Excerpt from Daisetsu T. Suzuki `Zen and Japanese Culture' (Charles Tuttle, Tokyo; 1936, 1959), pp. 146-7, 182.
 

When the sword is in the hands of a technician-swordsman skilled in its use, it is no more than an instrument with no mind of its own. What it does is done mechanically.  But when the sword is held by the swordsman whose spiritual attainment is such that he holds it as though not holding, it is identified with the man himself. It acquires a soul.  It moves with all the subtleties which have been imbedded in him as a swordsman. The man, emptied of all thoughts, all emotions originating from fear, all sense of insecurity, all desire to win, is not conscious of using the sword. Both man and sword turn into instruments in the hands, as it were, of the unconscious and it is this unconscious that achieves wonders of creativity.  It is here that swordplay becomes an art.

As the sword is not separated from the man, it is an extension of his arms and accordingly a part of his body. Furthermore, the body and the mind are not separated as they are in the case of intellectualization. The mind and the body move in perfect unison, with no interference from intellect or emotion.  Even the distinction of subject and object is annihilated. The opponent's movements are not perceived as such and therefore the subject, so-called, acts instinctually in response to what is presented to him. There is no deliberation on his part as to how to react. His unconscious automatically takes care of the whole situation.

The swordsman calls this unconscious ``the mind that is no-mind''.    The secret of swordsmanship consists in attaining to this state of mentality -- or, we may call it, spirituality,  because it is beyond the realm of psychological phenomenalism.

What makes  swordmanship come closer to Zen than any other art that has developed in Japan is that it involves the problem of death in the most immediately threatening manner. If the man makes one false movement he is doomed forever and he has no time for conceptualization or calculated acts. Everthing he does must come right out of his inner mechanism, which is not under the control of consciousness. He must act instinctually and not intellectually. At the moment of the most intensely concentrated struggle for life and death, what counts most is time, and this must be utilized in the most effective way.

This is the reason why the swordsman is always advised to be free from the thought of death or from anxiety about the outcome of combat. As long as there is any ``thought'' of whatever nature, that will most assuredly prove disastrous.  The Chinese saying runs ``When you act resolutely, even the gods will stay away from you.''