Mokuso (黙想 mokusō) is a japanese term for silent meditation. First kanji reads as “moku” and means silence or stop and the second one is “so” and means to think or focus. Mokuso is a common way to start and to end a training session in the japanese martial arts and especially aikido.

Mokuso is an exercise. To do it you have to sit in seiza in a first place, close your eyes, straighten your back, lower your shoulders, feel the way your pose is natural so your body don’t disturb you while you are trying to meditate and  then leave your thoughts. It’s not easy, not even hard, you just have to get it once and there will always be a road back to the point. You try this way and many others until you understand a without thoughts feeling.

One of the suggested ways to start is to concentrate on the breathing, nothing else. Not something you do during in your usual life every moment but to feel it deeply and to try to get your abdominal breathe with your low part of the body where your center of the weight is. A belt of your training form is your helper, it’s right on point where you have to put your breathing. Then you can evacuate your thoughts, feelings, concepts and emotions. After a while there will be no need to be thinking about the breathing too.

Once again, mokuso helps you stay with your training in a best possible way. It is also a good a step to be able to reach mushin (無心). A state of mind into which trained martial artists are said to enter during combat. Reaching a mushin can be done in everyday trainings starting from mokuso. Enso (円相) is good to be mentioned in that song. Enso  is a circle that is hand-drawn to express a moment when the mind is free to let the body create. During mokuso your body is still, during enso you draw a circle, and during mushin you can train or fight.

So how will this all help? Imagine you make your solutions without any affections of the anger, ambitions, fear, etc. Your performance anywhere would have a constant grow and mistakes count you make would decrease.

A lot of different interpretations of the same things are known these days. For example a technique of giving answers to any requests outside yourself only on the next day. Using of this technique gives you a time to think about your responses, a possibility to make it clean. Same in the combat, on the job, in the business, with your family.

Starting with the mokuso makes you free from the past and the future. You learn to get the point faster if you do this on a regular basis. Work yourself out and go deeper inside to understand how much difference you can make with your mind. Enjoy the process – it’s the only way to get better.