Seishin tanren

Spiritual forging, the higher purpose and end of all physical technique in budo (“martial way,” a term referring to those modern martial arts distinguished by their goals of spiritual and moral development). The oftentimes punishing physical ordeal of training is designed not to focus the attention on the body but to help the trainee learn to transcend bodily cares and the duality of perception that inhibits performance. For proper execution of techniques, the student must not concentrate either on physical mechanics or theory as isolated elements. They must be united, blended together by the spirit in the heat of training into a living whole. The hundreds of thousands of repetitions of techniques are used to numb the mind, and, in a sense, to free it from self-absorption.

FightingArts Staff