 | Zen in the Martial Arts - - "You must concentrate upon and consecrate yourself wholly to each day, as though a fire were raging in your hair." These words of instruction to a medieval samurai might be said to contain the essence of Zen. To practice Zen or the martial arts, you must live intensely, wholeheartedly, without reserves, as if you might die in the next instant. Lacking this sort of commitment, Zen becomes mere ritual and the martial arts devolve into mere sport. |