Mushin in Martial Arts and Insights from Neuroscience

Loke K. S^a

aIndustrial Management, National University of Science and Technology, Taiwan loke.ks@gmail.com

Abstract

Mushin or no-mind in martial arts is discussed in the well-known writings of Takuan Soho. Some of the common explanations of mushin includes as “flow”, ego-less movement, fluidity, awareness without conscious thoughts, global awareness and so on. But somehow these explanations are not entirely satisfying as they do not explain the paradox in the writings of Soho. We review some results from neuroscience for a possible explanation and that the dorsal and ventral pathway of vision and motion provides a plausible and logical explanation for no-mind.

Keywords:

no-mind, mushin, wuxin, human visual system, visuomotor control, dorsal visual stream, ventral visual stream, blindsight, zen, martial arts

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