Taikan and Feeding the Monster

[Ojisan]

Chris,

Thanks for the detailed explanation. I think that your practice with the sword clarifies for me what you meant. I don't do it often as I have stopped working with weapons, but every one in a while we spar (slowly) with live blades. I certainly get the adrenaline dump then but I am able to handle it, partially because I know my partner is not really trying to kill me, and partly because I have to focus or my partner will inadvertantly kill me.

I don't know if that is mushin. It's as close as I can come.

With respect

 

[Bruno@MT]

Okay, I'll see how I go trying to explain this here....

Within NLP there is the concept of "anchoring", in other words using one set of circumstances to trigger a particular response. This can be done verbally (with a particular word, phrase, tonality etc), or kinetically (typically with a gesture, touch, movement, or other action). Thing is, though, although most think of this type of thing as looking to manipulate other people (I touch your shoulder, you feel sad, I touch your hand, you feel happy....), it is far more powerful, and originally designed, to be used on yourself. You literally "program in" the response or action you want in any particular set of circumstances. That's kinda the way this works.

Fujita Seiko wrote about this. It was related to the kuji-in mudras.
He explained that by themselves, they are noting special. However, if you train them every day (I think he mentioned 4 times per day) correctly, with the right state of mind, you can use them as trigger points to immediately achieve the desired state of mind and body.

My guys know me (or are at least fairly familiar with me, I should say), and know that they are safe with me.... but I can and do still get an adrenalised reaction in them when I need or want to. In fact, last week in class I was discussing this concept (we've been looking at it via sword techinques), and one of the students mentioned it in relation to aggression. I adopted a Mushin state and just looked at them. This was while I was sitting in the front of the class, and the rest were seated looking at me. Within a few seconds there were half a dozen students shifting rather uneasily, trying to avoid my gaze, basically feeling a little surge of adrenalin, as they were unconsciously recognising the danger I represented. To be absolutely frank here, sparring is rather useless for adrenlin training, as it is always seen as "safe", and therefore doesn't trigger that survival part of yourself. Danger needs to be felt.

Funny. My sensei can do the same thing. Though over the last 2 years, I have learned (to some degree) to accept mushin in response. He usually triggers adrenalin response by one of several ways, like putting you on the spot to demonstrate tai sabaki unexpectedly in an unusual way (by using a bo or iaito instead of a bokken) and attacking with the intention to connect. Or taking you aside for a line of kihon. Or he takes 2 people aside and tells them 'we'll have a look if you know your stuff for the next exam' followed by the 2 students having to demonstrate under his stern gaze. I have known him to do that just by standing in front of me in kamae.

Initially this caused me to fall to pieces, losing even my ability to form proper sentences. Eventually I got better at handling this. The turning point for me was that public embu that I blogged about. That was a full blown adrenalin dump followed by an instantaneous transition to mushin. I have to admit that since then I haven't yet experienced it as strong as that. That moment felt like magic. But it did become a more recognizable and concious experience since then.

There was a marked improvement each time, due to the fact that a sense of danger was introduced, allowing them to actually understand and experience what Mushin is about. Without danger, there is no growth in martial arts, really.

This is a pet peeve of mine: people attacking me in kihon without the intention to hit me. Sometimes even hitting in such a way that their fist would stop 2 feet away from me even if they would fully extend their arm. I want my kihon to have meaning. And if they are not trying to hit me, then it is completely worthless. It is the one thing that I don't accept from anyone, not even first day white belts.

If they can't get over the idea of trying to hit, then martial arts is probably not for them.