Mushin: Encyclopedia - Mushin

Mushin

For the Lagos, Nigeria suburb, see Mushin, Nigeria

Mushin (無心) is a state into which very highly trained martial artists are said to enter during combat. The term is shortened from mushin no shin (無心の心}, a Zen expression meaning "mind of no mind". That is, a mind not fixed or occupied by thought or emotion and thus open to everything.

Mushin is achieved when a fighter feels no anger, fear or ego during combat. There is an absence of discursive thought, and so the fighter is totally free to act and react towards an opponent without hesitation. At this point, a person relies not on what they think should be the next move, but what is felt intuitively.

A martial artist would likely have to train for many years to be capable of mushin. This enables combinations of movements and exchanges of techniques to be practised repetitively, until they can be performed spontaneously and without conscious thought.

See also

• Martial arts
• Bushido
• Zen Buddhism
• Unconscious mind
• Fudoshin
• Shoshin
• Zanshin

Categories: Japanese martial arts terms | Zen

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Mushin", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki