Mokuso ~ To Look Into The Heart

Many people consider martial arts to be a meditative art, a way to focus and reflect on themselves in the present moment. They want to see themselves as they are now, not as they were yesterday or even a moment ago, nor how they will be tomorrow or in the next second. They do so by getting away from their day-to-day activities – the office, household chores, school and homework – to spend an hour or two concentrating on getting each technique perfect.

If you could make each moment in life a work of perfection, you would be living very well indeed. You would never feel regret that you are not living life to its fullest potential. But this is very difficult if not impossible to accomplish. We all become careless at one time or another, and there are many distractions to keep us from concentrating continually on the here and now.

Students of martial arts try at least to make the time in which they practice perfect. To achieve this goal, they sit quietly, usually kneeling on the floor, for a few moments before and after each class. This is called mokuso.

During these moments of absolute quiet, martial arts students focus their thoughts on life at the present moment, on the practice at hand. Whether you’ve just had an argument with a friend, or it’s your birthday, or you’ve just received a promotion at work, you must use mokuso to forget about such matters and simply turn your mind toward your training.

The mokuso after class is an opportunity to reorient yourself to life outside martial arts. You may be surprised how you can get a fresh perspective on your daily routine after you’ve stepped away from it even for a moment or two. The meditative aspects of martial arts promote a better appreciation of each moment in life, inside and outside the dojo.

You can also use the mokuso after practice to reflect on the time you have just spent in class. Did you try your best? Did you concentrate the entire time on your practice? As you can well imagine, it is not easy to think only about martial arts for hours on end, and even Shihan Mike may have thought about something else for a moment or two. The mokuso after class, therefore, can also be the time when you pledge to yourself to do better next time. For more information, please visit us at tmacenter@aol.com.

Adapted from, “The Empty Hand: A Karate Wordbook” by Rui Umezawa