One cannot talk about Japanese culture without talking about Bushido. "Words must be done, actions must be resolute", the actions of warriors are very similar to the characters in the biographies of "Ranger" and "Assassin" in Shiji, and "loyalty to the emperor and patriotism" and even disregard of life make people feel that they are Confucian culture in the feudal era typical, but these two are not enough to fit into the real life of a samurai. How to make the samurai see death as home?It is difficult to understand the life of a samurai without focusing on this issue. "Words must be done, actions must be resolute", "loyalty to the emperor and patriotism" all have the capital of thorough practice because of it, and talking about this must touch on the training of Zen.

Zen is the most straightforward attitude to face life and death. Although impermanence and rapidity are the common understanding of Buddhists, there is no one who wants to directly surpass the bondage of life and death in this world. It makes life and death always a matter of Zen. The first koan, and the world of enlightened people must also focus on the transcendence of this fundamental moat, and the most charming life scenery of Zen masters in the past can be said to be here. The Wuxue Zuyuan of the Yuan Dynasty is a good example.Ancestor Yuan who came to Wenzhou to escape the chaos of the Yuan people fell into the Yuan Dynasty in Wenzhou. The monks escaped and sat alone in the temple. And gratifying people and emptiness is also emptiness; cherish the three-foot sword of Yuan Yuan, cut the spring breeze in the light of electricity, others are the disaster of life and death, but he is human emptiness and law emptiness. .

The monk Kaichuan in Japan is also a good example.When Oda Nobunaga's army invaded Kaichuan's temple, he and a group of disciples calmly "fired" amidst the Zen chanting "An Chan does not need mountains and rivers, and extinguishes the fire in his heart to cool himself". So refreshing. The Pang Jushi family in the Tang Dynasty is another typical example.Layman Pang "planned" to die at noon one day. After telling his daughter, her daughter stepped onto the father's seat before he went out to check the time, and sat dead with her hands folded. Over the next seven days, a state shepherd, Yu Gong, came to visit the sick man. After Pang Layman finished explaining the Dharma for him, he even put his pillow on his elbow and "went away". After listening to the son, he also "melted by leaning on the hoe", and Pang Po said, "You are all like this, but I am not."Life and death, in this family, can really be said to be a matter of eating and sleeping when hungry!

Tiantong Zhengjue in the Song Dynasty showed another kind of scenery.He lived for sixty-seven years, and when he passed away, he left a verse: "Fantasy emptiness, sixty-seven years; white birds submerge, autumn water reaches the sky." In his opinion, the only major event of death in the ages is as difficult as It is natural like a white bird submerged, but death can be the landscape of the great beauty of life "autumn water connecting the sky".To be honest, what is mentioned in this verse is even more admirable than Hongyi's "flower branches are full of spring, the heart of the sky is full and the moon is full", and what kind of practice in the world can embody such a scene.

Death, in Zen, is a kind of contemplation, a kind of exercise, a kind of manifestation, and even a kind of completion. It can be said that because of this level, life can achieve its meaning and even transcend, and can also embody courage, calmness, or Ordinary or beautiful scenery, if a person fails to pay attention to it, all mundane and supramundane dharmas are just self-deceived jokes.The ideal Bushido contains exactly this spirit of Zen. However, how did the samurai train and even get into this situation?In this regard, there are many ways to practice Zen, and the Zen language also says that "carrying water and chopping firewood is nothing but the way", so warriors naturally chose to use their swords to enter the Tao.It can be said that the practice of "Sword Dao" is the foundation of a samurai. Apart from this, "words must be done, actions must be resolute" is just the loyalty of the rivers and lakes. will become an accomplice to militarism.

When talking about the practice of kendo, many people may immediately think of Miyamoto Musashi. Indeed, the founder of the Japanese kendo two-sword style is remembered by the world as a thorough kendo practitioner. The sword is originally a murder weapon and a thing to kill, but in troubled times, it is also a life-saving tool, and the difference between life and death is often in the blow of the sword. This characteristic makes the samurai dare not ignore it. In the training of swordsmanship.To practice Zen, one must "never leave that place at two or six o'clock", which means that the ignorant mind that has existed since beginningless time should not be given the opportunity to act recklessly. The sword is faithfully "remembered here", which is a kind of meditation.

However, ginseng has thorough ginseng, ginseng with penetration, ginseng with appearance, and ginseng with "separation". How can it be thorough?Always the whole life is it, it is the whole life; how to fit in?It must always be able to show that the mountains, rivers and earth can be seen everywhere, "all are useful".Therefore, the sword of a samurai cannot be just a sword, it must be the embodiment of the life practice of the samurai; the swordsmanship cannot be just the swordsmanship, it is also an entry into the way of life and the universe.And the reason why Miyamoto Musashi can become a representative of kendo practice is because he has been so thorough in his life to participate in kendo.

Why did Musashi, who had studied in the castle tower of Bailucheng for three years and left the customs after changing his temperament, let go of the three-year agreement with his lover Atong at the bridgehead?Under the appearance that he would rather be a fickle lover in the world, at that moment, Musashi was actually determined to face kendo with his whole life. In 1999, the battle of "Yanliu Island" that has been passed down through the ages was created. In the book "Miyamoto Musashi of the Empress" written by Katsuki Koyama about Iwaijima Gomu, there was a legend: Musashi was taking a bath in the courtyard one day, and suddenly felt a murderous aura behind his back. Turning around, he realized that Sasaki Kojiro's mistress, who died by the sword, pointed a Dutch short gun at him. Although, in the end, Musashi used his fearless body and aggressive spirit to make the woman not only unable to shoot, but also fled. But since then, Musashi never took off his clothes and took a bath in his whole life.

In this way, "not giving life any opportunity to take advantage of" is exactly Musashi's basic attitude in kendo. However, why can he make such a determination?This has to be deduced from the severity of swordsmanship and the life characteristics of the swordsman. "When two blades intersect, there is nothing to dodge." This Zen saying points out the "truthfulness" in the duel.The two blades face each other, and the authority, knowledge, and emotion that people usually rely on are all useless at this time as the attachment of the defeated enemy. No matter how high the social status, how profound the knowledge is, and how deep the emotion is, when facing "life and death", how can it be? It has nothing to do with life. This is the observation of a swordsman. Only this sword and only oneself can solve the plight of life, unless you are not a swordsman. If you are a swordsman, you have to understand this.

However, can you not be a swordsman?Isn't the essence of life most exposed when two blades meet?Otherwise, why should Zen compare Zen with the confrontation of swords? This is why Musashi believes that the way of swords can enable him to reflect the truth of life better than love, and then he walks into what he calls "the way of walking alone". Sword and Zen are true here. One, the samurai is no longer just an ordinary life pushed into endless slaughter by the god of fate. Musashi's thorough and serious attitude towards life makes him a Zen practitioner who doesn't talk about Zen characters, and only in this way can he explain the various scenes in Musashi's life.

Zen talks about clarifying the mind and seeing nature, and talking about enlightenment, and enlightenment is the great transformation of the realm of life. Since then, life has entered the world of Tao from the divided dualistic world, so the mountains, rivers, land, plants, trees, insects and fish are in the eyes of the enlightened. All of them are Dharma body teachings. Walking, standing, sitting, lying down, speaking silently, moving and still can all be the embodiment of Tao. of. The impossibility of Musashi's life is his attitude of "the art of war is so strict", and his most enviable thing is this "scenery after enlightenment". How Musashi chooses the way of swordsmanship for his life's practice may be "ordinary people". "It is difficult to understand, but his battle of Yanliu Island, his attainments in calligraphy, painting, sculpture, and many anecdotes about his practice will always be talked about by people. The battle of Yanliu Island was a key battle in the career of Musashi swordsman, and he also left his name through the ages, but how do you view the battle of Yanliu Island?Different people have different opinions. In this duel with Sasaki Kojiro, Musashi has exhausted his mind, from sharpening the long wooden sword with the oars, deliberately being late to make the other party feel uneasy, and even grabbing a favorable position against the backlight. Heroes cannot let go of Musashi. Here, Musashi is regarded as a cruel and deceitful Jianghu man, and Yanliu Island is the tragic cemetery of a bright and aboveboard swordsman. However, for Musashi, is the swordsmanship competition really just the general concept of swordsmanship?From the standpoint of Zen, if the competition of swordsmanship only involves swordsmanship, how can this isolated sword be compatible with life?Here, it must be that the boat is the sword, time is the sword, and light and shadow are the sword. Therefore, after middle age, someone asked Musashi whether he must grab the backlight position in a duel. "Sword.In any time and space, the sword must be able to exert its maximum energy. Only by experiencing this can the true meaning of the sword be revealed. Furthermore, the reason why Musashi was the winner and Kojiro was the loser in the Battle of Iwajima is because "everything is the sword" defeated "the sword is everything". "Everything is the sword", then the mountains, rivers, and the earth are nothing but swords, and the truth is that they are the Dharma body all over the void world, and "the sword is everything" is beyond ordinary people, but they must use the end of the sword to fight against everything outside, even for a while. It can overcome thorns and thorns, but in the end it is inevitable that the husband will sigh! Musashi's determination to enter the way of kendo is based on the feeling that "the sword is everything", but the reason why Musashi can become a sword master is that he has reached the state of "everything is the sword".Let's see among those great Zen masters, who didn't devote their whole lives when they first set their minds?At the time of initial participation, take a koan that expresses doubts from life, "Never mind this", "Twenty-six o'clock, never leave that", and after enlightenment, "The sky is forever, the wind and the moon", "Carrying water" Chopping firewood is nothing more than the great way.” In this way, when Musashi was in Yanliu Island, he had already foreshadowed his possible achievements in other fields. Musashi's calligraphy, painting, and sculpture are like his swordsmanship, with a directness that is difficult for ordinary people. He claims that he didn't spend much effort on it, but it is not inferior to other works handed down from generation to generation. That is, the only possible The explanation is not that he is a natural genius in all aspects, but that he should be born from the foundation. All these are just the scenery after his enlightenment, and only by seeing these can Musashi's life be called a thorough practitioner of swordsmanship. This level of life is indeed beyond the scope of the general concept of Bushido, but the world of swords and Zen. That is to say, it is only in his later years that Musashi can reach the state of "spiritual martial arts without killing". Talking about the shortcomings of Bushido, In fact, Musashi can also be used as a confirmed coordinate. The era of Musashi was four hundred years ago, and he is a well-known figure in Japan. There are many legends about Musashi, and there are different versions of his works. Among them, "Miyamoto Musashi" by Eiji Yoshikawa and "The Aftermath" by Katsuki Koyama Miyamoto Musashi is the most representative. The former writes about Musashi who practiced kendo before Yanliu Island; In order to gain an understanding of Musashi's life, Eiji Yoshikawa's book was turned into a movie directed by Hiroshi Inagaki and starring Toshiro Mifune, making Musashi's early career a well-known typical swordsman. As far as the level of life is concerned, there is no doubt that Musashi in the later period is better than Musashi in the early stage, and Musashi who realized the "vacuum sword" at the age of fifty can be said to have reached the level of perfection. Among the profound Zen masters, in this way, what Koyama Katsuki described is really the exercise and scenery of a mature life.However, what the world is interested in and is familiar with is still everything written by Eiji Yoshikawa. Among them, it may be due to the fact that Musashi's life realm in the later period is less understood by ordinary people, and the choice between swordsmanship and love can touch the world's emotions more. Heartstrings, but more importantly, it is still the ancient battle of Yanliu Island, from which Musashi became famous all over the world. When future generations think about this battle, there is also the sigh of the only one in the ages. The battle of Yanliu Island made Miyamoto Musashi and Sasaki Kojiro, who witnessed this battle with his life, made the small island of Funagi known as Yanliu Island (Yanliu was Kojiro's The name of the Kendo genre), and the stone with red dots on the island is also believed to be caused by Kojiro's blood. How do you view this battle?Is it the decisive battle between two talented youths born in the world and peerless masters that is attracting everyone's attention forever, or is there something else? It is true that without these two masters, especially such a young master, it is impossible for this battle to be passed down through the ages. For this battle, Musashi and Kojiro should also be expected, because it can prove who is number one in the world Swordsman, the answer has been revealed, and future generations will naturally enjoy talking about it. However, just to fight for the first place in the world?From this point of view, Musashi should be full of ambition after defeating Kojiro, but why did he tirelessly continue to practice Taoism?Obviously, being number one in the world is not what he or even Kojiro cares about the most, but the ultimate in kendo is what a top swordsman always remembers. Kojiro has witnessed a more perfect swordsmanship than himself with his life, but after defeating Kojiro, Musashi You still have to spend the rest of your life witnessing what is meant by "the most perfect sword in the world", that is, the ultimate embodiment of kendo. Therefore, the battle at Yanliu Island can be done without complaint, and the winner must carry on with the loser's common pursuit. Go on, only in this way can there be Musashi later, and the battle of Yanliu Island is not just a game of winning or losing. Zen is inseparable from the myriad dharmas in the world and transcends it. However, to reach this state, there must be a period of bone-chilling training, so the life of a Zen practitioner has the so-called Zen saying, "Before practicing Zen, seeing mountains are mountains, and seeing water It is water; until later, when I saw knowledge with my own eyes, there was a place where I saw that mountains are not mountains, and waters are not waters, and now I have a resting place, and I see mountains are just mountains, and waters are just waters.” The scenery.From a frivolous boy to entering Zen with a sword, and finally, the trajectory of Zen is also reflected in Musashi's life. The real Musashi is not only a swordsman, but also a Zen practitioner. It is true that from the point of view of Dawu, Musashi's life has not yet reached the point of complete liberation. After all, Musashi in his later years has an unconcealable loneliness. However, perhaps because of this regret, coupled with the repentance of the early youth , the romance of love, the persistence in seeking the Tao, and the strictness of the art of war enable Musashi's life to live forever in the hearts of the world.Twenty years ago, I read the biography of Miyamoto Musashi at night, thinking about the life of this venerable swordsman, I wrote: This poem that Haruka sent to Musashi, but when I read it twenty years later, everything in the poem is still in my heart, but, without the understanding of the "unavoidable duel of swordsmanship", Now that Zen practice has become "sipping a cup of afternoon coffee", another layer of infinite emotion inevitably arises in my heart. Lin Gufang: Born in Hsinchu, Taiwan in 1950.Graduated from the Department of Anthropology, National Taiwan University. At the age of six, I had a feeling of death and life. When I was in Gaoyi, I saw the sentence in the book "Everything must rise and there must be death. If you want to have no death, it is better to have no life." Chinese music. Since 1974, he has practiced and taught pipa in seclusion in the city.In 1988, he began to engage in cultural commentary work and folk lectures.The theme of Guanzhao is Zen practice, the humanistic world of Chinese music and cultural reconstruction, and he is the director of the Art and Culture Research Center of Foguang University and the convener of "Wangle Xiaoji".He is the author of works such as "Looking at the Truth and Sentiment——The Humanistic World in Chinese Music".