Letter From The Abbot: The Sword And Zen, by Sayama Daian Roshi
Zen and Budo by Omori Rotaishi, Fudochi (Immovable Wisdom) by Zen Master Takuan and The Platform Sutra of the Sixth Patriarch are the three fundamental texts of Chozen-ji as designated by Tanouye Rotaishi.
Happily, they are all quite short. However, at just 23 pages of a small booklet, Zen and Budo may be too short to cover the history of Budo, the structure of human being, the world of play, and the giving of fearlessness.
Luckily, Omori Rotaishi also wrote Ken To Zen (The Sword and Zen), in which he explains these same ideas in detail and illustrates them through stories of great swordsmen throughout Japanese history. Teshima Sensei, 7th degree in Kendo, and I have been working on an interpretive translation of this book from which the excerpts below are taken:
Kendo is a Way of life/death determination. At least until the Meiji Restoration, swordsmen trained in Ken methods every day, stood at the cliff of life/death, and stared at the limits of life.
No one really wants to die. Aiuchi (Mutual Slaying) means to overcome the instinctive fear of death…. At the edge of life/death, if you have the ready-to-die determination, you can move on with courage…. Aiuchi is a Way to life through death, through release from fear.
It is easy to talk about Aiuchi, but when you actually stand at the edge of life and death, it is not so easy to throw yourself away in Aiuchi. You must discover the source of bonno (base passions, worldly desires, in this case, the natural attachment to life). Then when you grasp “the Shin (heart/mind) that is always unchanging” and “the principle of all things,” the state of Ainuke…opens up.
Only someone who can free people from dread and give fearlessness…can perform Ainuke. Here, there is no difference between Ken and Zen, and we can say that they are both ultimate teachings of the Human Way.
In the past, swordsmen fought with real blades in encounters which determined life or death. It was deadly serious. Unless this intensity exists, the practice of any art cannot become a Way. Kendo matches will only be a sport fought with split bamboo swords for points given for striking target areas covered by protective gear. One must go through Aiuchi to realize Ainuke.
Yamaoka Tesshu created this kind of life/death intensity through Tachikiri, a severe training a student requests by a “petition to train by vowing to give up life.” The training consists of three phases and the third stage includes a seven-day Tachikiri of 200 matches per day, totaling 1,400 matches over the seven days.
Tesshu said of his experience:
At the age of 24, I completed it, but I was not fatigued or wearied. It is needless to say that Kenpo is to compete for superiority, but what is crucial is the strengthening of Shin. The reason is, since Shin is absolutely boundless, it has no limit. Therefore, if you face the opponent with your Shin and render your technique through Shin, there is no reason that you should feel fatigued or become weakened….
Omori Rotaishi describes his “little experience” on the third day after vowing an oath of 100 matches.
I could not raise my arms, my voice became hoarse, and it was as if I was about to die. But when I endured it and continued, I became able to render an honest strike as if slicing through the heavens and earth without thoughts of win/lose or awareness that there is self and a separate opponent. Yamada Jirokichi Sensei commented “That’s what we call Muso Ken (No-Thought Sword).” Of course, it was not the true Muso Ken, but I clearly understood that Muso Ken was not something that comes from the physical or spiritual power of the “self,” but it comes by going beyond the limits of myself. Muso Ken is something that “arises from Buddha” and is never a technique of “acquired habits.”
Although it may be laughable compared to the training of Tesshu and Omori Rotaishi, in our Kendo Class, we strive to lose all the acquired habits through the practice of the Hojo and are instituting a five to ten match practice to experience the energy which emerges when the body is winded and exhausted.
We have no illusion about becoming good in Kendo. Our real Tachikiri is our sesshin training. Our hope is to live what Omori Rotaishi called “The Human Way of Interaction” by realizing the True Self.
