C.S. Sloan's Integral Strength

The following was written spontaneously, that is, without planning or "thinking" about what I was going to write about, I sat down at my computer, and had a few musings at the back of my mind. The following is the result. Ramblings on Budo: More Budo "Minds" Not long ago, I wrote an essay on the different “minds” of budo, such as mushin , often called “no mind”, and shoshin , often referred to as “beginner’s mind.”  (I wrote a couple of essays on shoshin.)  But here, in this minor essay, I have in mind (pun intended) some other “minds” that, although they aren’t discussed outright in budo, they are encountered during practice.  And sometimes they are discussed outright in other Ways (such as the Way of Zen).   These include monkey mind, wild mind, centered mind, and big mind, to name just a smattering few. Monkey mind is a mind you’re, unfortunately, all-too-familiar with if you have ever tried to focus, even for just a brief period of time, on one solitary thing...

 Shoshin means "beginner's mind."   Mushin means "empty mind" or "no mind."  When I was a teenager, and trained in a very  traditional Isshin-Ryu  dojo, my sensei always referred to it as "no mind."  The "mu" in "mushin" is a negation .  It's most well-known use in Zen is in the koan "Joshu's dog," which is sometimes referred to simply as the "mu" koan.  (If you're unaware, a koan is a Japanese Zen term that can be a story, a statement, a dialogue between two zennists, or, often, a question.  Its purpose—no matter the form—is to induce "great doubt" or "don't know mind" in the practitioner, so it's primarily a practice , though it's sometimes used to test a student's "progress" on the path of awakening.) "Joshu's Dog" (design by C.S.) The koan "Joshu's Dog" goes something like this: Someone asked Joshu,"Does a dog...