One thing karate does is enable a person to enter the mind of no mind. The method of karate enables this as a pretty distinct fact. Unfortunately, society has destroyed true karate at a relatively fast rate, and so you should pay attention to this article, and implement the principles in your karate training.
Mind of no mind is also called, in Japanese, mushin no shin. While held up as mystical in the orient, it is actually pretty straightforward, but it does require a person to become somewhat enlightened. The real key here is to see things as they are, not as one wants them to be, or as they have been in the past, but as they are now.
A perfect circle has no corners
The key to mind of no mind is to isolate the now, to actually exist wholly in the moment. Thus, when the punch is thrown, or the kick is launched, or the sword whistles through the air, you perceive it actually happening, and time actually slows down. Although, what is really happening is that you are becoming calm enough, being outside your mind, and seeing time as it really is, as it really happens.
There are a few things you need to isolate and cultivate this ability to see time as it happens. One of the most important things is to experience CBM, or Coordinated Body Motion. CBM is when you move all body parts at the same time, and stop them all at the same time.
Another necessary item is correct body alignment. The parts of the body must be lined up so that they are in the correct order, and this must be done with full CBM. This is something that should be built into all forms practice, and is necessary within forms practice to achieve mind of no mind, and enlightenment.
The real key here is that forms are a method to enable the individual to control his body. This is heightened, and quite different from something like ballet or gymnastics because the pieces of the form must be used to control another individual. Thus, the secret of mushin no shin, and enlightenment in the martial arts, is not to destroy, but to control.
To not destroy, although that ability is necessary, but to control. If you destroy, the game is over, and where is the enlightenment in that? And this is why Gichin Funakoshi did not hold freestyle, specifically of the tournament variety, up as part of the True Way.
To control will eventually separate the individual from his mind and body, and thus enable him to see the universe, and time, and life, as it really is. The truth is that things aren’t what they seem, they are but a shadow, and your mind obscures this shadow tremendously, and obscures methods for shedding the shadow and leaving the mind. And the truth is that this potential is within the martial arts, one of the four ways of enlightenment, but in todays tournament infested mind it is as good as lost, unless you read and apply the principles detailed in articles such as this.
