Sword Forum Bugei

Iaido and Iai-jutsu are very beautiful arts to watch and are very beautiful to preform.
How ever most miss the complete zen that is in the art, It is not just the movement but the mind set, the goal that one day if cought in misfortune one will be able to react, to be decisive, and to not force the reaction but to let it come naturaly.

to achive the mind of a zen master and the composure of a warrior.
I believe that iaido and iai-jutsu teaches so much more than just offensive self defense.

Do not react ... respond.

Reaction is what we do without thinking and to draw a weapon without thinking is irresponsible. It is drawing without aim and with only a primal instinct to strike: to train yourself to do this is highly irresponsible. Often terrible in consequence.

Response is what we do when we recognize a circumstance and have - hopefully through training and discipline - been prepared to meet it.

Discipline is - in part - a mixture of the mindfulness of all things we do, the knowledge of right-action and wrong-action, the wisdom to discern one from the other and the intent to endeavor to always do right.

We make choices. We enact our intention. But one should never cut without clear intention and shouldn't even draw without clear intention. The old myth that a sword, once drawn, can not be re-sheathed without drawing blood comes from a poorly, loosely and improperly transliterated maxim that states that if you draw a sword, it should only be because you have a clear intention of why you are doing so, be it for training, defense, maintenance or even outright murder. There needs to be forethought, intention and - one hopes - the guidance of clear moral and ethical teachings. The taking of life is a serious business and doing so is a serious and irreversible situation that requires clear thinking. Reaction does not allow for this.

Reacting and striking without thought are both contrary to every lesson of serious sword work. The Zen in the Draw is not about reactionary strikes or lightning fast reflexes. It is about the oneness - the wholeness - experienced when the sword ceases to be a thing apart, but rather, partakes in the exercise with you. It is about being free from distractions. It is about the mindfulness and unity of every fluid thing in the technique and about discovering how to flow one technique into the next ... Mindfulness ... this is so fundamental a thing and yet sometimes, the most difficult to ingrain in new students. Gentle Mindfulness is the beauty of sword work. I am far more impressed with the man who can cut with unbelievable ease than by the man who can cut with unbelievable speed.

I teach that power follows speed and speed follows precision. Practice smooth, comfortable precision and speed develops as a natural result. Power, then, becomes the natural byproduct of speed when precision is the foundation ... first precision, then speed, then power comes without effort. However, there is a pertinent truth hidden in here as well: precision must be built with mindfulness and decisiveness of action. We must be fully aware of the very fluidity of our cut in order to develop precision-at-ease. Lightning speed without need for thought is contrary to this.


In the end, yes ... we practice to become more fluid and natural in our sword work in an effort to make that sword work itself more natural and dynamic. We practice the draw and the cut and all else that accompanies them so as to be more at ease with the weapon and you are right: there is an intrinsic beauty in it.

But in all of it, there is reciprocation between swordsman and sword. They should be partners and in some ways, when a swordsman is no longer wielding the sword but moving with it ... when he is no longer cutting with the sword, but cutting with his intention and inviting the sword along for the trip ... this is when a relationship develops that will transcend theoretical "mastery" of swordsmanship. Mastery, after all, implies servitude and supremacy and there is so much more beauty to be experienced in partnership.

More importantly to the topic, however, is the concept that when a swordsman no longer has to resort to reaction, but may instead respond fluidly and at his ease, then he is working with the sword, not using the sword and this is so much more effective.

Many tragedies have been spawned by lightning-fast reactions because the one reacting is doing just that ... acting on impulse (even if a well-honed impulse) that leaves no option for a decision to be made.



Sidebar thought: To be the best warrior on the field, do not seek to be the best at delivering the cut. Seek, rather, to be the worst at receiving the cut.

How true the words you speek. I believe I should have chose my words more carefuly.
Yes speed is nonessential to iai-do or iai-jutsu, timing and accuracy are however. With proper timing speed follows.
I do agree with your statement of the relationship between the sword and swordsman as more of a partnership. Like the soldiers of the modern millitary the rifle is their friend, their life link, or partner that over time they learn to respect and understand. An important bond forms between the two. They learn the hard ships of carring and using that instrament and try to coupe for all of the reprocutions that follow the use of the weapon.

As you said there are reprocutions form drawing and cutting. And the intent and the acknowledgement of the out come at times are more important than the draw and the cut. Through practice one forms the tools needed to respond or react... (lack of a better term), to what ever is thrown at them. Yagyu Munenori says in his book "Life giving sword" to not fight against ones natural reactions but to use them, and allow them to occure. The preparaidness that comes from practice and drills, the forming of a bond of swordsman and sword steems into a zen like state of Mu or as you said mindfulness, a mindfulness of one's self, situation, and surroundings, it is the ablility to respond or react in any way wheather it be stricking back or evaiding the blow.

To be alble to see all posible angles and examin the one that has the best outcome and to execut that response without hesitation. That is the beauty of Iaido and Iai-jutsu
That is the zen that one is forever aiming at achiving.
One can live a whole life time and never achive mastery, but it is the journy that is more important than the destination.