“Mushin. Mushin.” That’s what Sensei Dan told me in Aikido class many years ago. In Japanese, mushin literally means “no mind” or “empty mind.” This, Sensei explained, is the spirit of the phrase. So, if you think about having an empty mind, then you don’t have one.
Mushin is the fundamental principle of mastery in martial arts. It just might also be for any discipline. Bruce Lee said, “Empty your mind. Be formless, shapeless like water…”
In the field of Set Theory (mathematics), the empty set is defined as the set that contains nothing, yet, it’s the subset of all sets. Therefore, the empty set is infinite. So, nothing or “empty” is one’s access to the infinite. Perhaps, mushin is access to the infinite, as well.
Werner Erhard distinguished that we choose who we are going to be in any given moment. We create (or recreate) our identities. We can authentically create ourselves from nothing, from the empty mind.
Perhaps, recreating oneself from nothingness is access to mastery, as well as the mushin that lies therein. That’s what Sensei taught me over the years and it made a lot of sense. That being said, mushin definitely ain’t easy. No, indeed. Not innate or natural by any stretch of the imagination, it requires on-going, rigorous practice.
In his broken English, Sensei would also tell me, “Everything natural,” which was quite the paradox. For anything to become natural meant that I would have to practice my ass off.
I believe that recreating myself is more about what I have to give up rather than what I must do to become greater than I know myself to be. I have to give up the good and the bad narratives about myself, extending all the way back to childhood.
When I was 12 years old, Mom “made” me take Aikido for my own good. I was a short, nonathletic kid, who was terrified to make a mistake. Growing up at home with Dad, I never felt that I was enough. I was always tense. I wasn’t free to be me: I always had to be more. That definitely was not mushin.
Luckily, I discovered my bliss in Aikido. Sensei Donald was great. I had an affinity for the practice, for the art. When I practiced it, I was free to be. I could “empty” much of the noise in my head, especially that voice that would say from time to time, “I’m no good.”
When I was 13 years old, we were practicing taking falls. We’d jump and roll over students that were lined up on the dojo mat—each, tucking their bodies over knees, heads facing the floor.
I had rolled over five students, then six. Yes, six! While “cool,” my body relaxed too soon before contacting the mat. As a result, a sharp pain overtook my right shoulder: I broke my collarbone.
I was out of commission for about two months, healing. I had to wear a very uncomfortable harness around both shoulders, due to a convex fracture, to straighten out the break. After getting the “OK” to go back to Aikido class, I found myself practicing taking falls over students crouched on the dojo mat, again. I was so afraid of getting hurt, looking stupid. I was afraid, period!
Successfully, I rolled over five students. Now it was time to roll over six…like before!
Somehow, I blanked out all the voices in my head. I emptied my mind, for the most part, saying to myself, “Do it!” I ran and rolled over them all. When I got to my feet on the other side, I was so happy, elated. I was, actually, proud of me. “Mushin! Mushin!”
I know that mushin will never be perfect. Even O-Sensei might say, “I don’t have an empty mind. I constantly have to empty it.” Ultimately, some things are just unattainable. So, I just train.
In Aikido we train jyuwaza, where multiple attackers come at me, one-by-one, punching or grabbing. In response, I perform with technique–be it joint lock or iriminage (a clothesline to the head). It’s on!
There is no time to think, “Maybe I can do this one…” What I get more than anything is that mushin is present in moments like that, discovering the “calm in the fire.” I get what I can and cannot do. Like the French Sensei said, ”You can’t do the impossible with technique.” I know, however, that I can do the possible. As Sensei would say, “Make it work.”
That’s the game of mushin: Allow yourself to create the possible. Depending on how strong or fast my opponent is, I still have to “wait it out.” With no mind, I “enter the attack and die with honor.” Sensei said, “Take and glancing blow if you have to,” meaning apply the technique to me and match up with the attack. Then, the attacker falls to the mat. That’s mushin in the dojo.
What I’ve learned can translate outside the dojo, being that present for life.
Mushin is the ideal. I presume that it shall be–at least for me–imperfect. So, the game becomes about constantly being present, emptying my mind. Eventually, the noise of “I suck” makes way for “I’m okay. I can do this.” If I can’t, then I’ll train and try, again.
So continues the journey.
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