Originally Posted by Mulan

Well, to me Martial Arts is best summarized by its 3 stages... for sake of quoting, the stages of swordmanship:
1) Sword in Hand: the stage of physical training that taps the potential of your body and teaches you techniques.
2) Sword in Heart: the stage of mental training that taps the potential of your mind and fighting spirit.
3) Sword in niether Hand nor Heart: the stage of spiritual actualization where you are in harmony with the world around you and are filled with inner peace/happiness.

Martial Arts is such a huge subject with so many options, that you can ask ten people why they take it and they'll give you 25 different answers. Some train to be in good shape, to fight in tournaments, to defend themselves in the street, to protect their loved ones... but what do warriors do in times of peace? Sure, the primary goal of a martial art is effectiveness in combat, but a true art is so much more than just that. The most renowned ancient warriors of China were also poets, writers, artists, healers, philosophers, and monks - complete human beings! They sought the link between mind and body, enlightenment through self-mastery, and the direct experience of their spirituality through the application of their techniques. They learned to fight so that they wouldn't have to kill (if at all possible).

That is why Martial Arts to me is not something that you learn for a year to kick the local bully's ass, but a long-term commitment, the benefits of which find their way into each and every aspect of your life. Those arts that are quick to learn and simple to apply might be great for short-term goals, but odds are they will not bestow the full range of benefits that the arts with the slower learning curve have to offer in the long run. Because those arts don't only train to fight, they also train to become better people. Self-defense in that case is more of a by-product of all that that comes after many years of dedicated training and meditation.

Of course, I fully realize that is a luxury few can afford. I also realize that a large fraction of this board disagrees with what I said. That's too bad... to each their own *shrug*