KEN ZEN ICHI

The Sword and Zen are One.

Edited by Vin Al Ken
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EARTH

There are many Ways. Buddha’s law is the way of salvation, Confucius’ way governs learning, there is a way of healing, of poetry, of tea, of archery & many other arts. Each must practice according to their taste.
It is said the warrior's Way is to wield the sword & pen. Even without talent, a warrior must diligently practice with these dual tools of his craft. The warrior’s mind must always accept death.

Strategy is the craft of the warrior. Commanders need it to direct, and soldiers should follow its precepts. There is no warrior in this world who really understands the Way of strategy.
The true Way of sword fencing is the craft of defeating the enemy in a fight, and nothing other than this. If you attain and adhere to the wisdom of my strategy, you need never doubt that you will win.
Study strategy over the years and achieve the spirit of the warrior. Today is victory over yourself of yesterday; tomorrow is your victory over lesser men. If you attain this Way of victory, then you will be able to beat several tens of men. If you master the principles of kenjutsu (sword-techniques), when you freely beat one man, you beat any man in the world.
The spirit of defeating a man is the same for ten million men. The strategist makes small things into big things, like building a great Buddha from one foot model.
From one thing, know ten thousand things. When you attain the Way of strategy there will not be one thing you cannot see.

To think that the sword is just for slashing men is a prejudice. The sword is not meant to kill people; the sword is meant to kill evil. When one man makes thousands suffer, using weapons can be Heaven’s Way. By means of strategy, the sword kills a single villain and thereby ten thousand live.

The principles of strategy are written down here in terms of single combat, but you must think broadly so that you attain an understanding for ten-thousand-a-side battles.
Two swords facing off is a small-scale martial art. When the whole land is victorious or defeated from a individual’s contest, that is strategy on a large-scale.
It is important to start by setting these broad principles in your heart, and train in the Way of strategy. If you do not look at things on a large scale it will be difficult for you to master strategy. If you learn and attain this strategy you will never lose even to twenty or thirty enemies. More than anything to start with you must set your heart on strategy and earnestly stick to the Way. You will come to be able to actually beat men in fights, and to be able to win with your eye. Also by training you will be able to freely control your own body, conquer men with your body, and with sufficient training you will be able to beat ten men with your spirit. When you have reached this point, will it not mean that you are invincible?
Moreover, in large scale strategy the superior man will manage many subordinates dexterously, bear himself correctly, govern the country and foster the people, thus preserving world’s law. If there is a Way involving the spirit of not being defeated, to help oneself and gain honor, it is the Way of strategy.

To attain the Way of strategy as a warrior you must study fully other martial arts and not deviate even a little from the Way of the warrior. With your spirit settled, accumulate practice day by day, and hour by hour. Polish the twofold spirit heart and mind, and sharpen the twofold gaze - perception and sight. When your spirit is not in the least clouded, when the clouds of bewilderment clear away, there is the true void.
Words cannot explain the Way, but it can be grasped intuitively. Study and read, read and ponder, ponder and realize the principles from within your heart, and train to absorb these teachings into your body.
Until you realize the true Way, whether in Buddhism or through common sense, you may think that things are correct and in order. However, if we look at things objectively, from the viewpoint of laws of the world, we see various doctrines departing from the true Way. Know well this spirit, with forthrightness as the foundation and the true spirit as the Way. Enact strategy broadly, correctly and openly.

   Do not think of deviation.
   The Way is in training.
   Become acquainted with every art.
   Know the methods of all professions.
   Distinguish between gain and loss in worldly matters.
   Develop intuitive judgment and understanding for everything.
   Perceive those things which are unseen and latent.
   Pay attention to details.
   Do nothing which is of no use.

AIR

There is theory and there is practice. The theory is - free your mind, by not attaching it anything. Yet if you do not practice, but merely mind principles, then your body will be out of order.
Practice, as applied to swordsmanship, is the proper stances, cuts, etc., that need to be learned. Even if you excel in practice, true mastery cannot be had without an understanding of the ultimate point - nonduality, as the principles and existence are the two wheels of an axle.
Someone who becomes wise is said to return to the beginning. As a note returns again in a higher octave, what is low is as what is high.
An amateur does not know how to hold his body or his sword, so his mind cannot dwell upon such points. If attacked, he reacts with instinct. As an amateur learns points about stance, the sword’s posture, the proper mindset, his mind comes to reflect upon these thoughts, which stick him up in conscious deliberations. Even when striking another, these analyzed considerations will make him come to feel somewhat bound. Yet during the course of his daily lessons, practiced over months and years, as his education is assimilated, his body and sword become mindless again, now natural and clear. Now, knowing the way by heart, the map is thrown away.

WEAPONS
                  There is a time and a place for use of weapons. This is the truth: when you may die in battle, you must make fullest use of your weaponry. It is false not to do so, and to die with a weapon yet undrawn.
Every weapon has certain advantages and you must use them according to their purpose.
You should not have a favorite weapon. To become over-familiar with one weapon is as much a fault as not knowing it sufficiently well. You should not copy others, but use weapons which you can handle properly. It is bad for commanders and troops to have likes and dislikes. These are things you must learn thoroughly.
The Way of this school is the spirit of winning, whatever the weapon and whatever its size.

BEARING
In strategy, your spiritual bearing must not be any different from normal. Both in fighting and in everyday life you should be determined though calm. Meet the situation without tenseness yet not recklessly, your spirit straight-forward, stable yet unfixed. Even when your spirit is calm do not let your body relax, and when your body is relaxed do not let your spirit slacken. Do not let your spirit be influenced by your body, or your body influenced by your spirit. Be neither low spirited nor high spirited. Do not let the enemy see your spirit.

STANCE
Musashi: In all forms of strategy, it is necessary to maintain the combat stance in everyday life and to make your everyday stance your combat stance. You must research this well.
Adopt a stance facing the enemy broadly, with the head erect, not down, not up, not twisted. Your forehead and the space between your eyes should not be wrinkled. Do not roll your eyes nor allow them to blink, but slightly narrow them. With your features composed, keep the line of your nose straight with a feeling of slightly flaring your nostrils. Hold the line of the rear of the neck straight: instill vigor into your hairline and the shoulders down through your entire body, form a unity. Lower both shoulders and, without the buttocks jutting out, put strength into your legs from the knees to the tops of your toes. Brace your abdomen so that you do not bend at the hips.

Munenori: Your stance is designed to prevent your opponent from cutting you. This stance is called the wheel.
Hold the sword sideways so that it can be rotated to any position. Stretch out the left elbow.
                  Hold your body sideways, with your shoulder to the opponent. Learn to dodge the sword by the width of your shoulders by twisting your forward shoulder out of the way of an attack.
                  Put your weight on the forward knee and stretch out the read leg. Then one can quickly move backwards onto the rear leg to avoid an attack and shift back to the front to counterattack. Have a low posture.
                 
FOOTWORK
                  When moving your feet, walk as you normally would, on your heels. The Way must be trod firmly. Your feet are meant to move together, like Yin & Yang. Move your feet, left-right or right-left when attacking, retreating or parrying. Do not prefer one foot over the other.
Your feet should not move fast or slow. They should be natural and smooth. Too much or too little is bad: take the middle path. When you move too fast, its because you are rattled and flustered, when you move too slow its because you are timid and daunted. In either case, the root is fear. The ideal is equanimity.
                  Fancy footwork is of no avail in a marsh or in mud, on hills or rocks, or anyplace obstructed. This footwork does not change, remaining just the same as walking down the street.

SPEED
Speed is not part of the true Way of strategy. Speed implies that things seem fast or slow, according to whether or not they are in rhythm. Whatever the Way, the master of strategy does not appear fast.
Really skillful people never seem fast, nor slow, but deliberate and calm.

SWORD POSITION
The five posture’s purpose is to cut the enemy. There are none but these five guards.
The five posture are: Middle (Chudan), Upper (Jodan), Lower (Gedan), Right Side, and Left Side. In practice, they blend into one another. The middle guard is the heart of the guards and must be understood.

SWORD GRIP
Grip the sword with your thumb and forefinger floating, with the middle finger neither tight nor slack, and with the last two fingers tight. It is bad to have play in your hands.
When you take up a sword, you must feel intent on cutting the enemy. As you cut an enemy you must not change your grip, and your hands must not freeze up. When you dash the enemy's sword aside, or ward it off, or force it down, you must slightly change the feeling in your thumb and forefinger. Above all, you must be intent on cutting the enemy in the way you grip the sword.

SWORD STROKE
Whenever you cross swords with an enemy you must not think of cutting him either strongly or weakly; just think of cutting and killing him. Be intent solely on killing the enemy. Do not try to cut strongly and, of course, do not think of cutting weakly. You should only be concerned with killing the enemy.
If you rely on strength, when you hit the enemy's sword you will inevitably hit too hard. If you do this, your own sword will be carried along as a result. Thus the saying, "The strongest hand wins", has no meaning. If you try to wield the sword quickly, like a chopping knife, you will err. The sword must be swing broadly, extending your arms.  The swung sword traces a plane – the sword’s true edge. This pathway’s arc follows the sword’s momentum. In order to cut the enemy, you must not make twisting or bending cuts. It is completely useless.

EYE POSITION
Perception is strong and sight weak.
In single combat you must not fix the eyes on details. When facing a tree, if you look at a single red leaf, you will not see the other leaves. When that one leaf holds the eye, the other leaves may as well not exist. Not set on this or that leaf, the number of leaves that can be seen is without limit.
One’s view must be encompassing and not fixated on what is insignificant. When one has mastered the sword, you will easily know the speed and position of the enemy’s sword. Then the eyes will gaze at the man’s intent.
Nevertheless, studying the clues the opponent provides will eventually reach your unconsciousness and help you to learn to suppress these signs in yourself. Learn to read the enemy’s:
                  Two Stars (fists holding the sword), Peak and Valley (elbows’ extension) & Distant Mountains (upper chest). When the opponent decides to strike, his grip and muscles will tighten. Mark this.
                  You must learn to be able to look to both sides without moving the eyeballs. This ability takes time to learn. Practice throughout everyday life.

LOCATION
Pre-combat:
In any place, notice all the items therein.
Strive to find a position that lets you view everything.
Watch people’s hands and arms.
Know where the exits are.
Try to put distance between yourself and others.
When meeting two people, watch the one who says less and who has freer hands.

Combat:
Use the virtues of a place to hold the dominant position in the fight.
Stand with the light and doors behind you. If not this, to your right.
Take the high ground to look down on the enemy.
Chase the enemy towards your left side. Chase the enemy into awkward places. When in this position, do not let the enemy look around but continue to pursue him into obstructions, bad footing, and keep obstacles to his side. Research and train hard in this.

WATER

DECEPTION
Appearance and intent are fundamental to strategy. Through use of what is false – deception & ploys, one wins what is true.
The appearance of intention will trick opponents when skillfully used. Even if they sense a ruse, if they attack they will lose. They fall for appearance, and you fell them with your true intent. Even those who do not step into a trap can be checkmated through the next one. Then not being tricked is the same as being tricked.

Facing an enemy, the character ken, for sword should be understood as the word ken for see.
The essence is perceiving abilities and intentions. Even if a hundred or thousand kenjustu (sword techniques) are taught and learned, with all sorts of stances and guards, perception of abilities and intentions alone is discernment. The ultimate point is this to possess mikiri, razor sharp discernment.
To prevent others from perceiving you, have no indication of intent. Wield an Inscrutable Sword.

TIMING
There is timing in all skills. To master timing with the sword takes long training.
All movements have certain periods of time and intervals between them.
One must master timing to grasp the moment when victory is open.
Furthermore, when fighting, cadences develop. It is bad to be in tune with your opponent as he can then better use his sword. A regular rhythm is bad. One must strike and act, without consideration of the opponent’s cadence. One must call the tune, and make it unexpected and surprising, not striking on the “beats” but striking between them so the enemy stumbles.

SPACE
In all confrontations, a ma exists between you and the opponent. The gap between you, this space, is the exact distance between you where one can be cut. Its boundaries depend upon individual skill, the weapons used, and the battle’s territory.
Three inches of blade slipped into this space can kill if it slips through a fault in the opponent’s defense.
Act like the moon-in-the-water and slip into the ma to strike without being struck.

TECHNIQUES
                  Slashing & Thrusting - 3 rhythms – simultaneous strike, close in and strike when opponents’ sword is raised, cross over and strike when the enemy’s sword is lowered.
                  Feinting – Feign weakness, Fake intention, False attacks.
Parrying – Smacking Parrying (parry the enemy’s sword and rebound as a cut), Sticking Parry (connecting swords and then closing), Stabbing Parry (parry with the movement of stabbing the enemy’s eye), Spark Blow (just as swords cross hit with the full body’s force without raising your sword).
                  Closing – Stop the enemy’s arms with your hands or shoulder. Bang into the enemy with your shoulder.
                  Many Enemies – Do not wait. Attack those that attack. Drive them together, pile them up, cut them down.

MORE TECHNIQUES
Musashi & Munenori explain various techniques, which are not amenable to easy explanation (and perhaps exemplify the oft-repeated contention that one cannot learn martial arts from books and must have a teacher).

The best sources for these techniques:

Musashi - Kenji Tokitsu gives detailed explanations of 5 forms, or katas (standardized routine of “ideal” movements) to use depending of the guard used. Kenji provides a translation that accounts for two swords (many translations assume one sword) along with notes from Musashi’s modern Niten Ichi Ryu successor

Munenori - Hiroki Sato’s Sword & the Mind lists Shinkage fighting techniques from the Shinrikyo with accompanying pictures from the Shinkageryu Heiho Mokuroku.

FIRE

The mind’s internal attitude of concentration is will. Will manifests in energy.
Remember the principle – Sen-Sen – initiative above all.

Bear your spirit and body straight, and cause the enemy to twist and bend. The necessary spirit is to win by attacking the enemy when his spirit is warped. You must study this well.
In contests of strategy, it is bad to be led about by the enemy. You must always be able to lead the enemy about and force your opponent to follow your changes. Suppress the enemy's useful actions but allow his useless actions.

Ken – attacking assault the moment the fight begins
In duels of strategy you must move the opponent's attitude. Attack where his spirit is lax, throw him into confusion, irritate and terrify him. Take advantage of the enemy's rhythm when he is unsettled and you can win.

The spirit of attacking is completely different from the spirit of being attacked. By their study of strategy, people of the world get used to countering, evading and retreating as the normal thing. They become set in this habit, so can easily be paraded around by the enemy. The Way of strategy is straight and true. You must chase the enemy around and make him obey your spirit.

Tai – waiting counterattack
                  The science is all about how to win by getting your adversary to take the initiative, launching various preliminary blows and shifting strategically, based on tactical ploys.
                  See with certainty how an adversary’s sword is working, how he is handling it, to discern what is in his mind. This requires the same sense as mastering music’s tempo.

To Crush – Regard the enemy as weak and when he is less skilled, disorganized, or retreating crush him decisively before he can recover.
To Not Give a Hairsbreadth Gap – Once the opponent is struck, he may become a raging boar. Strike again and again.
To Cross at a Ford means to attack the enemy's weak point and to put yourself in an advantageous position.
To Know the Times means to know the enemy's disposition in battle. Does it wax or wane? When you know his sword’s quality, its strengths and weakness, his intent and cadence – strike.
To Know "Collapse" is to recognize when the enemy’s rhythm is lost and at that moment pursue the opportunity to attack to cut down the enemy before they can recover.
To Become the Enemy means to think yourself into the enemy's position. Mirroring the opponent’s stance can enable one to see their state.
To Pass On means to infect the enemy with a bored, careless or weak spirit.
To Cause Loss of Balance through danger, hardship or surprise.
To Injure the Corners means to weaken the parts so that the whole falls. In single combat, this means injuring the limbs & senses.
Beating the Grass to Scare the Snakes – Shout to startle the enemy. Strike in the shout’s wake. Do not shout when striking. After cutting the enemy down, shout to announce your victory.
To Throw the Enemy into Confusion is the essence of fighting, and you must research it deeply.
To Frighten the enemy to your advantage use your body, sword or voice to scare and defeat him.
To Renew means to abandon a stalemate and change your spirit to win through a new technique.
The Commander Knows the Troops means thinking of the enemy as your own troops that you move about at will.
The Body of a Rock means to be unmoved and untouched.
The Vanguard of the Moment is the moment before the enemy moves. Learn to see latent energy emanations (kehai) & counteract it before/when it manifests.

Study the contents of this book, taking one item at a time, and through fighting with enemies you will gradually come to know the principle of the Way.

Deliberately, with a patient spirit, absorb the virtue of all this, from time to time raising your hand in combat. Maintain this spirit whenever you cross swords with an enemy.

Step by step walk the thousand-mile road.

VOID

The goal of learning an art is to clear your mind of what you have learned. You begin knowing nothing, and so you have nothing to fixate upon. But as you learn, you question what you have been told and how you are doing. This doubt hampers your actions. Once your lessons have been forgotten and no worry assails you, you perform effortlessly.
When you no longer have to think about what you do, everything you do becomes easy.
The same is true for swordsmanship. You learn how to position your sword and how to swing it, how to stand, look & move. You learn all there is to learn and practice it until you exhaust it. Success is when it all disappears from consciousness and you become innocent as a child, when nobody, not even celestial demons can see where your mind is located. All the forms of the sword exist to reach the state of formlessness.
This is the ultimate end of an art. To stop regarding your performance, to give up your mind’s concerns, to accomplish everything, having forgotten yourself, that is the Way. Through learning you gain freedom from learning.

The adept expert does everything without giving it a care in the world. The dancer who self-consciously considers their steps while dancing will lack grace. One must be like a wooden figure.
                  Whenever you do without abandonment will be rotten. You do not “do it“ but think about “doing it.”

If you are thinking about what to say you will not hear what is said. This is because the mind’s attention upon its own tune means the mind is always tuning out perception.  The mind’s inclinations will distort what is heard and what is seen.
Fixation is sickness. It is sickness to intend to strike, to intend to prevail, to intend to parry. To be fixated on winning is sickness. To be fixated on martial arts is sickness. To be fixated on showing off is sickness. To be fixated on offense is sickness. To be fixated on defense is sickness. Anything you obsess over is sickness and since the sickness is in the mind, the way is to cleanse the mind of these afflictions. Then, as the formlessness of a mirror, lets all be precisely reflected within, the heart of those on the Way is just like a mirror, empty and clear. Train and polish your mind.

The everyday mind works, in you and in others, day and night, for good or ill, by doing what it did, by habits accumulated – a causal chain – karma. The mind’s “house” ambles and drifts, razes and roils. This is just depends on our acquired character, as “good” and “evil” are creations of the mind. Not looking into the mind, we are ignorant of the mind. Those rare ones who have seen how the mind works, still have a hard time doing work on modifying the mind.
                  To speak does not mean one has really “seen”. Talking of water will not get you wet. A speech on fire will not make you burn. You cannot know real fire and real water but by experiencing them.
You cannot know by explaining books. Nothing said about food will feed. To hold forth on a subject is not to hold the truth. Buddhism and Confucianism both talk about the mind, but as they do not do what they say, they clearly do not know. People only know the mind if its foundation and firmament are explored.

The Mind-that-Minds/Ushin is the same thing as the False Mind/Moshin, the errant mind that ceaselessly minds this and minds that. Keeping this and that in mind becomes a ruminating judging chattering mind - the mind that minds.
The No-Mind/Mushin is the True-Mind/Honshin. It is the mind that is not tied to ideas, not fixated in view, not set in judgments, not stuck in sentences, but free to pervade your flesh, to suffuse your Being, not your Thinking.
If the Mushin becomes your habitual mind, your mind will not linger & malinger. Your mind will be invisible and everywhere - a clear eye and a sure hand. The attached mind becomes frozen and inert when it should be like clear water, on tap, to serve when needed.

If you would be an adept, your awareness must not falter. Whether walking, standing, sitting or lying down, whether talking or silent, drinking tea or eating meals, you must persist in discernment, focused upon the moment fully, in direct experience. When experts’ blades clash and neither draws blood it is as when Buddha held up a flower and Mahakasyapa smiled.
Few people have attained to this realization. Those who have awakened can be known by any with the eyes to see it.

Train hard.