Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Dragonblade" data-source="post: 4133710" data-attributes="member: 2804">What we call "In the Zone" has been known in Japan for centuries. It is called Zanshin. Or "Awareness" (perhaps literally translated as "Remaining Mind"). Sometimes referred to as Happo Zanshin, or "8-directional Awareness". Many martial artists and samurai would meditate and train their minds in an attempt to achieve this state at will. Few succeed, but when they do they have become legends. Miyamoto Musashi for one. Bruce Lee, for example.I used to compete in martial arts and have myself achieved Zanshin, although not at will, and only for a few fleeting moments. Essentially, time seems to slow down. You see everything your opponent does in slow-motion, yet you retain perfect and fluid control of your own movements. You can dodge blows that would otherwise be undodgeable and land perfect strikes that your opponent cannot block because from an outside perspective, your timing is flawless. Zanshin doesn't always get triggered by fighting though. I was in a car wreck last year where my car hit some ice and spun out of control. As it hurtled towards the concrete barrier, again time seemed to slow down and I could see everything in slow motion. Unfortunately, there wasn't anything I could do due to the ice and the inertia of the car, but looking back I realized what had happened.There is an old Japanese story (I'm paraphrasing from distant memory, and there are several variations of this story on the internet) where a humble tea ceremony instructor inadvertantly gave offense to a samurai. Enraged by this affront to his honor, the samurai challenged him to duel later that day. The poor tea ceremony teacher was terrified, yet bound by honor, he had no alternative.Another samurai who saw his plight, took pity on the poor tea instructor and offered to help. The samurai asked the tea instructor if he had ever even held a sword before. The teacher answered no, and the samurai proceeded to offer some basic instruction. However, he soon realized that the teacher would never master the skills in time to stand a chance against a trained samurai. He pondered the dilemma.Believing that all hope was lost, the teacher at least offered to make tea one last time for the samurai who attempted to help him. The samurai agreed and watched the teacher perform the ceremony. As he watched the teacher perform the ceremony, he realized that the teacher had achieved perfect harmony and tranquility. After the ceremony, he told the teacher to approach his opponent with that same harmony and tranquility that he felt while performing the tea ceremony.Later that day, the arrogant samurai strode to the meeting place and found the teacher waiting for him. The teacher was perfectly calm and at peace, his sword held firm and steadily. The samurai stopped and bowed. "I cannot defeat you," he said. "You are truly a master." And he left.<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zanshin" target="_blank">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zanshin</a></blockquote>

Verification