The Obvious Answer

It's been a while since I've written. I've been pretty busy.

Busy doing what?

Not blogging.

And that leads us into this post.

We've probably all heard the joke "Why did the chicken cross the road, " and it's answer "To get to the other side." However, most of us don't understand why that joke is actually funny. In fact, to most of us, it's not. And it's great that people try to make up funny endings to it, but that's really missing the point.

"To get to the other side." We know this. It's inherent in the idea of crossing the road, but it doesn't answer why. This joke is designed to poke fun at those answers that don't actually answer the question proposed. The answer is in no way false, but it demonstrates no knowledge of motivation or cause for the action. Ponder this example:

• "Why did he kill the guy?" "He wanted him dead."
• "Why aren't we making a profit?" "Our income is less than our expenses."
• "Why is this here." "I put it there."

A funny thing I like to do, is give this obvious answer when someone asks me a question, but ONLY if I can immediately follow it up with the actual answer. Otherwise, it's just mean spirited and ignorant, and silence would have been a more appropriate answer.

I was reminded about this during a discussion with my sensei about "Mushin no shin" or "Mind without mind." At some point in your martial arts training, if you're serious about training, this idea will present itself. From Wikipedia:

Mushin is achieved when a person's mind is free from thoughts of anger, fear, or ego during combat or everyday life. There is an absence of discursive thought and judgment, so the person is totally free to act and react towards an opponent without hesitation and without disturbance from such thoughts. At this point, a person relies not on what they think should be the next move, but what is their trained natural reaction or what is felt intuitively. It is not a state of relaxed, near-sleepfulness, however. The mind could be said to be working at a very high speed, but with no intentions, plans or direction. In analogy a clear mind is compared to a still pond, which is able to clearly reflect the moon and trees. But just as waves in the pond will distort the picture of reality, so will the thoughts we hold onto disrupt the true perception of reality.

However, at the same time, you're probably going to ask someone the question, "How will I know when I've attained mushin?"

And some jerk will give you the obvious answer, "If you're thinking about it, you probably don't have it."

Guess what.

They don't have it either.