Smashing the Philosopher's Stone.

Some things are fairly predictable, but often we tend to fail even when we see it coming, or perhaps because we see it coming and it just does not register because we spend most of our time in the upper hemisphere of consciousness rather than the lower hemisphere.
Most training is designed to appeal to the Upper Hemisphere way of looking at things, reasoning things out, approaching things in a systematic and orderly manner, while also not paying attention to the inner stuff of the psyche (usually only with a nod to this by mentioning vague concepts such as Mushin, Kime, or more generally, Zanshin).

The more I go on, the more I find that people are expecting some orderly thing where X somehow equals Y (or perhaps the 2+2 mentality, where everything has its' place and there is a place for everything).
I hear a lot of talk about those previously mentioned vague concepts, but no one really seems to know what they are and when they demonstrate they usually take up a position and cultivate a blank and mindless stare.
Since when did Mushin mean Mindlessness? Since when did Zanshin mean standing still and looking all 'crazy eyed?'
When did any of this ever become orderly and well-defined? The truth is, it never did, this is a case of people trying to bend facts to beliefs.

In a recent podcast I listened to there was a very thoughtful insight shared by Rory Miller, he said, 'When a student has successfully knocked their opponent to the ground then looks at me to see if they did it correctly, that is bullshit.'
I'm sure the point is not lost, but we spend so much time worrying about 'correct' in a different way that we forget about results, if the guy is on the ground and you have created distance for an escape, obviously you did it correctly because you achieved the desired results.
Training should be about cutting out all the bullshit and achieving results, cultivating and training continuously is less about perfecting technique than it is about achieving better and faster results - perhaps better technique is an afterthought (the concept is more important).
That is also Kime, Mushin, and Zanshin... Did the cave man think 'Did I club the other guy correctly' after he had successfully clubbed the other Guy and made off with whatever it was he was after? Perhaps they thought about better, more efficient ways of clubbing (obviously we wouldn't have made our way to swords, spears, knives, and guns were this not the case).
There was also an efficient way for each, but the main point is, if it got the job done then it was attested to in the results, not whether form was correct or incorrect and it most certainly was not some philisophical issue.
"Pointy end goes into the other man" - Antonio Banderas, The Mask of Zorro.