ZEN

[Montana]

On 11/13/2024 at 10:38 PM, KarateKen said:

What about the other 90%? 

oops! I meant 100%

 

SHEESH! I'm old, give me a break here! lol

[KarateKen]

On 3/3/2025 at 11:43 AM, Montana said:

oops! I meant 100%

 

SHEESH! I'm old, give me a break here! lol

Fair enough. 

[Spartacus Maximus]

For the longest time mokuso was something that was done with only very limited or no explicit explanation as to its purpose. Nor did previous instructors ever really tell anyone what we were supposed to be doing for that 2-5 minutes before or after the training session.

We were just meant to breathe and concentrate…and everyone did because that is what one is expected to do when training in  a Japanese/Okinawan dojo. 
 

Finally and luckily an excellent Okinawan instructor explained that, mokuso, in his view had a more practical purpose rather than just spiritual or intellectual theory. 

The martial/training purpose is to practise natural abdominal breathing(diaphragm), focus the mind and train ourselves to become more aware and conscious of our environment.

All very useful for anticipating an attack and avoiding or countering without having to think about it. This, he explained, was essential to developing instinctive techniques and when mastered to a high degree can appear like a « sixth sense »

 

[crash]

through out my time in the martial arts arts ive been to some dojos that did meditate and then those that did not. my core dojo, while self defense based, was also heavy on the sport side, it was the early 80's, a high time for the tournament scene. we did meditate there, to clear the mind and control the "jitters" so to speak. visualization was also heavy, especially to help forms competitions. it works tremendously. also helps for later learning and creating your own forms/kata......