C.S. Sloan's Integral Strength

“Attaining the way means attaining it completely with the whole body. With this awareness you should practice immovably.” ~Dogen Zenji      In this essay—as odd as it might seem at first—I want to use a couple of quotes from Dogen’s classic Zazen-Gi (which can be translated as “Principles of Zazen,” and is itself a book within his larger Shobogenzo or “The Treasury of the True Dharma Eye”) to look at how we might, from some practical perspectives, have the correct mind while practicing budo, and that this mind will lead us to fudoshin, or “immovable mind.” How do we cultivate this immovable mind so necessary for the practice of true budo?      To begin with, we need to have the correct attitude before we even start our training, and before every practice session that we undertake. Before you enter the dojo, dojang, or kwoon, you need to let go of the thoughts and worries of the day, and anything that is just bothering you generally in life. You may hav...

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...