Thursday 15 July 2021

Mubudo

Mushin:

The Japanese concept of mushin 無心, meaning “no mind,” is an important practice for martial artists. It is essentially the skill of clearing your headspace so you're better able to focus on the task at hand. 

It's no easy thing to do especially if you're someone who has never attempted such a thing before. 
Mushin comes from Zen, as a meditative practice. Zen adopted it from Daoist practices. If a martial artist wants to be able to use their skills effectively in real self-defence situations, the practice of Mushin could mean the difference between life and death. When defending yourself, there's no time to think, you must react to the situation without pause.

In Mushin, your own mind is out of your way and you are efficient and effective.

 

Shuhari:

The process of mastery.

Shuhari 守破離, meaning “Follow, Digress, Transcend “ is the stages that we must go through in order to master any skill or technique.
Shu - Follow the way - Learn Budo.
Ha - Digress from the way - Unlearn Budo.
Ri - Transcend the way - No Budo.

Most people only follow in their martial arts, but mastery cannot be achieved by following alone. “Follow not in the footsteps of the master, but rather seek what they sought.” – Basho.
The greatest masters in history didn't just “do as Sensei said,” they also questioned it, innovated and adopted different ideas and concepts. They found their own way.
The ultimate aim of learning a skill should be to make use of that skill without thought or effort.

 

Wu-wei:

The ancient Chinese concept of wu-wei 無為, meaning “non-action” or “no action,” is a key component of Daoism. 
It's often misunderstood as “doing nothing,” and used as an excuse to be lazy and ineffective in the world. In truth wu-wei is about working with the flow of nature. 
It's the concept of not trying to force events or the world around you to be a certain way, and let it be what it's going to be. When a person is following wu-wei, they're  acting and reacting spontaneously and effectively without effort or clever strategies to affect the outcome. 

It's called “no action” not because you don't take actions, but because all actions taken are with the flow of events, rather than against them or in spite of them. It's the metaphor of swimming along with the current, not against it but also not floating along blindly.

 

Mubudo:

The “Mu” from ‘Mushin’ and the “Wu” from ‘Wu-wei’ are the same character . The former being the Japanese pronunciation and the latter being the Chinese. Both have the same meaning “no...” or “non...”

Budo 武道as you probably know, means “the martial way.” It is the Japanese term for martial arts.
Applying the concept of wu-wei to budo, we get "non-martial way" or "no budo." The Japanese for this would be "Mubudo" 無武道. 

Mubudo should be the ultimate goal of any Budoka. A practitioner who has mastered their art, that has reached the ‘Ri’ level of Shuhari, is a practitioner of Mubudo.
Having done many years of constant training, the techniques become second nature, extraneous effort is no longer required. When applying the skills (either in training or in self-defence) the budoka can go “in the zone” and the techniques almost happen on their own.

Mubudo is a difficult thing to achieve. In truth, most martial artists don't achieve it.
You can't find it by following the instruction of others, but neither can you find it without guidance.
It won't happen automatically through mere thoughtless repetition, but the more you analyse it, the further from it you will be.
It's the most difficult thing to make happen, yet we do it every day without realising. For example, most of us can walk without thought or effort. The second you think about how to walk, the task becomes less efficient and more difficult.

You can't ‘try’ to do something spontaneously.

How do you put effort into something that requires effortlessness?