Komuso Monk
If you fight from the void you’ll always win.
There are different meanings and levels of understanding of the void, all of which are valuable.
Technical Void and Physical Space
When an opponent attempts to punch you in the head there is only one small space that is immediately dangerous. If you move anywhere else it is not dangerous. When your opponent attacks, his effort is directed at one point. He creates a large personal void everywhere else. If you move into that void and attack from it your opponent will have a difficult time defending.
When you fake an attack to a particular target and your opponent reaches out or covers to defend against your attack, he creates a large personal void everywhere else. When you redirect your attack into that void your opponent will have a difficult time defending.
When your opponent has been deceived and is entirely unaware that you will attack, his body and the area around it is a void. When you attack from and into such a void your opponent will be unable to defend.
In the above situations there is a technical/physical void, but there is also a corresponding mental void. Your opponent expects one thing and not another, and you attack with what he does not expect, what he is not ready for.
Mushin (No Mind)
Mushin is a state of “no mind” or “empty mind”. It is the ideal state for high level performance not only in martial arts/self defense, but in any activity. When you focus on one thing you are not focused on any other thing. As a beginner, any activity requires that you focus on particular individual components of that activity. But as you get better and better and the activity becomes natural to you, you no longer need to focus on any individual component. You can perform from a state of mushin, with no thought to get in the way or slow you down. When you perform from a state of mushin you are fighting from the void.
A person who fights from the void can adapt instantly to change. A beginner will be defeated by the technical strategies listed above (interceptions, fakes, etc.), but an advanced practitioner who fights from the void can adapt to them. This is a higher level of fighting from the void.
Here is a quote on this subject by the Japanese swordsman Yagyu Munenori translated in William Scott Wilson’s book The One Taste of Truth – Zen and the Art of Drinking Tea:
When practicing archery, if your mind is occupied by thoughts of shooting the bow, your aim will be disordered and wandering. When using the sword, if your mind is occupied with thoughts of strikes and parries, its tip will not likely be regulated. When practicing calligraphy, if your mind is occupied by thoughts of writing, the brush will be unsettled. When playing the koto, if your mind is filled with thoughts of plucking the strings, the melody will be confused.
Yagyu Munenori uses examples from a variety of arts: archery, sword fighting, calligraphy, and playing the koto (a musical instrument). Anything you do that teaches you to act from the void or get into a state of mushin, including meditation, will give you experience operating from the ideal performance state. That experience will help you in everything else that you do, as long as you put in enough practice time to make the fundamental movements second nature.
It’s no wonder that out-of-work samurai formed the Fuke Sect of Zen and spent their days playing the shakuhachi…
Blowing From the Void
Mujitsu Shakuhachi
The idea for this post came from my last shakuhachi lesson with my excellent teacher, Jon Kypros. A few of my recent posts have been related to the shakuhachi and how they were designed to be used as weapons by samurai monks. The more I play and learn about the instrument, the more I realize how perfectly the instrument and its original music complements martial arts practice. I would go as far as to say that anyone who wants to get deep into martial arts would benefit from playing the shakuhachi for a variety of reasons.
In shakuhachi honkyoku music, it is taught that the empty space or void between the sound is as important as the sound itself. An ideal is for the sound of the flute to ring out of the void*, and in order to do this well it must be played from a state of mushin.
In my last lesson my teacher mentioned that he spent three years practicing before he felt good about playing a certain two notes in succession. To sound right they need to ring out of nothingness with the right attack, and the duration of each note must be fitting. This idea of ringing out of the void gave me a new way to think about strategy and tactics in martial arts/self defense. As I said, it’s no surprise that out-of-work samurai formed the Fuke Sect and spent their days playing the shakuhachi.
Lauren Rubin writes:
The daily life of the Fuke monks at the temples was quite regulated and disciplined. The komusÅ monks engaged in suizen meditation (“blowing zen”, meditation through shakuhachi playing), zazen (seated meditation), and sutra chanting. Daily activity at the temple centered on playing the shakuhachi. The daily schedule for the monks included practicing martial arts, practicing the shakuhachi, and begging.
The shakuhachi in the picture above is one I recently purchased from Ken LaCosse (highly recommended!), which he made with a black urushi lacquer exterior coating based on vintage komuso flutes. Ken makes two types of shakuhachi. He calls the one I bought in the picture above a mujitsu shakuhachi, and writes that mujitsu “alludes to the contrast/connection between emptiness (mu) and form (jitsu)”. This idea of emptiness/void and form is common in both martial arts and shakuhachi.
You can hear it in the music my teacher plays below, on one of his much longer flutes (made and for sale by him):
Again, I highly recommend playing the shakuhachi and lessons with Jon as a compliment to your martial arts practice. You won’t regret it.
*Two of the three most highly regarded honkyoku are named koku and kyorei. Koku translates roughly as “empty sky” or “empty space”, where empty has a meaning equivalent to the void. The composition is written and played to express sound ringing out from the void (as the the monk Fuke’s bell rang out). Kyorei translates roughly as “empty bell” or “empty spirit”, and again the composition reflects the sound of the monk Fuke’s bell ringing out of the void.
The post Fight From the Void appeared first on Functional Self Defense.
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