Theme of the Week: No Think

When it comes to thinking about not thinking, martial artists have often turned to Zen Buddhism.  While I make no pretense about my knowledge of Zen, I have read “Zen Flesh Zen Bones” and it seems like a pretty solid introduction to me.  The book is actually a collection of four separate books – each of which is fairly short but very dense.

Why is it important to be able to not think when doing martial arts?  Because in the fight, you’ve got no time to think.  In the fight, thinking will merely consume time in which you should be acting.  Thinking will get in the way.

So how does one “not think”?  Tonight we tried three different strategies:

1. Breathe
2. Just do the work
3. Observe but don’t judge

All three of them share the same idea: give the conscious mind something to do so that the mind doesn’t start grinding gears and getting in the way.