Do not Let Your Mind Divert From Your Focus

musashi-kojiro-duel-ganryu-island — Musashi(right) in his famous duel with Sasaki Kojiro, Wielding his famous Drying Pole sword.

Whether by the strike of the enemy or your own thrust, whether by the man who strikes or the sword that strikes, whether by position or rhythm, if your mind is diverted in any way, your actions will falter, and this can mean that you will be cut down. If you place yourself before your opponent, your mind will be taken by him. You should not place your mind within yourself. Bracing the mind in the body is something done only at the inception of training, when one is a beginner. The mind can be taken by the sword. If you put your mind in the rhythm of the contest, your mind can be taken by that as well. If you place your mind in your own sword, your mind can be taken by your own sword. Your mind stopping at any of these places, you become an empty shell. You surely recall such situations yourself. They can be said to apply to Buddhism. In Buddhism, we call this stopping of the mind delusion. Thus we say, “The affliction of abiding in ignorance.”

Takuan Soho | The Unfettered Mind: Writings from a Zen Master to a Master Swordsman(P.4-5)

The mind is the focal point. Where you set your focus matters.

Diverting your mind is hesitation. Hesitation is fatal. When the mind diverts, whether by distraction or other means, it creates a hesitation of focus. This is where you are vulnerable to be taken.

Hesitation of focus is an opportunity for your enemy, whether your enemy be an individual, nature, fate, or yourself, to take you.

If your mind stops at all in combat, your soul may be separated from the containers of mind and body.

If your mind stops at all during an emergency, your soul may be separated from the containers of mind and body.

The thinking, monkey mind is delusional when allowed to run wild. The mind is a child that must be controlled and conditioned in order to progress forward in any capacity.

Thoughts are attempts at understanding the world through language. People falsely believe that the world can only be understood through thought.

Often you will understand the world and the situations you find yourself in more easily by putting your mind away properly.

Let your mind flow freely in each task, without the baggage of narrative.

Quiet the mind.

The speaking mind is the anxious mind and the anxious mind is easily taken, because it is in a distracted state.

Do not put your mind on a thing. Putting your mind on a thing is stagnant water. Stagnant mind, stagnant water, like a toxic, festering swamp.

The mind that flows is clean, pure, powerful and effective. The stuck mind is a rotting bog.

The free, righteous mind flows from experience to experience, gaining experience like water gaining minerals from natural sources.

If ten men, each with a sword, come at you with swords slashing, if you parry each sword without stopping the mind at each action, and go from one to the next, you will not be lacking in a proper action for every one of the ten.

Takuan Soho | The Unfettered Mind: Writings from a Zen Master to a Master Swordsman(P.6-7)

The healthy mind flows between actions in any circumstance, whether ordinary or extraordinary.

Do not stop the mind.

Do not hesitate the mind.

Flow the mind.

When facing a single tree, if you look at a single one of its red leaves, you will not see all the others. When the eye is not set on any one leaf, and you face the tree with nothing at all in mind, any number of leaves are visible to the eye without limit. But if a single leaf holds the eye, it will be as if the remaining leaves were not there.

Takuan Soho | The Unfettered Mind: Writings from a Zen Master to a Master Swordsman(P.7-8)

If you narrow your focus, you will not be distracted by what lies outside of your focus.

If you expand your focus and clear your mind, you will accept all of what you can see.

Sometimes you need mind. Other times, you have too much mind, and you need to remove your thoughts to see the entire picture, to intuit properly.

Balancing both of these strategies is key.

Use both strategies to cut your way forward.

Do not let your mind divert you from your focus.