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My view on Zen(禅) related to Iaido (居 合 道):
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Disclaimer:It obvious that what follows is just my interpretation of the two concepts of ZEN (禅) and of IAIDO.I do NOT try to explain what ZEN means, there are many good boooks about this. (see Contribution from other people at the bottom and Wikipedia: Japanese ZEN ). This is also the initial tentative explanation of the meaning of DO(道) in Iaido. Nevertheless I think that is should be interesting to everybody to think about these topics. I got some feedback, see at the end for the comments. Some criticises my limited interpretation of the meaning of ZEN. It is not my goal to write about the meaning of this branch of Buddhism. I just want to pick up the part of it which, in my opinion only, is important for the practice of Iaido, and even more important, to emphasis the social implications of this kind of view. Thinking steps:
The second main goal is the reproduction of the species. There are a great variety of strategies to achieve either of these two goals. For example, look at the different strategies of plants and animals. In order to understand the way in which we practice Iaido, we need to understand how nature works and that evolution started with very simple molecular structures and build out of it more complex structures. Everything started from inorganic substances and evolved through self-replicating molecules, then enzymes, then first membranes enclosing drops of water and so on. This tendency toward more complex structures is governed by a physical law which just say that nature move toward more stable (energy) states. By binding energy into those complex structures, the number of possible way of using that energy is restricted. In other words it makes the energy balance be more stable. We should realise that nature just repeats certain processes over and over again without any change. Fortunately, however, from time to time a mistake (error) occur that disrupt those processes. Every mistake is an opportunity for a change: without mistakes there is no progress (no evolution). It is interesting to see how this trend toward more complicated structures also applies to the development of our society. This shows that making mistakes is not a "sin ", but an opportunity for improvements. The will to improve is what count! Thus the same basic goals apply to it: survival and reproduction. We can say that life is basically a continuous fighting for survival. But in a society like the human one, survival is more or less given. Still we have competition for our position in our society. We see that human being are always struggling for some reason. Here comes my interpretation of the ZEN view of life: in spite of all the efforts needed in life, we should keep a clear and peaceful view in our internal attitude toward life [Peace of mind]. One way to reach this is in practicing IAIDO or KYUDO. I will discuss here about IAIDO only. The same way of thinking apply to KYUDO too. Remember how some ZEN master gave a silly and unnecessary task to their pupils till they would understand that it is not the success in fulfilling the task which is important, but what count is the attitude with which you do it. We could here introduce the concept of yaruki, which means a willingness to do something, an eagerness, or motivation for something. To learn we need: The latter is often translated with "duty-fulness", but I think it should better understood as trust toward the teacher. We are free to chose our teacher, thus we have to do it carefully. Learning how to use a sword in a correct way is really of no practical utility in today world (who goes around with a sword?) but it is difficult to learn. If you would try to learn it by yourself, you will not have any feedback, and you will end up in believing of doing everything correctly. If you do not encounter any difficulty, then you will not be able to improve yourself. Thus you need a teacher who can correct your mistakes and help you to follow "the way". It is important to understand that the goal of a ZEN follower is to reach and keep a quite mind IN SPITE of all difficulties around. Therefore it is wrong to think that in practicing Iaido you should be in a quite and spiritual environment. The opposite is true: you need to be confronted with difficulties in order to learn how to keep your mind in a quite state in spite of what is going on outside you. Let take an analogy with boats: a sailing boat in an harbour is safe, but this is not what it has been build for. A boat should go out into the sea and fight its way in spite of wind and waves. This cannot be learned inside an harbour. Thus in practicing Iaido we need challenges in order to learn how to keep a quite mind. And where are the difficulties in Iaido from? You will have to recognise that the first problems come from your body and your mind, but then you will also understand that your teacher is the source of most of your problems that you encounter in practicing Iaido. And this is a very important role for a teacher if you see him also as a ZEN master. In fact he (or she) will always confront you with new tasks, new challenges and you should learn to keep your peace of mind in spite of all this. In Zen Buddhism, to maintain a beginner’s mind means to be open to continuous growth and deeper understanding. One is encouraged to drink in each moment of life, without excessive desire, pride or judgment. Please, read in https://creativesystemsthinking.wordpress.com/2016/05/15/zen-the-art-of-living-deeply/ In Japan, this also relates to the idea of kenkyo which means to cultivate modesty and humility, to not be full of oneself. Let make an example: you are inside a room with many people speaking together, but you would like to listen to the birds in the garden just outside. The people speaking inside the room represent your thoughts in your mind. The birds outside represents the possible threats. Thus in order to be able to listen to what sound is coming from the outside of the room, you need first to make the people (your thoughts) be quite inside the room. A peaceful and QUITE mind allows you to be aware of what is coming from the outside, thus make you aware of any possible danger. This concept is often explained with mizu no kokoro. This was for the samurai very important for their survival. I read it in the original version: ZEN in der Kunst des Bogenschiessen by Eugen Herrigel, 1948/1953. I would like to mention here another interesting article about this topic: The Myth of Zen in the Art of Archery by Yamada Shoji in the Japanese Journal of Religious Studies, 2001 28/1-2 Thomas C Helm sent me the following links: From another person I got this: If you are a Japanese speaker, I would recommend this book, "山岡鉄舟 剣禅話" (Kenzenwa by Yamaoka Tesshu). A historic figure in the Edo period. This is a good book to start with. ... There are other works by him, but are somewhat more in depth and may be difficult to grasp. I can only find Amazon had an English title: Yamaoka Tesshu : zen and swordsmanship, but don't know if you can get a hold of it. I am grateful to all those comments and suggestions. Thank you so much! |
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