By Gavin King, 2nd Dan Go So Kempo

“To strike without premeditation or thought, involving no set movement and with total mental detachment.”

The Kempo practitioner should be able to deliver an attack regardless of their position or stance without any conscience thought.  Throwing a punch should be as natural as scratching an itch.  When you're attacked you should have defended yourself before you were even aware you were being attacked!

In Zen this principle is referred to as Mushin or “No Mindedness”. It is a level of pure conscience.  Both your mind and body are one; there is no hesitation, no fear, no desire, no ego, just pure experience. 

Spiritual aspects aside, no mindedness is something each of us performs everyday.  If you take one of the most essential tasks that we do constantly, breathing, as an example.  If you try to consciously breathe you’ll realize that it is actually quite a complex task to undertake while consciously thinking about it.  Luckily our brains have to ability to learn how to do complex essential tasks without any conscious involvement on our part.

Breathing is a task that is hardwired into our brains from birth, but our brain also has the ability to learn to do other tasks subconsciously.  Tasks such as walking, running and even driving a car are all performed subconsciously and many of us do these daily.  Unfortunately, we are not born with the ability to drive (despite what some people think) it has to be learnt.

When we first learn to drive we consciously think about everything, how far to push the accelerator down, how to work the clutch, the gears, the brakes and then we need to worry about actually moving.  The first time we try to drive the car hops, spurts and stalls.  After a bit of practice of driving the car things start to move more smoothly, and eventually we perform all these tasks without even thinking about them.  This is pure Muso Uchi in practice!  The more we do something, the better we become at it.  Eventually, with enough practice tasks become natural.

At a higher level, it is believed that when we act without mental thought and desire, we more effectively transfer Chi (Ki in Japanese).  In the oriental therapies, such as Acupressure and Shiatsu, practitioners actually train to perform their treatment without any desire of the outcome; they just have the intent to heal.  It is the same when we are trying to hit a pad.  If you try to hit the pad with the hardest punch you can muster, generally it’ll feel dead and lifeless.  You’ll continue to throw the punch, trying harder and harder, but it still feels just as dead.  Eventually, through pure frustration you’ll just throw the blow out, not caring anymore whether or not the punch even lands.  Then bam, you’ve just thrown the best punch of the session!  Then you try to recreate this great punch and throw another dead lifeless blow.  Ironically, only when you let go of the conscience desire of delivering a great punch, will you actually do so.

However to deliver this perfect punch, your body first needs the ability to throw the punch. This is only achieved through countless repetitions of the movement for it to become natural.  Eventually your techniques will become automatic, a reflex.  At this level when your body feels an opening, it’ll strike.  When it needs to parry, it’ll parry.  Your art will become effortlessly and subconscious.  

As Martial Artists, we must let go of all the things associated with the conscious mind; hate, fear, anger and desire.  These things only serve to act as barriers for us to act fluidly and naturally.  All of our hard work in the Dojo, the countless punches and endless kicks, serves but one purpose; to move our techniques over the gap from the conscious to the subconscious.  Here you will truly perform Kempo with Muso Uchi!

“He, who hesitates, meditates, horizontally!”, Ed Parker