The warriors
According to DT Suzuki, one of the leading proponents of Zen Buddhism in the West, Zen appealed to the warrior with its insistence on making 100% progress once a course of action had been decided. In other words, the warrior, whether on the battlefield or on the training ground, lets no doubt or fear stand in the way of the successful completion of a goal.
Of course, they all trained constantly, looking for the best teachers, but once the real battle began, all thinking disappeared and the purity of action took over. It is not something that can be learned in a day, but rather requires a lifetime of dedicated practice of both Zen meditation and swordsmanship. One can be done without the other, but together they create a formidable synthesis.
In the military, soldiers are taught to consider all options before acting, gather as much information as possible, and try to fully understand the opponent from the start. For the Zen mind, too much thinking leads to doubt and paralysis, especially for someone in the midst of a deadly battle. It is better to move forward resolutely, forgetting your ego and completing the task at hand with as little analysis and reflection as possible.
In everyday life, when we fixate on our problems or on the behavior of others, our minds become trapped by these things and we are no longer free to act autonomously. For the Zen-trained warrior, the thought of death is virtually irrelevant. Victory or defeat are two sides of the same coin. Colleagues and enemies are considered equal. Maintaining your Zen attitude is the most important outcome. You must pump your fist up in victory or disrespect the enemy in his defeat, you must avoid.
Meditation does not make problems go away; it allows us to face them with a completely different attitude. Meditation has nothing to do with finding God or traditional religious awakening, but it has everything to do with understanding how the mind works and how we can become more enlightened and effective people through the practice of overcoming our own ego and the inherent weaknesses of our personality. .