Zanshin

Zanshin is quite a difficult concept to convey to someone, even if they are a native speaker of Japanese. It literally means "remaining mind", though this translation captures little of it's essence. The pursuit of true zanshin is one of my goals, and one of the most difficult at that. The wikipedia explanation is quite decent, but to me it is too clinical and doesn't truly convey the spirit of zanshin.
For zanshin is about more than just having a constant alertness, focus and clarity of mind. Certainly these things are important, but there is another aspect to zanshin, at least to my understanding. It may fall more under the category of fighting spirit, but the two are so closely related that I don't think I could separate them very well.
What I am talking about is the "personal force", if you will, aspect of zanshin. It is that quality that allows a true master to defeat an opponent without ever moving or even speaking. It is the aspect that scares you if you look into the eyes of someone who truly possesses it, if they decide not to hold it back. It is the aspect that Yamaguchi Gogen Sensei possessed; the way he was described when he unleashed it, even if he didn't move a muscle, was that he was like a tiger. I have witnessed it, nay felt it myself in my previous sensei, Bernadette Brogan, and seen it developing in my current instructors. I would hope I even have it already to a certain extent, though clearly there is a long way to go.
Currently I am able to demonstrate this aspect in karate, during forms and even free sparring and the like, but it is nothing compared to the force I have felt from my seniors. The Japanese may even say there is a ki energy factor here, those with strong ki may easily defeat those who have weak ki. In this context the two things may be one and the same.
I sometimes wonder though whether one can truly develop strong zanshin just by training. Actually that's not true, I believe one could develop excellent zanshin just by training if they do it properly and put in enough hours. I more wonder whether *I* can develop such a thing just by training given the fact that I can't train full time. Perhaps one day I will be able to but not right now. I wonder if there is a "trial by fire" aspect to zanshin. This has sort of come as a result of my recent incident getting attacked in my car. I was caught quite unprepared, which is clearly not good zanshin, but even had I been ready I get the feeling that the glass flying in my face as well as getting punched in the face would probably have broken my "kimai" (sorry for the Japanese, kimai is another closely related term meaning focus but also relates to the personal force/ki aspect I have been discussing). This is partially why I'm not terribly upset about the incident, it demonstrated a weakness for me, on which I can now work. In addition, I think that the very incident itself has served to strengthen my zanshin. This is sort of the trial by fire I was referring to previously. I wonder if it is possible to develop this aspect without enduring true attack on ones self, without being engaged in true combat. We try to emulate this experience in the dojo so that we needn't ever have to experience such things, but it's hard to say how far that can go. Certainly the real deal accelerates the process.
This is probably one of my main reasons for joining the reserves, they also try to emulate the intensity of combat and though the methods of combat may be completely different, I hope that I can still glean some of the benefits with respect to my fighting spirit. That made the interviews tricky actually, it's quite difficult to explain that to someone who's never practiced a martial art; or even if they have most people don't even think about these things until they've been training for a few years at least.
This was what I liked about kendo, kendo is very good for zanshin building, probably because the strikes during sparring aren't held back at all and you get your brain knocked about a bit. I must practice that more in the future.
Hopefully this has enlightened some of you who have never practiced a martial art as to some of the deeper reasons for practicing. "It's not all just about punching and kicking" as they say.