The 3 Cats

With many respects to my Swedish friend Chadie (link to her blog is in the left sidebar), I am reprinting a story she posted, that she heard from her Sensei. This is a marvelous story!!

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THE STORY OF THE THREE CATS

There was a samurai who had a rat in his house and could not get rid of it. He acquired a superb cat, stalwart and robust. But the rat was quicker and simply made a fool of it. Then the samurai got another cat, more cunning and astute. But the rat was on his guard and hid except when the cat was asleep.

Then a Zen monk from a nearby temple lent the samurai his own cat, the most ordinary-looking cat you could imagine, that spent all its time drowsing and napping and paid no attention to anything around it. The samurai shrugged and said the cat was no good, but the monk insisted he keep it.

So the cat stayed and slept and slept, and soon the rat grew bold again and began trotting back and forth right in front of the cat, which showed absolutely no interest in it. Then one day, with one swipe of its paw, it caught the rat and pinned it down.

This story I found in The Zen way to the martial art of Taisen Deshimaru.

First time I heard it was from my teacher in karate. He said that was the story behind one special karate kata, Meikyo.

- But what it has to do with the kata I don't know, my teacher said, and shrugged.

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I love Meikyo. It's a rarely performed Shotokan kata which is fun and challenging. But what the story of the Zen cat has to do with it, I too do not know. Meikyo means "Mirror of the Soul", and honestly, it's one of the few kata names that I've not yet been able to really "understand", in the sense of how it applies to the kata itself, or what in the kata leads to such a statement.

But I guarantee, I will be thinking about these things a lot in the days to come!!

Comments

[supergroup7]

Now that you have been training in karate for awhile, have you found out why this zen story about a cat fits with the kata Meikyo?

[LirianFae]

I'm sorry to say the answer is no! I've come up with any number of possibilities, all of which center around the concept of strategy vs. physical attributes (strength, speed).

While I'm pretty sure that's the basic lesson of the Zen tale, I'm not nearly as sure how to translate the movements, style and "feel" of Meikyo into the demonstration of that philosophy!