Twenty-five hundred years before the monk Bodhidharma crossed the Himalayas from India into China, taking with him the seeds of what became the Oriental martial arts, the Celts had developed complex and effective systems of individual and group combat tactics and techniques that enabled them to spread their amazing culture across Europe, from what is present-day Turkey through the Balkans, Italy, Germany, Austria, France, Spain, Belgium, Britain and Ireland. Amazingly, archeological evidence indicates that Celtic tribes traveled to and settled as far east as Northern China over 3,000 years ago, and further evidence indicates that the Norse accepted as fact that Celts had traveled to North America fully 1,000 years before they, themselves, made their crossings.
Central to the Celtic philosophy was an acceptance of and reverence for the integration of the physical, mental and spiritual aspects of life, and the understanding that no man or woman, whether craftsman, poet or warrior, could manifest a full and authentic life without the development and melding of this natural triune.
Sli Beatha is a martial life system based on this Celtic philosophy. It promotes a code of conduct that emphasizes personal honor, integrity, courtesy, generosity, individual responsibility, personal worth and independence, an apprecation for artistic endeavors, an understanding of the integration of the physical, mental and spiritual aspects of life, and a desire to understand, honor and live in harmony with the natural world. It does this through directed study of martial arts and crafts, mental training and spiritual discovery.
The study of Sli Beatha is divided into three sections; the physical, the mental, and the spiritual ...
