Zen Master Kodo Sawaki (known affectionately as "Homeless Kodo") sitting Zazen* Zen and the martial arts have a complex history. And it is one that is (a) almost completely misunderstood by all martial artists, especially practitioners of the Japanese martial arts who seem to talk about it the most but also seem to understand it the least, and (b) not even understood at all by the modern "zennist".** In this short little post, I'm not going to get into all of the reasons both A and B above are true, but simply want to express how similar both Zen and the Japanese martial arts are, and maybe this will give a good reason for the budo-ka to take up zazen, and while I expect even less zennists to take up budo, it does help for him/her to understand the martial arts better. Zazen is a physical practice. It's at least as much a physical practice as it is a mental one. I think this is vastly - and I do mean vastly - overlooked by most people, even practitioner...
Essays on Old-School Strength Training, Classic Bodybuilding, Traditional Martial Arts, and Budo Philosophy