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Message: <blockquote data-quote="gamerprinter" data-source="post: 6659076" data-attributes="member: 50895">Martial arts has been a focus for Buddhist monks as a means to aid in focus, discipline and meditation - as a primary means of achieving enlightenment (the ultimate goal of a Buddhist). Of course the word "monk" is a western word, none of the "monks" of Asia called themselves that. We call them monks, because like western monks, they set themselves a part from society. A monk by definition is a person who practices religious asceticism, living alone or with others like themselves away from civilization.Looking at it from a D&D point of view, European monks are much more like priests, than Asian monks, which gives them access to divine spells - which makes European monks some derivative of Cleric. Asian monks while religious are generally not considered priests, thus not having access to divine spells (which arguably is not true, Buddhist monks did indeed perform rituals that could be imagined as casting divine spells).While western monks may have training with weapons, especially if a given monastery is militant, this training is a form of self defense. Where as the eastern monk martial arts is a central part of their ascetic training, and while it could be used for self defense, the training was intended to help in achieving enlightenment - a core to their ascetic practices, which is not true of western monks. While these differences aren't perfectly clear in the real world, there is a distinction that kind of makes sense.</blockquote>

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