Ken-Zen-Sho

Ken-Zen-Sho

Sword-Mind-Brush

The Samurai was always associated with the ken or sword, Zen or mind and Sho or Calligraphy and I always wondered what the relationship was between the three of them until I had my own small satori or enlightenment about the three during my recent research of them.

They all have the same goal of mushin (literally means No Mind or without thought) to be exact.

In the sword or the Japanese martial arts which all end in Do or “The Way” the goal is always the same to be able to react without thinking about it. Those who have sparred know exactly what I mean when they react to an attack and after it is over they have countered perfectly but when asked how they did it they simply can not remember how they did it or why they did it. They just did it.

Miyamoto Musashi probably the most famous of all the Japanese Samurai said it the best in his book Go Rin No Sho which by the way became a best seller on Wall Street when he said that Go No Sen is a state of mind where one attacks well the person is just thinking about attacking so it is while the opponent is thinking about his attack is when you attack.

It is also explained “Ikken Ihatsu” “one cut one life”, not many cuts but one cut that just can not be stopped by anything and kills your opponent dead. In karate-do this is the goal of the perfect punch or perfect kick that takes down your opponent in one shot not a combination of punches and kicks. One only, and to do “Ikken Ihatsu” everything must be in line and perfect in all ways.

In Zen it is the goal of no mind or absentence of thought so that you are after. You must not be affected by circumstances being to good or to bad, so that the highs are not so high or the lows are not so low. The Zen master seeks the middle of not being affected by anything to much so that his emotional highs are not offset by emotional lows as we all well know that with every up comes a down not just physically but with the mind as well.

The Sho Master or Calligraphy master seeks to put paint to paper in a way that he does not seek his art to be to beautiful but yet it comes out beautiful reaching his enlightened state. Although a Sho painting can be done in literally seconds it might take a Sho Master literally years to come up with the phrase, its perfection and display of the art to meet his approval and qualify as a masterpiece.

The key to all of the above is the constant practice of the basic techniques whether it is the karate master who performs his kata over and over till he reaches exhaustion or the Zen Master that gets up at 5:00 a.m. to sit in zazen or seated meditation for an hour every morning for years or the Sho Master that practices his brush strokes daily for years before it is perfect. All these masters must first practice the basics before they can ever hope to reach the same goal of mushin.

I was once in class with my sensei in France when he was trying to teach us this concept of mushin or no mind and we must have done the same basic kata Pinan Shodan at least 50 times or more one after the other to try and force our minds and bodies into the state of physical and mental exhaustion so we could experience this cracking thru the barrier he talked about. I remember being so tired I just wanted to quit but he would not let us quit we had to keep going and it seemed with every repetition of the kata his voice intensified to make us train harder and harder until we were all completely exhausted. I also remember thinking to myself that he must have snapped pushing everyone so hard surely some one would have a bloody heart attack but we all kept going mostly I am sure out of ego and not wanting to quit while others kept going but finally some of us cracked the barrier and we got our second wind some did stop and went to the side they missed the experience of cracking thru that barrier like I did and I never forgot the sure feeling of ureka or victory that I had made it. He knew some of us had made it thru while others did not.

Now the goal is to be able to do this when ever one wants. Then he has mastered the art of Mushin or No Mind and then these reflex actions happen through out your daily life.

The goal is to be humble as well, but supreme in my mind to being humble, is being truthful. This is a discussion for yet another lesson.

I can honestly tell you that I use this principle on a daily basis in 95% of my business dealing and daily challenges. I some times refer to it as the little man sitting on my shoulder. In Ken-Zen-Sho it is the tanden that spot about 2” below your belly button that is used to feel from.

When you strike it is this that must go forward before anything else it is this that you must concentrate on while meditating it is this spot that you use to kiai with it is this spot that you make your brush stroke with before your hand starts to move. You must feel it there before you can make the leap to the next level of mushin. Then when you hit it believe me you will know you have hit it. The feeling is amazing and when you release it wow you again will know what the perfect punch or the no mind or perfect brush stroke is like.

The one thing you can count on is that there is a definite common denominator between these three arts in the understanding of the life and the mind.