無心 (Mushin); Shrink your universe and be present
Aim to focus on one thing
In life it’s not uncommon to see people on spiritual journeys. I think at some point during all of our lives we’ve been on one ourselves. Many of us may also be on one right now. Some of these journeys can come in the form of religion, meditation, yoga, going on a pilgrimage, or even just taking hallucinogenic compounds and giving up showering.
I’m not a particularly religious or superstitious individual. In fact one question that keeps me grounded when I think about spiritual entities is, “If ghosts are real, why do they manifest differently according to the culture of the region?” But I’ll stop before I get too into this subject because, to cut a long story short, living in Japan and being influenced by Japanese religion and culture for almost two decades has left me with a sort of respectful but agnostic attitude modeled on something Musashi said.
「仏神は貴し、仏神をたのまず」
“Respect Buddha and the gods. Do not ask anything of them.”
- 宮本武蔵 (Miyamoto Musashi)
Many people who are pursue religion and spirituality ultimately are just looking for peace in their lives. To be able to unburden yourself from negativity and just be at peace is all a lot of us want at the end of the day.
People who practice Japanese martial arts have some of their practices tied to both Shinto and Buddhism. Buddhism especially has quite a strong focus on ‘letting go,’ ‘nothingness,’ and being unburdened from obstructive thoughts. And it’s that subject that I’d like to focus on today.
The kanji 無
無 (mu) is probably one of my favorite characters. It means; nothingness, none, not, and other synonyms referring to a null state.
The four dots at the bottom of the kanji represent one of the radicals for fire (火), and the way I had this kanji introduced to me was a fire burning down a 障子 (shōji : paper sliding door) until there is “nothing” left.
This kanji is quite widely used in regular life. なし (nashi : no/without) is often written in hiragana only, but to write it with a kanji would be 無し. There are also a lot of compound words that we see in day to day life like 無料 (muryō : no cost/free), 無制限 (museigen : no limit), and 無駄 (muda : useless). But there are also some cool words associated with martial arts like 無敵 (muteki : invincible (literally ‘no enemies’)) and 無双 (musō : peerless/unparalleled (literally ‘no comparison)).
In Japan we are surrounded by this 無 kanji, but this kanji exists in a state where it is both normal and everyday and also deep and meaningful.
Without mind (無心）
If I were to take the kanji compound 無心 (mushin) and told you it means “no heart” many people with no experience in Japanese may consider it to mean “heartless” or “cruel.” In fact it is nothing at all like that. 心 (kokoro/shin) refers to heart and mind and to be without heart/mind is a term used in Buddhism (and martial arts) to be free from obstructive thoughts.
To be 無心 (mushin) in martial arts you need to be able to move and act without thinking about it. If your opponent thinks about hitting you and you are able to automatically counter in the time it takes them to think about how they are going to achieve hitting you then you have a major advantage over them. When I spar I tend to look at the center of my opponents mass and keep their arms and legs in my periphery. When I see movements that suggest they are thinking about throwing a technique I react to the incoming move with an appropriate counter that I’ve practiced so many times I don’t need to think about it anymore. This is the kind of flow state you experience with mushin.
When you are a beginner it takes a lot of energy to think about how to move, block, counter, and attack. But once you get good enough at it the only thing you need to do is remain present and react.
To pursue nothingness
Quick exercise. Don’t think of a pink elephant? Did you manage it? Probably not. Usually because as soon as you get told not to think about something you start thinking about it more.
This is pretty much exactly the same as what happens when you want to empty your mind. If you decide you are going to meditate so you can clear your mind of intrusive thoughts and think about absolutely nothing, you are probably not going to achieve that. You can’t “try hard” to think about “nothing.” If you do that all you do is end up focusing on the fact that totally emptying your mind is really difficult.
If you want to clear up the clutter in your mind, focusing on something is a good start.
Aiming for near perfect (focusing on one thing)
I’m not really the kind of person that you will find sat around near a waterfall meditating. I’m much more active in my meditation. That’s not to say that there’s anything wrong with doing things like 座禅 (zazen) or seated meditation to empty your mind. I’m just saying I’ve found a different way that works for me.
I have been in sparring matches before with very strong opponents and realized that if I don’t focus 100% of my concentration on what is going on I’m going to get seriously hurt. When 100% of your attention is on punching, kicking, blocking, and dodging, nothing else in the universe matters. Your job doesn’t matter. Hunger and thirst don’t matter. Not only does nothing outside the room matter, but nothing outside of your reach matters. Why would I care that someone gave me bad news an hour ago as I am dodging a kick that would have knocked me out if I wasn’t concentrating on avoiding it?
When you are able to focus all of your energy on a single task you have failed to get to a point where your mind is completely empty. But you are ALMOST there. And that, in my opinion is as close as you need to get to perfection.
The art being present
As my readers no doubt know, I’m an 居合道 (iaidō) practitioner. When you look at the names of martial arts like 剣道 (kendō : the way of the sword), 抜刀道 (battōdō : the way of the drawn blade), 杖道 (jōdō : way of the staff), 空手道 (karate dō : empty handed way), there is a clear description of what the art entails. But what about iaidō?
The 道 (dō) in iaidō (just like the others) means road or way. 居 (i) means to physically be somewhere, and 合 (ai) means to meet/join. The combination 居合 (iai) simply means to be present (essentially your spirit and physical presence being one). So while the other martial arts I mention focus on what the practitioners physically do, iaidō, or the art of being present, focuses more on what goes on mentally.
Practicing iaidō doesn’t make you a particularly good fencer. I know. I’ve tried. I know that I can hold my own relatively well, but I know that I’m not that good at the sort of, *draw your swords*, EN GARDE! *fight* style fencing when I’m up against people that focus on that.
If I was in a situation where I was wearing a sword and suddenly need to cut someone down in a split second I’d be very good at that. But since situations like that don’t come up in the modern day I focus on the transferable skills that iaidō teaches me about being present and aware, which helps in all aspects of life.
I don’t consider iaidō to be a sword martial art these days. Yes, it’s a martial art that can’t be done without a sword, but it’s not the main focus. I use a sword as a tool to focus myself. If I’ve had a bad day for any reason, I can go to the dōjō and focus 100% of my attention on my technique. I’m able to achieve that level of focus I get from dangerous sparring sessions, and I don’t even need anyone trying to kick my head off to get there. When I’m drilling my techniques, the universe once again becomes small, and for a short wile, nothing else matters.
Final thoughts and take home messages
If you are reading this you likely live in the modern world and have your share of problems. I am exactly the same. I get angry. I get sad. I get frustrated. Sometimes I go to bed, sleep without dreaming, and wake up feeling incredibly refreshed. Nights like that where my brain appears to have totally switched off are the kind of holiday from reality that I appreciate sometimes.
These dreamless nights don’t happen very often and I have very little control over them. So I need to settle for what I have some control over.
When you have a million things going on in your life you might wish you could forget all of them. But forgetting all of them doesn’t make them go away. Sometimes you just need to take a breather. And you can achieve that by not trying to forget everything, and instead focus on being present for one thing.
When I was taking my black belt grading at the Yūshinkai Dōjō in Fukuoka, I needed to do a ten man fight. That’s fighting ten, two minute, full contact rounds against fresh opponents with no break. When I was fighting my first opponent it didn’t matter that I needed to fight 9 more people. When I was fighting my last opponent it didn’t matter that I was covered in injuries from fighting 9 people. I had literally one problem to focus on, and that was the person in front of me. But for the non-knuckle draggers who are reading this, you don’t need to start fighting to achieve this level of focus. I’ve been able to focus like this by putting all my energy into iaidō techniques, and even on some of the running events I’ve taken part in.
The universe is a big place. There are endless problems you can focus on. While alive, you probably won’t be able to get to the point where absolutely nothing is your problem anymore, but if you focus on just one of the things out there, your universe will shrink to the point that one problem is the only thing you need to deal with. That’s not perfect, but it might be as good as it gets. And I’m cool with that.
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Anthony
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