Meditating Under a Waterfall



A character who strengthens mind and body by sitting under a waterfall.

Truth in Television: It's a well-known Asian ascetic practice, at least for those ascetics who live around waterfalls.

Compare Watching the Sunset.

Anime & Manga

 * The kendo captain in Mai-HiME does the entire "sitting under waterfall" thing to "cleanse his spirit of lustful thoughts".
 * Subverted, lampshaded and used straight in Samurai Champloo. Mugen is doing a Training Montage before facing a fearsome swordsman, and towards the end, he approaches the waterfall, commenting, "Meditating under a waterfall..."; then, after starring at it for a few seconds, he just goes "Screw that" and walks away.
 * Later, however, while Mugen is in the fight, the Buddhist priest (who was once a swordsman, and who trained the guy Mugen is fighting, before he fell to a darker path), is seen meditating under that same waterfall, running his Prayer Beads as he prays for Mugen's victory.
 * Kyohei from Yamato Nadeshiko Shichi Henge tried it once when he suspected he was in love with Sunako. As it turned out, he got distracted by his hunger and ended up craving fried prawn.
 * Parodied in One Piece when Luffy and Usopp stand under a bath's fountain to mimic this. Zoro is also seen doing it in a filler episode.
 * Ash and Pikachu are shown doing this in the seventh opening for the Pokémon anime.
 * Don't forget about Otoshi. He and his Marowak apparently did this too. Mind you, Marowak is a ground-type and therefore weak to water.
 * Ryoma in the Power Stone anime. While telling his fortune, Rouge assumes this means he has a fascination with laundry.
 * Motoko Aoyama in Love Hina does this as well, only one time, she gets bothered by some arrow graphics with her name on them and slices the fourth wall, transitioning into the next scene.
 * Keitaro also does this later in the manga although he gets hit by a falling log.
 * Happens in Inuyasha, when Miroku visits the family shrine.
 * Nabeshin, Pedro, and Pedro's son from Excel Saga do this during their Training Montage before they set out to rescue Pedro's wife from That Man.
 * Parodied in Happy Mania - Shigeta is pictured meditating under a waterfall... about men as usual.
 * The second ending sequence in Bobobo-Bo Bo-Bobo has Soften and Heppokomaru doing this, but Heppokomaru can't manage it.
 * Fala does this in an episode of Go Lion.
 * That sure don't look like water in the pic there...
 * Goemon Ishikawa from Lupin III does this from time to time.
 * One chapter of Keroro Gunsou opens with Koyuki and Dororo leaving to do this. The meditation causes Dororo to Flash Back briefly to.
 * Seiji Date from Ronin Warriors does this twice--and his hair doesn't move an inch. There would have been a 3rd, but meditating in a cave behind the waterfall doesn't count.
 * Hanaukyo Maid Tai episode 14. Konoe Tsurugi and Taro do this while she's training him.
 * On Steel Angel Kurumi both Nakahito and his brother do this.
 * Tenchi does this in one chapter of the Tenchi Muyo manga.
 * During his training to become a Bronze Saint, Saint Seiya's Shiryu didn't just meditate under the waterfall --he learned to kick it hard enough to reverse it.
 * Despite not really happening, Tohru Honda from Fruits Basket thought that it was part of Kyo's Training From Hell that happened before the series start.
 * In an episode of Sailor Moon S, Makoto goes to train in a Buddhist temple led by a famous Bare Fisted Monk named Kakuzuin. At some point she catches him training like this and attempts to imitate him, but she can barely withstand few seconds under the icy water. Then Kakuzuin gets out... and sneezes, as he only managed to do it due to being very focused.
 * Sanae tries this so she can change her behavior and eventually be around Ika without trying to glomp her and such, and not be knocked away.

Comics

 * Subverted in an issue of Cavewoman, in which our titular heroine attempted to have a moment like this... but then raptors came, stole her bikini, and she spent the rest of the glorious issue killing Velociraptors, naked.

Film

 * In Best Of The Best, the South Korean Taekwondo team is shown standing under a waterfall during their training.

Literature

 * In the Discworld novel Soul Music when Glod and Cliff have Buddy's harp fixed, they tell the cunning artificer that the harp is of such quality that the original maker spent a week under a waterfall in a buffalo hide meditating before even pickup up his tools. The artificer replies that for what they're paying him he'll have a quick sit in the shower wearing a shammy leather.

Live Action TV

 * Anthony Bourdain did this in an episode of No Reservations. The behind the scenes episode showed that it was a really awkward shot.
 * Done in Kamen Rider Den-O by K-Ryotaro - which, given Kintaros' predisposition towards martial arts, should come off as no surprise.
 * This was part of a detour challenge in The Amazing Race: Unfinished Business(Season 18).
 * Ryunosuke spontaneously does this under a fountain at the end of the second episode of Samurai Sentai Shinkenger, with all the Large Ham he's famous for.

Video Games

 * In Pokémon HeartGold and SoulSilver Versions, the Cianwood Gym Leader, Chuck, meditates under an artificial waterfall in his Gym. In fact, he's so deep in meditation that you can't rouse him to have a battle, despite him being the first trainer you see in the Gym. You have to battle through the Gym to reach the shutoff valve for the waterfall to snap him out of his meditation.
 * Maya Fey in Ace Attorney at one point sought a waterfall for her spirit-medium training. Subverted Trope: There are no nearby waterfalls, however, so she is forced to do it in the shower. Unfortunately, Phoenix didn't pay the water bill for his office. The basis of the plot of the last case of the third installment is Maya, Pearl and Phoenix heading to a temple so that Maya can undergo an especially cold variation.
 * It Got Worse in the manga, where Marvin Grossberg suggested they drain a water tower and ended up flooding the city. Yeah, he got sued for it.
 * In Monster Rancher 2, one of the versions of "Meditate" is this.
 * In Ippatsuman's ending in Tatsunoko vs. Capcom: Ultimate All-Stars, he realizes how strong the various street fighters are without armor or mecha, and strives to improve himself so he doesn't have to rely on them. Cut to him meditating under a waterfall as Polymar, Viewtiful Joe and Tekkaman wonder if they should be doing the same thing.
 * In Shiren the Wanderer, Pekeji claims to have done this when he has reached his maximum potential.
 * The end of the Chinatown section boss in Mad World is found Meditating Under a Waterfall, the Announcer Chatter inform us it's the first time in ages he's had a shower..
 * In Earthbound Ness has to meditate under a waterfall for three real-world minutes in order to open up the secret passage to the game's next dungeon.
 * Asura before the final battle with in Asuras Wrath.

Web Comics

 * Penny Arcade's Cardboard Tube Samurai does a bit of waterfall meditation in this strip.

Western Animation

 * Samurai Jack does it, before engaging possessed blind demon archers (he's trying to discern how he can effectively avoid the archers, because anytime he moves, he will be heard and shot at).