Zanshin is a word of Japanese origin that describes the objective of a person in little events that relate to their entire lives. In other words, it asks a person to smooth their actions stepwise, so the end result is as smooth as each individual action.
Defining Zanshin
A literal translation of the word zanshin is “remaining mind”. It is everything left of a person’s focus after an action has been made, the remainder of which is meant for the next action.
An example! If a person was going for a walk, every step taken should be smooth… where the foot doesn’t hit the ground hard, and just the right amount of weight is centered in the supporting leg in the step. The step would also be made with the awareness that after that step another would follow, and so on, and in order to make the entire walking movement smooth, each step would have to flow nicely into one another.
Martial Art Application
In martial arts, zanshin is generally treated as a broader term. It is chiefly seen, usually going hand-in-hand, as having two meanings.
The first is awareness. Kendo instructor, writer, and philosopher David Lowry spends time talking of being aware, and tells a story about a student whose teacher’s only lesson was to make his student able to sense assault even while sleeping. This focus asks a person to know things beyond the field of vision, using all of the senses to lessen the number of surprises in a person’s life. One of the arguments for developing this focus is that many of the assaults made in a day are successful simply because people are taken off guard.
Adaptation and being beyond in control of situations can be seen as the second way of looking at zanshin. A good example is that even though it is impossible to know what a person will tell you next, once you hear what they have to say, it becomes the mind’s duty to process what they were telling you. Being able to follow the ebb and flow of conversation is the adaptation. Continuous movement must be made to uphold the awareness and control seen in conversation as well; if something is said that you wish you could take back, knowing that the past stays the past is conceptually equivalent to being “beyond in control” of the conversation, and learning from the mistake made.
Zanshin, Style Specific
Zanshin is used even more specifically in certain martial arts. Shotokan karate sees zanshin as awareness within an opponent. When a practitioner going through the movements of kata makes a move, they are to keep looking in the direction of any completed move, to keep an eye on an opponent if they happened to get back up. Kendo is specific to watching out for attacks throughout the day, though many schools fail to instill the idea that a person developing zanshin should be alert in other areas of their life.
Even though this is not a guide to develop zanshin, it is good to take note that this type of development takes a great deal of training, willpower, and an impressive teacher.
