Mushin. It allows you to go from Jeff Cooper's awareness code yellow straight to black, bypassing orange and red. I say black because when in this mental state you are no longer in a fight. You are the fight. There is an effective planning progression built into Cooper's system up to red. As progression occurs to the next awareness level, logical planning and preparation can take place. In most defensive situations this reliance on a plan, even if hastily conceived, will save your life. We should give Cooper due credit for this. But in those circumstances where there is no time for planning, going into Mushin (black) brings your impromptu mental abilities to bear upon the situation. Not in Mushin, the mind logically takes steps, "if this then this." First you think, then you do. Think of it as an action - reaction cycle. In Mushin, the mind is emptied so that the adversaries action and your reaction meld together. That action - reaction cycle is broken. You're not thinking what to do. You do. - You do. - You do. It saves your life because it harnesses incredible speed and it halts the adversary's decision making process. There is a similar experience we all know of when our finger touches the hot pan and without thought our body moves. Your adversary's actions can't keep up and It makes you almost indescribably fast to any observer. When the fight ends, you often don't know what exactly transpired and have to rely on memory to piece together what you did.
How this could be applied to competition shooting, I'm unsure of specifics. Because there is application in all of life for Mushin, I'm sure that it can manifest itself in sport. I think of it as an unusual but effective component of Zen. If I decide in the future to enter into competition, I'll certainly explore Mushin's application. I've only experienced it in the self defense realm.
