Zen in the Martial Arts

I have been studying and practicing Martial Arts for the past 11 years, the book contains not only lessons for the martial artists, but also lessons for, ultimately, our lives. The book is an easy read, with each chapter even though short, but they are powerful and direct. Here are my notes from each chapter which everyone should try to apply in the lives: 1. Empty Your Cup: Like a cup of coffee being overflowed, we are all overflowed with opinions and habits. In order to take on new knowledge and experiences, we first need to empty our cups, and consider what's hold to be true. 2. Process Not Product: This was a very interesting chapter, we set goals or deadlines for ourselves which is fine, but ultimately we need to focus on the process of something, not the completion. You can still "Begin with the end in mind" (See Stephen Covey's 7 Habits of Highly Effective People), but it's a process we must focus on, which helps eliminate stress. 3. Seize The Moment: Live in the present, not the past or predicting some unwanted future. Complete concentration and discipline must be in the present moment, don't worry about what's going to happen in even 5 minutes time, just focus your mind on now. 4. Conquer Haste: Be patient in the trivial things in life, have some self control, and one will you will have the same mastery in great and important things. 5. Know Your Limits: Study and improve the strong points of yourself that outweigh your weaknesses. Capabilities exceed limitations. Use what you are already capable of and master it, such as martial arts; kicks do not have to be head high, great kicks at waist level and below cause as much damage. Use what your capable of to your advantage. 6. Even The Masters Have Masters: Everyone has a master, to learn from, to grow. The other lesson here is that we need to accept that learning goes by plateau; we make a big jump up, then we go down again, we have the inspiration, then we go down again, and we don't see any change for a while - but this is a normal part of learning, and fighting through plateau times will result in ultimate awards. 7. Lengthen Your Line: In Sparring, don't try to cut off people with tricky and fancy moves, focus on improving your own kill and knowledge you already have acquired. 9. Do Not Disturb: Time is the most precious commodity we have, we either spend it or waste it. Look at how your using you're 168 hours in a week. 10. Active Inactivity: Doing nothing can sometimes be more important than doing something, we need to pause in our lives and have time out to just THINK. 11. Inactive Activity: Don't try to fight with or deny problems, accept and acknowledge then. Be patient and controlled, then find the best visible solution you can. 12. Extend Your Ki: This is the invisible force or energy which cannot be seen. We all have a inner strength, where the mind and the body can be coordinated as one - This involves having a superior state of mind. Such as under extreme and emergency circumstances: The man who lifts a car off the wife's legs, the man who breaks down a door in a burning building with loved ones trapped inside - this inner strength comes in. 13. Zen Breathing: This is controlled breathing, it restores: calmness, confidence and strength, and reduces anxiety and stress. Breathing in through your nose, with your stomach expanding, and out through your mouth, with your stomach going down naturally, is the process to be followed. 4 Seconds inhale, 4 Seconds exhale. In addition, This breathing pattern can also strengthen your intercostal muscles. 14. Go With The Current: Don't try to go against one's strength, such as in sparring, redirect it, and this will also cause your opponents mind to not be angry. Control things by going along with them. 15. Anger Without Action: How can you expect to control some one else, if you cannot even control yourself? When you lose your anger, you lose yourself - on the mat, as well as real life. 16. Recognize A True threat: To avoid being initiated, think more and react less. If you extend your leg right out in front of you, and if some one is more than your extended leg length away, i'ts the "safety zone" - punches and kicks cannot make contact. You just remain calm and composed, you don't have to react unless they come in your punches or kicks zone (even here, you just be prepared). 17. Kime: This means tightening your mind. In life and on the mat, an unfocused or loose mind wastes energy. Focus on ONE thing in the present. 18. MUSHIN: Let your mind flow, things do become automatic, with both mental and physical practice. 19. Instinctive Action: Always trust your instinct - utilize your sixth sense. 20. Un-thinking Pain: This is mind over matter, if your in pain, focus on something else, then you will realize your frontal lobe (The CEO of your brain), cools of unimportant things, and that pain doesn't seem so bad... and even does not exist. 21. Effortless Effort: Relaxation and concentration go hand in hand. Don't strain your muscles, such as in sparring, just relax and let things go. Train moves to be unconscious action. 22. Make A Friend Of Fear: Face fears until your no longer afraid. Visualize yourself doing it. 23. Confident Seeing: Visualization is VERY powerful, and thus the mind is also. Athletes visualize, you can heal yourself with visualization, and also visualize success. 24. The Power Of Focus: Relax your self such as in sparring, gather all your strength, then make a move. 25. Multiple Options: Have the state of mind of tranquility - a mind as still as water. Consider the third alternative before you take action. 26. Martial Arts Without Zen: You can learn zen without karate, and martial arts with out zen. But Zen and martial together frees one from: concern, tension, anxiety, and winning and loosing. 27. Karate Without Weapons: You don't have to fight at all, which leads to the last point... 28. Winning by Loosing: Defuse a compromising situation by cooperation. If some one starts a road rage, surrender immediately. The true martial artists will allow the other person a way out. I hope these points help at least someone reading this review.

I have read and re-read this book a dozen times over the last 20 years, during periods when my martial arts training was active, dormant, and now active again. This is the only book about which I can say that. My only regret is that I have yet to find a collector-grade hardback edition for my library. This book can be a fast read - so much so that I often find myself apologizing to friends when I recommend it to them. It is at first difficult to explain how a book can be so influential and yet simple at the same time. The chapters are short - a few pages each - but most of them contain what I consider to be profound and thought provoking life lessons. These lessons have had meaning for me, albeit different ones, from my days as a college student to my present life as a husband, a father, and a professional. I now sometimes just pick up the book and open it to a random chapter for a quick, but meaningful, review. This book is not a tome or treatise about the way of Zen. It is a collection of short stories about the author's experiences with martial arts, and the lessons he derived from those experiences. Personally, I don't care whether the author was a renowned martial artist or not. I readily admit that I am not some master-level practitioner, but that parallel makes the author's experiences resonate even more. In other words, I can relate to many of the challenges he describes. I am writing this review as I purchase my 5th or 6th copy - this one to send to a friend with whom I was discussing the book last night. At a reasonable cost, and a quick read, I can comfortably say that this is worth the effort.

There are a lot of good thoughts in this book that I've struggled with in the past, and continue to struggle with. Especially good is the passage about a young, aspiring martial arts student asking how long it will take him to become a master/black belt. The instructor tells him 10 years, to which the student naturally responds by asking if he trained 8 hours/day, and the response from the instructor was 20 years. He asked if he trained 24 hours/day, 7 days/week and the answer was 30 years (or forever, I forget). Regardless, the point is that trying 'too hard' reduces your ability to focus on the skills and techniques you are trying to learn. By relaxing, and giving yourself time to learn you become a better student, faster! The same point is made throughout the book, where extra effort is often a downfall. Extra effort in martial arts means being tight, often times, which translates to slowing yourself down and wearing yourself out. This is the same reason lower belts are wiped out by doing kata, whereas the higher belts (usually) seem to be almost unphased, yet they demonstrate more power during the kata. I will be glad to go through the book and paraphrase the lessons, they will be useful for decades to come. It is also great to hear what Bruce Lee's lessons to the author and others were, some of them surprising! One of them being that your limitations can exceed your capabilities, so accept them and basically work around them rather than becoming demotivated.

Joe provides us insights into the art not the science of martial arts. Don't be put off, however, by the suggestion on the cover page of "a way to spiritual enlightenment". For Joe's work is neither a lecture nor a sermon, but a totalling enjoyable relaxed journey exploring key experiences in his martial arts life. It is a book I feel you should first read from cover to cover to fully enjoy - it is not a manual. It is a tapestry of insights into those areas of martial arts that go beyond the learned physical techniques of kata or kumite. Woven into this work are the insights, wisdom, and practical advice from a diverse range of acknowledged masters of the martial arts. Brought home to us in many cases from his personal experience with the likes of Ed Parker, Bruce Lee, and Jim Lau, just to name a few! And where is the Zen, you well ask? The reader is asked (Page 1) to accept that "for the true master.... martial arts are essentially avenues through which they can achieve spiritual serenity, mental tranquillity, and the deepest self-confidence." If you cannot accept this, then please read on regardless. The book is full of wonderful martial art "lore" and interesting anecdotes and quotable advice from accepted modern day masters as well as ancients. A great read. You may, however, be like many who have reached that stage of your martial arts training where you have more questions than answers about the mental techniques such as emptying the mind, living in the moment, ki energy, controlled breathing, the circle of control, kime, mushin, "sixth-sense" awareness, "mind over matter", "sparking", visualization, and focus. For those of us in this situation, this book makes us aware of these as applications of "the principles of Zen, as reflected in martial arts, to our lives opening up a potential source of inner strength" (Page 3). The author encourages us to see our art and ourselves in a new light. Perhaps best encapsulated (Page 118) in the words of the martial arts master and Zen master Mas Oyama: "Karate is not a game. It is not a sport. It is not even a system of self-defence. Karate is half physical and half spiritual. The katateist who has given the necessary years of exercise and meditation is a tranquil person. They are unafraid - they can be calm in a burning building". If that is a direction in which you now wish to further develop your art, then I feel this book is an excellent place to start that journey.

This is an enjoyable and easy to read book about the frustrations of martial arts training and the lessons the author learned. He covers a lot of different aspects of training in various arts, and his anecdotes are unsparing of his ego and sometimes funny. Any martial artist will be able to relate and smile. Five stars for the book. I ordered a "Used - Acceptable" copy as a gift for a friend, but it's not my idea of acceptable. There are inked underlined sections on almost every page of the first half of the book. Someone named Sullivan studied this copy in great detail for a while, and then apparently gave up. There's a story there! I like the idea of recycling books, but in the future I'll go for "Used - Very Good". I just ordered a new one for my friend. One star for the copy I received.

My dad introduced me to this book years ago. He is a black belt and still practices martial arts & meditation to this day. He lended me this book and told me it was his favorite through the years. I’ve since bought multiple copies and given them to close friends/co-workers. You don’t have to practice martial arts to enjoy this book and apply these principles on a daily basis. This is one you’ll want to pick up over and over to keep these lessons in mind . Also has some intimate stories/teachings from Bruce Lee as Joe studied with him through the years.

This is exactly what I was looking forward. A collection of lessons, how they changed the writer, how applying them improved his life, and how to practice them yourself.

I am a serious martial artist. I really had no idea what this book was really about. However, I saw that most of the reviews were positive and decided to check it out. I am so glad I did. This book was written quite a while ago. Before UFC became all the rage. For me, this book clearly delineates between the physicality of martial arts (as seen in UFC matches) from the mental and spiritual aspects which few truly master. Many martial artists, including myself, spend very little time focusing on the mental and spiritual aspects of our chosen styles. However, I think this is the area that distinguishes " a really good martial artist" from a "true master." This book has really opened my eyes and is taken me one step further in my journey to master the martial arts. My instructor says "focus on being your best and mastering yourself." I never really understood the "mastering yourself" part until I read this book.

Great book!

Melhor livro de artes marciais que li nos últimos tempos.

I bought this Kindle version of Zen In The Martial Arts, as I could not find what had happened to my original copy I read years ago. This book not only has gems appropriate for students of the martial arts, but for students of life as well. I love this book now, as I loved it when I first read it in paperback, back in the 1980's. It never hurts to be reminded of the deeper aspects of practise and to look within.

Truth be told I wasn't sure about this book going into it and how practical it would be, but it is! Very practical, albeit the "softer" aspect of the martial arts. If you don't mind reading a book written by somebody raised on the martial arts in the 70s/80s (the pre-MMA "Bruce Lee" era), then I definitely recommend adding this book to your martial arts library... and reading it and reflecting on the advices within!! Here's some quotes from the book which stuck out for me: "A dojo [pracice hall] is a miniature cosmos where we make contact with ourselves - our fears, anxieties, reactions, and habits. It is an arena of confined conflict where we confront an opponent who is not an opponent but rather a partner engaged in helping us understand ourselves more fully." "A man who has attained mastery of an art reveals it in his every action." (Samurai Maxim) "You must learn to allow patience and stillness to take over from anxiety and frantic activity for the sake of doing something." "Controlled breathing restores calm, confidence, and strength." "Control your emotion or it will control you." (Chinese Adage)

Este libro lo compré porque soy una gran fan de Bruce Lee y su forma de pensar. Esto adentrandome poco a poco en la filosofía zen, y este libro tiene enseñanzas que, quizás parezcan muy básicas, pero que viene bien recordar. Lo recomiendo!