Kaigen

Practiing a simple, straight-forward frontal cut, standing position. We usually do this repeatedly 20-30 times in a row while sensei walks around and correct our movement.

When I first try doing it, it seems impossible to twist both hands to drop the pointed part of the sword to the ground and NOT using any strength from the arms at all to lift the sword fully over the head, scraping pass your forehead before twisting it to point backward and bring it down quickly to the position you see in this picture, completing the cut.

But sensei taught us a way to do it. Very difficult at first because it has something to do with inner strength and again mind control. I could not divulge the technique here because it's against the rules of the Dojo, but all I could say that the samurai of the old days were really genius. I mean, if you knew how to do it right, the swift action of lifting the sword up would make you feel as if the heavy sword has no weight at all! The samurai sword, much heavier than any other sword of the same size and length due to more volume of raw metal used in making one could feel as light as a feather. And I am NOT exaggerating!

But it does not mean we novices can do it right every time, though. That is why sensei sometimes paired us up and while one is practicing this Kaigen, the other must try to restrain both arms of one's practicing parter to prevent instinctive use of those biceps and triceps muscles! Very tough for me since those guys I practice with really mean business!

More importantly, sensei could just tell the state of your mind by just listening to the sound of your Kaigen practice! I used to be reminded that I was a bit anxious. Well, I think sensei was too polite. I was extremely nervous when I first tried it. Then there were times when he could tell that I was impatient, etc. Again, he did not even have look at me when he made those remarks.

But if your mind is right, then you will be amazed to hear the swift swoosh of the thin blade cutting through the air. If you use your arm muscles or use physical force to try to do it, you wouldn't be able to achieve that. That's why I said samurai sword practice is one ideal way to train your mindfulness! Your mind is constantly on an emotional roller- coaster! And if you pay attention to your body as well, you would also see the cause and effect of things and how it can affect your feelings and vice versa.

For example, do you know that when your mind is engaging in a thought, your muscle tends to tense up? In today's world, your doctor would probably tell you that repeatedly tensed-up muscles can lead to many severe acute pain or stress-induced illness or trauma. In the samurai's era, thought-induced tenseness of the muscles means death! You can't do that if you are a samurai! Takuan Soho, a famous Zen monk who was regarded as Musashi's teacher and Mushashi's archrival's mentor as well used to write a book called "The Unfettered Mind," to teach you just that.

For Takuan, if you are a swordman and your mind stops to think or contemplate something at a certain point of time during a duel, it means death. In times like that, you can't afford to think. You just have to achieve the state of "Mushin," or realizing things as it is and be spontaneous about it.

In another word, you have to practice "vipassana," to survive the duel. Better yet, to solve the conflict without a fight or killing.

I did have a chance to prove Rev Takuan's teaching when I was taking part in the spochan tournaments and while I was practicing in the Dojo in Tokyo. This is because
practicing traditional samurai sword technique like this usually does not give us real opportunity to fight, even with wooden sword.

For wooden sword, we are practicing only "Kata" or the steps of rehearsed fighting scenario without using any armor or protection. Ours is called "Kenjutsu" and not Kendo. The purpose is more for training the mind and understanding of life and nature of things as they are, not as a sport.

So, being a person who likes to "think" a lot (more of a daydreaming, I would say!), I discovered that my mind tended to think of tactics all the time during each bout! This is a big no-no number one according to Takuan Soho. Not only that, I also tended to focus only on a particular aspect of the fight, either defense, or offense. And sometimes on a particular part of my opponent's body only where I tended to be able to hit well. This is another no-no for Takuan. Many swordmen of the past have made this mistake. Most of them died prematurely in their duel, I guessed.

I finally discovered, many painful bouts aftewards, that those single-minded absolute focus techniques were no good to me. An overall, relaxed, spontaneous movement that "goes with the flow" seemed to be a much better strategy! Of course, if you can achieve the state of "no mind," that would be even better!

To prove my point that I really learned something out of those fights, I have been able to fare better and better in those dojo practice and in tournaments. In the last one, I finally bagged a gold. What was more important that the gold medal was that I was able to understand what Takuan Soho means when he wrote that book by proving it.