Moving Zen: Karate As A Way to Gentleness - Softcover

C.W. Nicol

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0901764515 ISBN 13: 9780901764515

Publisher: Paul H. Crompton Ltd., 1981

Synopsis

In this unusual memoir the author, whose taste for adventure led him to take part in an Arctic expedition and on his return to England became one of the youngest professional wrestlers in the country, describes the two and a half years he spent in Japan studying karate. On one level, Moving Zen is an account of his hard-won progress from white belt to black belt. But, on a deeper level, it is the story of a tough, violent-tempered young man whose spirit is disciplined and schooled until, through strength, he learns gentleness, for 'the paths of all the martial arts lead to the same goal: tranquility'. As one of his teachers told him, 'Karate is moving Zen, and it is the Zen state you must strive for'.

The book provides a brief history of Karate, explains some of the other Oriental martial arts, offers practical tips to students of Karate and tells, in exciting detail, of some actual Karate confrontations. The relationship between pupil and teacher and the not always affectionate rivalry between pupil and pupil are acutely described. Finally, this is the story of one man's deepening love for Japan, which found ultimate expression in marriage to a Japanese girl.

Moving Zen seeks, and finds, its meaning in the quality of its perceptions and of its communication of them. In all ways, as it says, 'from the mind comes power'.

About this title

About the Author

C.W. Nicol was born in Neath, South Wales, in 1940. At the age of seventeen he joined an Arctic expedition to Ungava Bay. He returned to the Arctic in 1961 and in October of 1962 went to Japan to study the martial arts. In 1967 he went to Ethiopia to work as a game warden - an experience his first book From the Roof of Africa describes. He emigrated to Canada in 1972 where he became a Canadian citizen and now works for the government Environmental Protection service. He lives with his wife and their three children in Vancouver and continues to study Karate.

Edition details

• Publisher: Paul H. Crompton Ltd.
• Publication date: 1981
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0901764515
• ISBN 13: 9780901764515
• Binding: Paperback
• Illustrator: Munchiro Ikeda
• Number of pages: 151