Revisiting "Mizu no Ko-Koro"

As I progressed into the senior belts portion of my karate training, I started to learn about this concept of “mind like water” (in Japanese, “Mizu no Ko-Koro”). Like most ancient Zen proverbs, the true meaning behind this concept did not come easy in the beginning. I immediately picked up the “calm” attribute of still water where the mind remain in perfect harmony with its surrounding and is reflective (like a mirror) of those around it.

However, it was not until earlier this year that I came to realization of the “dynamic” attribute of water – it reacts to disturbance or provocation but return to still immediately after. This came to me one class as I had to fend off seemingly never-ending series of classmates in continuous sparring and self-defence drills. I had to go from calm and relax (so I could quickly identify and respond to an attack) to performing proper techniques with the appropriate level of intensity and conviction to counter the attack (i.e. the ripple and/or the waves of the water as it is disturbed/provoked) and return to the original state of calm. I then realized that water is both the most yielding thing in natural (it remains still when undisturbed and go around those in its way) and the most ferocious force in natural (it can cut through rocks and destroy anything in its way) and it switches between the two almost instantaneously.

The understanding of "Mizu no Ko-Koro" led to my new understanding of self control. Self control is more than just self restraint, it is restraining oneself always and respond with absolute conviction when it is the only way to preserve what is valuable – the well-being of oneself and/or those it endears. And just like water returns to its original stillness after the storm passed through, self control also demand the same level of restraint when the threat ceases.

A Short Essay on Budo

Budo (武道, in Kanji characters) is Japanese word for “the Martial Way”. This “martial way” is the philosophy of the ancient samurais.

The word Bu (武) can be deconstructed into two other Kanji characters: 止 (which means “stop” or “prevent”) and 戈 (which means “spear” and carries the connotation of fighting). As the result, Bu carries an esoteric meaning of “to stop/prevent violence” and Budo is better translated as “the way to stop/prevent violence”. This esoteric meaning of Budo is what separates samurais (or honourable warriors) from others who seek violence as a mere mean to other meaningless/selfish gains, such as hired assassins or bandits.

Some people today use Budo interchangeably with Bujutsu (武術,, in Kanji characters), but they are actually fundamentally different from each other. Bujutsu focuses on the combative techniques, as jutsu is the word for techniques or skills, while Budo focuses on the philosophy that provides the self-improvement and self-developments aspects of the honourable warriors’ lifestyles. Effectively, Budo replaces the goal of “training to become a better fighter” with “training to become a better person”.

From the 8th century to the 16th century, Budo was referred as the ethical ideals of the samurais and included such concepts as obedience, loyalty, and respect. Budo, as a fighting system, was developed in the Tokugawa era (1600-1867) when the samurais were transformed from a fighting class to teachers, merchants, and government officials. These social changes, necessitated by the prolonged peace time during the era and the government’s attempt to reduce the potential for violence, spurred a movement to recreate the experience and preserve spiritual and ethical ideas of the past classical warriors in a new form (i.e. Budo) with the new emphasis on serving the individual and the society as a whole. The focus on effectiveness of the techniques to kill an opponent gave way to self-defence (i.e. control/prevent violence) and self-improvement. (Caile)

The teaching of the Budo philosophy is vital as part of any martial arts training. Instead of merely developing the combative technique/skills (i.e. the jutsu), the philosophy instils the moral and the discipline to its practitioners and provide them with the grounding necessary to stay on-course and live honourable lives.

In essence, the philosophical component (i.e. do) of Budo compliments its technical component (i.e. jutsu) and creates that balance necessary for the development of martial artist that could both prevent violence inflicted upon others through their martial skills and prevent themselves from misusing those martial skills for the wrong purposes.



Bibliography
Caile, C. (n.d.). Defining Budo: Evolution of Spirit. Retrieved June 23, 2009, from FightingArts.com: http://www.fightingarts.com/reading/article.php?id=81

Karate Ni Sente Nashi

“Karate Ni Sente Nashi” (空手に先手なし, in Kanji characters) is the second principle in Sensei Funakoshi’s Twenty Precepts (“Niju Kun”) and is translated as “There is no first attack in Karate”. It is believed this principle goes hand-in-hand with the spirit of Budo (i.e. the way to prevent violence) and the reasoning behind each traditional Kata begins with a block.

Mizu No Ko-Koro

“Mizu No Ko-Koro” (水の心, in Kanji characters) is a Japanese phrase that translates into “Mind like water”. It refers to the state of displaying calmness in the face of adversity, not over/under-reacting to disturbances (i.e. the ripples in the water is merely representative of the disturbance), and return back to the calm once the disturbance is over.

Louis Frederic (Frederic & Crompton, 1998) translated and defined it as:

“A mind (spirit) like water. The perfect calm which the mind or spirit can find, producing a non-aggressive state and a feeling of "passive" resistance. Whoever possesses Mizu-no-Kokoro is thus sensitive to all impressions, just as water is sensitive to the slightest breath of wind, and his or her Ki is in harmony with all beings.”

Bibliography
Frederic, Louis & Crompton, Paul (1998). A Dictionary of Martial Arts. Tuttle Publishing, North Clarendon, VT, USA.