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Warrior’s Mind
by John G Dzikowski, Kyoshi
Kyushin Ryu Kenjutsu Fushin Dojo
(For more information on John G Dzikowski and the Kyushin Ryu Kenjutsu Fushin Dojo, please click on the above banner.)
When combining combat effectiveness with any system of cosmic morality, one single question continually surfaces, “How can a martial art become a tool for peace?”
This question can be answered by completing this thought, “Who is more likely to know the true value of life than one who knows the reality of death?” or more specifically, “Who is more likely to realize the moral destruction of conflict, bloodshed, the vicious cycles of revenge and retaliation, and the power struggles, both internal and external, they precipitate, than one who has immersed themselves in those things?”
Now, certainly, there are many who philosophize or otherwise intellectualize about the evils of war and recognize its futility from a distance, but often their ideas are not been informed by true knowledge of those evils. Those thinkers do not know their enemy or the true intensity of conflict and its impact on the psyche; therefore, when their theories are tested, their enemies will prove to be unmanageable. Long ago, though, warriors had to have a commitment to their purpose that was so great that their own life was of no value in comparison. The warrior would willingly sacrifice their own life to achieve the enemies’ demise.
However, if a person truly achieves this state of mind, this high degree of determination and purpose where their own death is a matter of indifference to them, they paradoxically gain a greater chance of life. This consciousness puts confrontation on a level where physical strengths and weaknesses have no meaning. Life and death are the only questions at hand. Also, if one willingly accepts the inevitability of their own death, they are relieved of the fear of death. They can then proceed free of all doubt and with full determination.
Contrastingly, the only way to win at most competitive sports is to train hard and properly in preparation for the contest and have a thorough understanding of rules and strategies that will lead to victory: engage the opponents firmly, unbalance attempts to score against you, move aggressively toward scoring against them, and keep laboring in this manner until you succeed or until time runs out. This holds true for most competitions from, Othello, to soccer games, to karate tournaments.
Warriorship, however, is utterly different, and the methods for managing dangerous assailants can, and usually do, exist in total contradiction to the coaching and preparation for sports victories. A competitor who is inadequately prepared in relevance to their opponent, is less proficient and commands less power, averts confrontation at all times, makes no efforts to score, disregards as many rules as imaginable, and strives to cease the contest as swiftly as possible by any means, would stand a meager chance of winning in contemporary sense.
However, it is often these circumstances that will enable a smaller, less hostile, and perhaps outnumbered or otherwise disadvantaged individual to effectively protect themselves outside the ring. When abandoning ideas of weight classifications, skill-level segregations, concerns of safety, scoring methods and records, and all considerations of presenting an event that will stimulate and engross spectators, one then begins to cross the threshold into the realm of sensible combat training. Unlike glorified stories and movies about the Old West and kung-fu gunfights in the present day, where superior firepower, a lot of grit, and being faster on the draw, constitute what was necessary for survival and social stability, our present, contemporary, pragmatic standards demand a more thoughtful approach to guarantee preservation in confrontational situations.
So where can we go to understand and learn this mind, this way of thinking? True realms of learning exist between and sometimes outside printed words. This is a way of thinking and definitively not the Way to enlightenment. This is a way to live one’s life.
In the “Life Way” embraced by the classical martial arts systems of Japan, the practice of martial strategy (heiho) and the practice of everyday life reside in inseparable union. Martial strategy and the laws of life are the same. This teaching suggests a wide sweep and broad embrace of true martial art and science as it was taught and practiced in the ancient traditions.
Technical proficiency in combat forms the primary leg of this heiho. Combative effectiveness stands as the central and primary principle by which all martial undertakings are weighed against. At deeper levels of study, spiritual, psychological, and moral matters connect with questions of combative effectiveness in such a way as to make them indivisible from one another. Long and disciplined training transcends the very technical perfection it fosters. A unified, integrated, and empowered state of mind, body, and spirit results from this hard-won union. It is here that the warrior-seeker begins to embody values and a value-system that foils much of the evil brewing in modern society. Meanwhile, the bugeisha (martial artist) finds the path towards further mastery opening before them; the martial path has become a life path.
Mastery of this martial/life path, in the form of swordsmanship, spearmanship, staff-technique, or halberd-technique; making use of arts of encampment, concealment, espionage, fortification, wearing of armor, and so on; lead towards mastery of the self. Finally, the mastery of the self, may lead to mastery of selflessness that is a key to integration with the cosmos. Thus the martial student comes to model, exemplify, and embody the Way of Heaven.
While the proponent of a “classically inspired martial art” trains to be able to destroy an enemy with a single stroke of the sword, such training inevitably allows the proponent to kill the ego through the rigors of hard training and thus transcend death to live more fully “in the world.” The true Way of Warriorship is nothing more or nothing less than personal liberation. It was Jirikichi who is credited with writing, “The Way of the Sword and the Way of Zen are identical, for they both have the same purpose- that of killing the ego.”
This “life way” transcends mere violence. It requires adherence to and maintenance of a life-style marked by simplicity, frugality, discipline, self-control, self-reliance, imperturbability, and integrity. Those whop embrace it, face its terrors, discipline itself to its rigors, and ultimately give themselves up to it, this kind of martial discipline feeds upon that which it creates, which it further takes on as nourishment. The sword (or warrior-self in unarmed systems) becomes, in and through the training, symbolically and actually the best friend of righteousness and the worst foe of treachery.
Such a program of study has far reaching effects as it strengthens the very fiber of mankind. It seems that the bushi (knights), through the foundation of classical ryu for the study, dissemination, nurturing, and perfection of martial science, while protecting it from outsiders, found wisdom in technique and technique in wisdom. The famous swordsman Musashi, concerning the warrior traditions that were thought to be old in his day, wrote, “The sword was to be far more than a simple weapon; it had to be an answer to life’s questions.”
Those warriors founded a life way, then, which largely cannot be found, except in much diluted form, in the quasi-martial, sports-oriented, or overspecialized modern forms. To achieve the goals mandated in the study of true martial art the training must be truly martial, that is, a matter of life and death in the context of gunbai heiho (military strategic studies). Thus, kendo, judo, karate-do, etc, as admirable as they are, are not martial arts because of their non-military context. The air of seriousness, the spiritual foundations, the sheer importance of real life and death struggle, cannot be duplicated where the technical repertoire is not based on literal combat to the death. Anything else is sport or pastime and possesses a different value-system and reward structure- with its own set of intrinsic and exterior values.
The goals of true training in gunbai heiho are sweeping and they begin from an outlook that is highly practical and pragmatic. However, it is in their ultimate perfection and individual perfection that these practical goals can be seen to impact on daily life and life style.
One goal-system, for example, which clearly impacts combative effectiveness while improving the overall quality of life and enhancing the individual lifestyle, is a concept the Japanese call Shingan. This “Mind of God” both results from and enhances (this system is spiral, self-creating, self-maintaining, and self-elevating) kan-ken, the ability to see with both the heart and the eyes.
Kan-ken is not a supernatural or occult or esoteric power; it is not magical or even very mysterious. Kan-ken is, in fact, inherent in mankind although more or less underdeveloped and ignored. Shingan and related martial states are found in many ancient martial traditions. In purer spiritual studies, we see no breaks in the fabric of the cosmos, no event or deed without repercussion or result, no coincidence. Science, especially as it has been vulgarized in the 20th Century, is perhaps just another form of mythology in its attempts to explain the workings of the universe. It is certainly not the only one, and cannot possibly lay claim to, or superiority over, the thousands of years “folk sciences” have had to perfect their own forms of wisdom through trial, error, and study, in a like manner. In the Kyushin Ryu Fushin Dojo, for instance, the “creative will of Heaven” as It forms our individual fate must be aligned with our personal existence in such a way that we can literally ride our fates to our individual destiny.
It is out of this alignment, willing our seemingly “individual” and seemingly straying minds back into alignment with the creative will of the Divine (back to the original, already pure, already complete state which had existed at the time of our creation) that the potential of human power may be unleashed in the midst of the dawning sense of the deep and cosmic morality of Heaven which forestalls (when it does not stop it altogether)
the very miss-use of that power. It is here that self-awareness becomes life-awareness and that miraculous technical proficiency of the true warrior exhibits itself. I believe it was the famous swordsman Yamada Jirokichi of the Jikishinkage Ryu who wrote, “The sword and mind must be united. Technique by itself is insufficient, and spirit alone is not enough.” Intuition, though, is but one aspect of this comprehensive life awareness.
The key to the ability to see with the heart and well as with the eyes is found in the hard physical training characteristic of all true martial arts. As with technical proficiency, it all starts here. This hard, disciplined, repetitious, strenuous exercise first increases the proponent’s muscular strength and stamina. At the initial levels of training this is certainly a profoundly important level of development. Hard training penetrates deeper to yield richer rewards, however. Such training quickly, and quietly, asserts itself and will be felt at all levels of the trainee’s life experience.
 As the level of physical strength and stamina improve, the trainee begins to awaken to their own body, to renewed consciousness of it and a waking self-awareness. In other words, the trainee begins, perhaps for the first time in their dulled life-experience, to live fully in-the-body and in-the-Now. This supreme self-awareness may expand gradually and almost imperceptibly at times and at times make great leaps into higher levels of development and refinement. This is the root of attainment of the state of Shingan and kan-ken.
As the trainee begins to experience life directly, as he or she is forced to wake up; to see, to hear, to taste, to touch, to smell, as if his very life depended upon it (which, of course, it does in the context of true martial art), he slowly learns to trust himself, to regain relaxed confidence, to “know himself.”
Interferences from emotion, from rationality (intellectualism) may thus begin to be sorted out of the workings of the mind. Thus life, in the body, in the world, and in the mind, begins to move in harmony, integrated and mutually enhancing.
As confidence is fuelled; technique perfected in the fires of form; and thought, word, and deed deeply integrate; gradually the doubts and fears that accompany and hamper deeper perception, vanish. At this level the trainee may begin to cease the constant evaluation-centered mind chatter that characterizes much low level consciousness. At this level one may allow no doubts to interfere with the flow of perceptions as they begin s to see things as-they-are, in-and-of-themselves, and exist with the Oneness with their perceptions. In other words, perceptions, the objects of perception, and the One, may be seen as united in a complete oneness. Here also is experienced the truth that this evolving state of oneness rests on a profound trust in and reliance on the five senses and is fostered as the processes of consciousness, perception, and action are united, grasped, and comprehended.
In this state man trusts his instincts, responds “from his gut,” lives in the realm of the five senses, and is freed from the doubts and fears that rip the life out of most people. This does not mean that we jump at every sound or punch the nose of the poor person who happens to surprise us. This inverse level of nervousness is not the relaxed, unself-conscious, and egoless state to be found in Shingan and kan-ken. Overreaction, just as underraction, is, in fact, a profound negation of the fluid and awakened state nurtured by true training.
Therefore, kan-ken, the ability to see with both the eyes and the heart, may be seen to be the natural outgrowth of enlightened approaches to martial training. In this state the swordsman and the sword become one. This is a psychophysical state of non-support and non-separation; not mind, body, and spirit as entities but as a true holism, meaningless and formless in isolation.
For the warrior, awareness of hazard, whether in the body of an enemy or the fall of a tree, is essential to survival. Kan-ken allows the warrior to “see” danger and advantage; the lay of the land, the position of the sun, the state of agitation of another being, the temperature of the air, the “rightness” or “wrongness” of a decision; to know the hazards and the benefits of any situation, and to circumvent them or make use of them when and if they are needed.
A full and fluid awareness does not have to predict the future to prevent coming danger. It merely reacts from the open, embracing, and relaxed awareness appropriately because the system has been trained to trust itself. Bad or murderous air may be detected and defused or preempted. Thus, Truth, beauty, and loving compassion may be fully and truly embraced in all of life’s experiences. The cosmos of the Divine becomes alive and profoundly visible.
In this way, the “Mind of God” becomes a way of survival and actualization. This state of being is the result of long, hard, and rigorously disciplined training. This is not magic but merely waiting to those who answer the call. In their fullest realization people become fully open, naturally fluid, relaxed, and centered. Through this process people strengthen their five senses while they integrate themselves in the vast cosmos of the Divine, which is both themselves and the world. When the consciousness-awareness is growing towards perfection the person is then entering the world of the True Consciousness that resides in what is called the sixth sense (as well as higher realms of awareness). Finally, this sixth sense, and those higher, integrates with the person- nothing less than the Mind of God.
Those who do not understand, however, cannot be forced into the light of understanding. Those who do not see, or those who are caught up in their own limiting egotistical views, will never consider themselves accepted or feel they have a place in warrior traditions; which must be acceptable. They decide by themselves, renounce themselves, and disappear by themselves. This self-chosen separation is integrated in the ever-going process of creating the cosmos. The first tangible manifestations of the Divine were made in the form of sounds or vibrations; something which became an integrated part of martial science now largely forgotten, called kiaijutsu. The vocalizations in kiaijutsu are intentionally preserved in words that have no meaning in daily routine conversation so that the warrior can express pure determination through sound-forms that cannot be diminished in intensity by reflecting daily social interaction. The original sounds are thought to be purer, or closer to the other vibrations that constitute physical reality- sights, sounds, feelings, etc. It is the actual resonant sound itself and not the meaning of the words that make the process effective.
In kiaijutsu, Secrets are transmitted only through the vibrations of sound. The timeless knowledge cannot take on the form of written words, nor the form of drawn illustrations, nor the form of moving pictures. Only through sound can these truths be handed on. The heart’s beat will awaken the dream lying dormant in the recesses of the mind and impact on the spirit. Love creates the basis for safety, prosperity, and welfare even for the future generations. This is the essence of the warrior’s spiritual traditions.
No other form of endeavor offers quite so complete, physically as well as mental, emotional, and spiritual) a path towards Life as that perfected in the martial traditions. In the pursuit of warriorship and of Life, these systems are powerful ways toward perfection. This journey towards perfection is, in fact, nothing more than to be truly, completely, and wholly Human.
* Article by John G Dzikowski, Kyoshi
Kyushin Ryu Kenjutsu Fushin Dojo .
* Back to This Issue's Frontpage
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