for under 2 years, but I don't see it changing.

 

BJJ is “entarted” judo without the Zen perspective, and fighting on the ground too long will make their souls earth bound! So the best thing BJJ guys can hope for in the afterlife is the Infierno and doing their perpetual ground game there, if not going lower down where they are obliged to omoplata and triangle each others in the heat by using radioactive gi…

 

BJJ is sold with this extra component: the lifestyle.
The lifestyle pleases the hipsters and people that are looking for something to belong to and/or believe into.
I can see a few famous BJJ instructors adding their Christian belief to their own BJJ lifestyle.

 

USA is one of the richest countries in median household income and PPP per capita, and you have a lot of religious nutjobs.

Religion is a cultural thing mainly.