Fudōshin: immovable mind and heart

Reading time: 0 min

Fudōshin is the term used in Japanese martial arts for ‘calm mind’, ideograms literally mean ‘immobile heart’, and it is one of the greatest virtues of a practitioner. It means being completely undisturbed, with complete serenity.

This is the perfect state of mind for the moment when Samurai cross swords, as doubts and uncertainties at that time are lethal.

Fudōshin: mind and heart

The term Fudoshin has three ideograms. The first “fu” is negation; the second “do” is the movement and the third, “shin” or “kokoro” is the heart.

Shin or kokoro can be literally translated as heart, but the translation is not accurate. In the common Japanese language, Kokoro may refer to the entire internal world, including thoughts and feelings. The sense in which it is used in philosophy and traditional arts is closer to the notion of the deep inner world.

Kokoro is a reality to which beings have direct access and we can feel, live, if we really immerse ourselves in it. Those who believe that “spirit” can also be experienced in this way, will be able to translate “kokoro” by spirit.

The appeasement of the heart, the unification that puts us in contact with an enlarged reality, we are no longer our “analytical mind” that operates with fears, anxieties and passions, that operates paradoxically trying to control uncontrollably, that disturbs everything, that disturbs everything and never satisfied.

The mind can lead us on paths of judgment and tremendous dissatisfaction.

The calm heart always takes us home, to the present, where unconditional love prevails.