Shengxin and moxin by sifu Stapleton
Shengxin as it is known in Chinese martial arts or zanshin in Japanese martial circles is one of the most important aspects of our training. Moxin or mushin in Japanese is fundamental idea of chan Buddhism or zen as it is known in japan.
Shengxin is could be seen as a state of awareness or focused attention that is not solely focused on one particular thing, it is a concentrated awareness. This type of mental, spiritual state is that which all warriors aspire, constantly. The lose of shengxin, in combat will result in certain death.
The difference between a master and his student while practicing a given form/talou/kata, is the fact that the master is able to maintain shengxin throughout, even before the movements begin and well after they are finished. In fact a true master will be one who demonstrates shengxin all the time.
It is know that the late grandmaster of aikido morihei ueshiba sensei told his students that if any of them could catch him unaware and successfully attack him he would give them a black belt. This shows his ability to keep shengxin at all times. he was tested many times by his students and he was never caught “of guard” or without shengxin.
Here is a story from dave lowry sensei’s book:
The performance of noh at the endo castle was not a rare event .noh, the stylized and subtle form of theatre that the samurai naturally preferred to the more common and extravagant kabuki that was enjoyed by the other classes, was staged several times a year at the tokugawa castle. even so, the appearance of kanze sakon, headmaster of kanze school of noh and that arts most famous master, made the play a special occasion in the capital. noh is the most ritualized of any theatre form. a single gesture, a turning of the head or a lifting of the arm, can convey meaning of profound depth to the accomplished patron, so noh actors had to train throughout their careers with painstaking thoroughness. to assume difficult poses and move with controlled, emotive grace, their strength and their mental concentration, their zanshin, had to be quite comparable to the bugeisha (warriors).it was therefore, a matter of great interest for munerori (head of the yagyu style of sword fighting) to watch kanze on stage.
Invited to the play by iemitsu (the shogun),he studied the actors movements with fervent attention. the shogun, sitting in front of munenori, turned to him during a break in the play.
“sensei,” he whispered.” is kanze a man of zanshin? Does his concentration ever falter?”
munenori squinted, as if considering the question, but made no comment.
“Please tell me then, if you see it broken in him during the play.”
When the performance was ended, munenori touched iemitsu on the shoulder. ”kanzes zanshin is nearly flawless,” he confirmed.” during the entire time he was on stage I saw him lose it only once, when he turned and sat near the pillar. at that moment he was without zanshin.”
To iemitsus awestruck wonderment, he later discovered that while he was hearing munenoris explanation of kanzes performance, kanze himself was speaking of it to one of his assistants in the dressing room behind the stage.
“There was a man sitting behind the shogun who was watching me with ferocious intensity,” he said.” can you tell me who he was?”
“Of course,” replied the assistant. “That was lord yagyu, the fencing master”
“ah, that explains it then,” kanze said, nodding in understanding.
“What do you mean, master?” asked the puzzled assistant.
“my performance was a reasonably good one, but as I crouched during the scene by the pillar, my attention was distracted. it was only for an instant, yet as I turned toward the audience I saw that lord yagyu was smiling, as if he’d seen something missed by the rest. indeed, he must have,” kanze finished to himself.
The idea of moshin or mushin is often explained as no-mind, but it is more of a non abiding mind, one that allows you to perceive everything all at once yet not to stop and dwell on any particular thing, it allows the chan or zen student to see the world and the universe for how it is at the instant.
To the martial artists this is of great importance to us, it allows us to be aware of ourselves and our weaknesses, our opponent and his strengths and weaknesses and it allows you to notice all the small things that other may not see, a obstacle on the ground for instance that your opponent may stumble over. It allows us to perceive everything and only retain that which is useful to us.
There is a story of a young warrior who visits a master of the sword to ask for instruction, the master of the school ask’s him how much experience he has, and he replies that he has very little, only the most basic knowledge of sword skills, but he has been promoted and that he needed to acquire more skill. The master led the new student to the centre of the training hall with sword in hand and readied himself in his practice posture, the new would be student also raised his sword, instantly the master lowered his sword and stated, why have you been dishonest with me? You are a master !! The confused student says this is impossible, he really knows nothing of sword fighting. The master insisted that he too was a master!! Again he denied this , and said I really don’t know why you would say this, the master then said, what is it I see in you then?
The students again said, I really don’t know what you see in me, im just an ordinary person, I have never accomplished much, in fact I think my promotion was just due to my fathers reputation. In fact I have never disciplined myself to anything expect one.
The master asked him “what is that?”
Early on when I showed no aptitude for the warrior arts, I concluded I would probably die very quickly in battle; therefore I spent all of my time contemplating my own death. I kept it in my thoughts constantly, no matter what I was doing. It was always in my mind, until I realized that I was no longer afraid to die, I had passed beyond any concern about it”
The master went to his cabinet, took out his writing tools and wrote on a certificate attesting to the warriors capabilities. Stamping it with his seal and handing it to him.
“There is nothing that martial arts can teach you that you already do not know. to overcome life and death is to know the greatest of mastery”
I hope these stories have given you some idea of what we are trying to achieve in our training, true martial arts goes way beyond the mastery of just physical skills, but it is through the physical mastery that the martial artists is able to delve deep into his own sole, his very being and try to understand the true meaning of the dao.
