Zen Combat
To practice Zen or the Martial Arts, you must live intensely, wholeheartedly, without reserve - as if you might die in the next instant.
-Zen Master Taisen Deshimaru
Korean Zen Martial Artist
This is the first in what will be a series of entries on “Zen combat”, as well as a basic explanation of what the term actually means here at Integral Strength. The term comes from a book of the same name by the historian Jay Gluck, first published in 1963. For early Karate-ka in North America, the book was exceptional reading, and it still remains so until this day. For some reason, it hasn’t always remained in print, despite the fact that - unlike the entirely useless and pretty much awful book “Zen in the Martial Arts” by Joe Hyams, which has, for some odd reason, remained a seminal favorite - Gluck actually knew something about Zen and the martial arts. Not to fault Hyams entirely, I suppose, since almost all martial artists I’ve come into contact with - even those who are Japan…
-Zen Master Taisen Deshimaru
Korean Zen Martial Artist
This is the first in what will be a series of entries on “Zen combat”, as well as a basic explanation of what the term actually means here at Integral Strength. The term comes from a book of the same name by the historian Jay Gluck, first published in 1963. For early Karate-ka in North America, the book was exceptional reading, and it still remains so until this day. For some reason, it hasn’t always remained in print, despite the fact that - unlike the entirely useless and pretty much awful book “Zen in the Martial Arts” by Joe Hyams, which has, for some odd reason, remained a seminal favorite - Gluck actually knew something about Zen and the martial arts. Not to fault Hyams entirely, I suppose, since almost all martial artists I’ve come into contact with - even those who are Japan…
