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Zen's Influence on the Art of the Sword


Zen has long had a great influence upon Japanese culture. Many aspects
of this culture are touched upon by Zen including art, literature, and specific
ceremonies such as the one concerning tea. During the Kamakura period of Japan,
another area of culture began to be affected by Zen; the martial arts of the
samurai class.
Somewhere along the line, the samurai realized the ease with which the
monks of Zen Buddhism dealt with issues such as mortality and then began to seek
these methods of discipline for themselves for the purposes of becoming less
concerned with their physical well-being. However, as D.T. Suzuki noted, it was "
not mere recklessness, but self-abandonment, which is known in Buddhism as a
state of egolessness." This is the ideal which the samurai warrior sought; a
state of being wherein life and death were meaningless and all that he had to
concern himself with was his duty to his master, or if he was ronin......

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Approximate Word Count: 358
Approximate Pages: 2 (250 words per double-spaced page)

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