This book is the first proper account of the historical, spiritual and philosophical background of the Buddhist martial art known as Kempo (in Chinese 'Chuan Fa'). It was from Kempo teachings that all Okinawan Karate developed, as did Aikido and Ju-Jitsu. When, much later, Gichin Funakoshi & Kenwa Mabuni went to Japan they called their art 'Kempo' rather than the modern 'Karate' as an acknowledgement of this fact.
However in common with many other modernising Okinawan teachers of their time, they neither taught - or had not studied- the full range of Kempo trainings. In particular they missed out what was in fact the most important part of the trainings shown by the ancient monk masters in its homeland of China, namely the spiritual and remedial content. It was only because of these aspects of the teaching that non aggressive and non harmful martial arts had been preserved through the ages.
The 'Bodhisattva Warriors' is the first authorititive and reliable work to redress this fact and outlines clearly what is, and what is not, truly important, significant and traditional to the warrior art. It also, and revealingly so, shows what a 'warrior' should really be.

As its pages unfold the reader discovers the vast and often unsuspected philosophy involved in the study and perfection of Kempo which involves learning the arts and crafts usually considered to be exclusively the realms of physicians, priests and pschologists.
You can see how 'Kata' were originally used to diagnose illness, how 'Dachi' (stances) were (and are) interpreted to reveal psychological weaknesses and to heal the body. How certain Kata are in fact nothing to do with self defence (and never were) You can also easily dispel the myth that the unarmed martial arts are supposed to be, or were ever taught as, sports. Using this book wisely students can easily judge if any particular teacher really does know the art fully and, on the basis of this, decide where and with whom they should really be studying.

'Bodhisattva Warriors' includes many clearly written references for the books and texts relating Kempo's Buddhist philosophical principles and many valuable notes upon modern karate schools which they would prefer not to be known. The notes in this book alone contain more information about the origin of the martial arts, be they Taoist or Buddhist, than many of the complete books written by modern 'masters'.

In its pages you can discover the answers to some of the most important and serious questions relating to the history, philosophy and symbols of the spiritual practices in the Martial arts and you will see why you can not really become a master in them without such knowledge.