拳禅一如 kenzen ichinyo The Body and Mind are One

拳禅一如 joins the striking arts and Zen in four characters. 拳 is the fist, and in the names of the striking arts it stands for the art itself. 禅 is Zen, and 一如 is an old Buddhist word for one and the same, not two. In a dojo the fist stands for the body and Zen for the mind. So the phrase says a trained body and a trained mind are the same thing.

拳禅一如 is composed of the kanji 拳 (read ken) meaning "Fist" and represents the body, 禅 (read zen) meaning "Zen" represents the mind or spirit, and 一如 (read ichinyo) meaning "oneness".

A karate phrase in print by 1934 and the first principle of Shorinji Kempo, founded in 1947, made by putting the fist where the sword had stood in 剣禅一如, a phrase itself in print from 1916 for what the Zen master Takuan had taught the swordsman Yagyū Munenori three centuries before.

We want you to be as happy with the meaning as you are with Master Takase's art. To learn more, visit Philology of 拳禅一如.

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