Rhetoric about cultivating the self, mystical inner energy, and meditation permeates European discourse on East Asian martial arts. They have often functioned as a contact point with Buddhism, and contributed to a broader sacralisation of bodily exercises. However, few studies of them have been produced by scholars of religion. To analyse martial arts spirituality as a form of lived religion, participant observation, and interviews are necessary. Mapping the milieu through large-scale surveys is also important, as is analysing books, leaflets, and websites produced by participants. The broader popular culture that martial arts are embedded in constitutes a significant context, as does the discourse on martial arts in newspapers. Martial arts spirituality can be analysed as a sub-field of the new age/holistic/alternative spirituality milieu and need to be related to local processes of secularisation. As martial arts are products of dynamic borrowing between “East” and “West”, global history provides a further useful lens.