Other qualities of mind

Muga Mushin ( ~ an empty mind)

Mu Shin means no mind. When you enter into a state of mu shin you are void of thought, you have no emotion, no expectations, or anticipation's. The idea behind this is you leave your mind and let your body do what it has been trained to do. When someone begins to practice a martial art and learns his first techniques, he will have to think hard to remember what his sensei told him, were to look at, how to move and so on. After learning some (or a lot) of these techniques, some people stop with budo, thinking they know everything there is to learn. But they are only half-way. Someone who is practising martial arts for many years, often does not have to think anymore. He moves and reacts naturally and adjusts his defences according to the attacks. In a fight, fear is a bad advisor. In feudal Japan a samurai was thought that whoever took up his sword, had to be prepared to die. If he wanted to survive than, he could not win without muga mushin. In our modern society this seems a bit exaggerated, but for making the adjust defensive moves, human thinking and than reacting is to slow.

Fudoshin

True fudoshin is not a rigid, immobile state of mind, but the condition of stability which comes from the most rapid movement. In other words, like the steadiness of a spinning top, the state of perfect spiritual and physical stability arises from movement which continues infinitely and is so infinitely rapid that it is imperceptible. This movement is condensed at the one point in the lower abdomen. By putting everything into the one point, we can experience fudoshin and not loose our stability no matter what happens.

Karate Home

Back