Ways of seeing

Metsuke (~ looking, seeing)

We all probably saw a picture of an old Japanese master gazing as if to mount Fuji on a distant. This man or woman sees everything ànd nothing. Metsuke means to see everything around you but not focusing to anything. This is the way we have to look when we are performing a martial art. In kumite or kata don't focus exclusively on the point you want to hit. You will not see other movements your foe(s) makes.

Kan-ken

Kan-ken, the ability to see with both the eyes and the heart, may be seen to be the natural outgrowth of enlightened approaches to martial training. In this state the swordsman and the sword become one. This is a psychophysical state of non-support and non-separation; not mind, body, and spirit as entities but as a true holism, meaningless and formless when apart. For the warrior, awareness of hazard, whether in the body of an enemy or the fall of a tree, is essential to survival. Kan-ken allows the warrior to "see" danger and advantage; the lay of the land, the position of the sun, the state of agitation of another being, the temperature of the air, the "rightness" or "wrongness" of a decision; to know the hazards and the benefits of any situation, and to circumvent them or make use of them when and if they are needed.

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