Hi Everyone

Some of you may be aware that my passion is coaching individuals and secondly martial art performance training. I have collated some tips that I use daily and remind myself of regularly with life and business from the ‘art of Zen’.

Zen can be described by finding your own way.

Just like a stream will flow down a mountain it finds it’s own way. If it were to be stopped by a boulder it would simply accept this and move around it. Do you accept life’s obstacle and move around them?

To be in a state of Zen means to be empty yet whole. like a circle can be seen as empty it too can be viewed as whole. To be empty yet whole!

The following is an excerpt I found which describes the ‘art of Zen’.

Mushin  ( English translation “no-mindedness”) is a mental state into which very highly trained martial artists are said to enter during combat. They also practice this mental state during everyday activities. The term is shortened from mushin no shin a  expression meaning mind of no mind and is also referred to as the state of “no-mindness”. That is, a mind not fixed or occupied by thought or emotion and thus open to everything.

Mushin is achieved when a person’s mind is free from thoughts of ego during combat or everyday life. There is an absence of discursive thought and judgment, so the person is totally free to act and react towards an opponent without hesitation and without disturbance from such thoughts. At this point, a person relies not on what they think should be the next move, but what is their trained natural reaction or what is felt intuitively. It is not a state of relaxed, near-sleepfulness, however. The mind could be said to be working at a very high speed, but with no intentions, plans or direction. In analogy a clear mind is compared to a still pond, which is able to clearly reflect the moon and trees. But just as waves in the pond will distort the picture of reality, so will the thoughts we hold onto disrupt the true perception of reality.