 As a powerful guardian deity, Fudo Mio stands firm and immovable, a protector's spirit in Buddhism and a significant symbol of the Samurai. Wielding the sword in his right hand to cut through ignorance, a rope in his left hand to bind malevolent forces and sitting before a wall of flame to purify and burn away evil. Fudo Mio serves as the foundation for Fudoshin, the hardest and most coveted mental state of the martial arts. Today's video caps off a series of five episodes that explore the four main mental states of Zen and how they were applied and achieved in the martial arts. We've previously covered Shoshin, which is the beginner's mind, and looked at how it seeks to achieve the ability to cast out preconceived notions or assumptions and opening one's mind to new knowledge and taking on the role of a beginner, regardless of how much experience one already has. By always being receptive to learning, we are always growing and improving. Fudoshin is the empty mind in which we are ready to focus and face a challenge, free of outside distractions, ready to act. In the martial arts, it is the ability to read a situation and apply a technique without having to consciously think about it and free of distraction. It is an analogy of still water. We can see a clear reflection of the moon as long as the water or the mind is still, but if a stone or distraction breaks the surface and causes ripples, we lose that clarity. With Zanshin, we achieve complete awareness of not only the situation presented in front of us, but also everything unfolding around us. Meaning, remaining mind, Zanshin keeps us focused not only during a situation or action, but before and after as well. The follow-through in readiness is often just as important as the act itself and dropping that awareness is when we make ourselves vulnerable. Fudoshin is the fourth state and translates to immovable mind. When a student or practitioner has achieved Fudoshin, they have achieved a state of the highest level of incredible focus. There is confidence in place of fear, and the mind continues its path towards achieving its goals without being affected by external influences. Now, this is obviously way easier said than done, and it may require a lifetime of focus and training to achieve it. It definitely has a place in the martial arts, especially traditional arts, that take on training as a lifestyle. It often plays a role in helping the student retain their focus through environmental obstacles, such as the cold or harsh weather. Tune out background noise as well as remain undistracted and confident during a conflict or self-defense situation. The constant boils down to, nothing is going to stop you from your determined objective. Whether it be to defend yourself physically or another life goal, you are immovable. The root constant of Fudoshin actually stems from Buddhist mythology. Fudo Mio is a guardian deity in Buddhism and represents a protector spirit from bad luck and challenges, and there are many rituals dedicated to him. There is a great little video on YouTube that quickly gives an overview, and it's by the Asian Art Museum channel, and I've provided a link to that in the description below. Fudo Mio is often portrayed in the form of a frightening imposing figure sitting before a wall of intense flames that represent a purifying energy to rid the evils of the world. In his right hand he wields a sword, the cutaway ignorance and delusion, and the rope in his left hand is used to rein in bad intentions and violent actions. The image and mythology of Fudo Mio was often popular among the samurai, who often adored themselves with his image, as shown in an example from the Asian Art Museum video. So the constant of Fudoshin has arisen from this inspiration as a state of mind of perfect focus, awareness, and being immovable from your path to your objective. The constant of Fudoshin and this level of focus is present in a lot of Japanese martial arts, but it's interesting to see other related perspectives. For example, in Kendo there is a concept of shikai, or the Four Prohibitions. Sometimes you'll hear this referred to as the Four Sicknesses of the Mind. The Four Sicknesses can cloud your judgment, distract you, or cause you to make mistakes. These Four Sicknesses are described as surprise, fear, doubt, and confusion. Surprise can cause you to stop or hesitate. In essence, it briefly pauses time for you. It may cause you to break composure, hold your breath, or distract your focus. Falling to surprise can result in a devastating window of opportunity for your opponent. Fear quite literally makes you afraid of your opponent. It can cloud your perception and make your opponent appear larger and more dangerous than they may be, and it may also cause hesitation in your action, which can affect your ability to move freely or spontaneously. Doubt is a natural stem from fear. If you are afraid of your opponent, then you may begin to doubt your abilities. You can become indecisive and lose your ability to make calm and logical choices. And then finally, confusion will completely disturb your composure and ability to act accordingly. You may become disoriented, lose total focus on your opponent, and lose the ability to read their actions. You hesitate and lose orientation, and as a result, your opponent will be able to move faster and more accurately than you. So what does that mean for your mind to be immovable? I actually found a blog by TheBudoBoom that offered a great perspective and a great way to process the concept. I have included a link to that blog in the description. It's definitely worth the read. But to paraphrase his point, he talks about the mind being immovable in a way that it is not caught by a distraction. There is an expression that, you know, something catches our attention, which generally means that we stop what we're doing or thinking about and suddenly focus on new information. There's a difference in seeing, being aware of something, and having our attention captured by it. He cited a quote from a Buddhist monk that encapsulates this idea perfectly. When the eye is not set on any one leaf and you face a tree with nothing at all in mind, any number of leaves are visible to the eye without limit. But if a single leaf holds the eye, it will be as if the remaining leaves were not there. He goes on to elaborate how this concept may apply in a combat situation. You can see something your opponent does, but you're not trapped by it. If she moves her sword, you see movement, but you don't get caught by it and miss how she changes her footwork. You see her move to her left, but you don't become fixated on trying to figure out what that move means, you accept it and you move on. Your opponent cannot catch your mind and fix it in one place. Your opponent cannot move your mind. So exactly how do we achieve Fudushin in our lives? It certainly isn't an overnight process and it takes a lot of discipline and structure and patience to achieve. Far too often, people tend to set ambitious goals with great intentions, but sometimes we ride to check that our willpower can't cash. Tell me if this scenario sounds familiar. New Year's Eve. Tomorrow I'm going to start my resolution and I'm going to hit the gym five days a week. Well, that first week you probably go three to four times and figure that's a good start. The next week maybe you go two times because it was a busy week. And then maybe you're sore and you need to rest or you're tired or distracted with work and you'll go next week. It's a slippery slope and one that far too many people, myself included, get trapped in. The key to beginning the path towards achieving Fudushin is to start really small. Habits have to be developed over time. They don't just happen because we will them to be. Start with smaller, less ambitious goals and when they become habit, slowly increase them. So instead of committing to five days a week, maybe pick one day and schedule that in and focus on going to that one regularly. Or maybe set the goal of doing 10 push-ups in the morning. Over time as it becomes routine, you can add more and increase the effort. There's actually a really cool phone app that I like. It's called Seven Weeks and basically you enter a small task that you want to make a habit. You schedule it in every day and you do the task and you check that day off. And the idea is after seven weeks of consistently doing this task, it should now be fairly easy to implement into your routine and become a habit. We can't force focus or commitment just because we want it. It's a lifestyle effort, but one that is absolutely worth striving for because if we can find ways to increase our focus and become more resilient and resistant to distractions or anything that will catch our minds, the more successful we're going to be. It's easier said than done, but when we become immovable, nothing can stop us. So that concludes our series on the four Zen states of mind. If you haven't seen the others, you can find them in the links in the description below. Now sometimes you'll find references to the five states of mind or the five spirits, especially present in the keto. The fifth spirit is sentient, which means purified spirit. It's a point in which a person has transcended past the four main states of mind and reached a point that could be considered pure enlightenment. Perhaps we'll cover that in the future topic, but for now we have work to do and regardless of what art you train in, the four states of mind can have a positive impact on our training and success.