Everyday mind

Pyeongsangsim (평상심, 平常心) is defined in the glossary of the Korea Kumdo Association (대한검도회) as the mind of ordinary times, that is, a person's natural, original state of mind.

In kumdo, fighting at a steady distance matters, but when both sides attack the mind is shaken. At that moment an opening (teum, 틈) appears and one is struck. Once the mind is disturbed, proper attack and defense become impossible.

• What damages pyeongsangsim is called gyeonggu-uihok (경구의혹, 驚懼疑惑), the "four warnings" (4계, sagye). They are usually rendered as surprise, fear, doubt and confusion.
• Rejecting them, cultivating pyeongsangsim and applying it to social life is one of the aims of kumdo.
• The same glossary describes munyeommusang (무념무상), a state in which even these four are gone, as the highest level of spiritual training.

A text from the All Japan Kendo Federation, written in that discipline's own vocabulary, says that keeping this mind is what lets a practitioner fully use their sword technique. It describes the cultivated mind as free of ego and of emotional rush, and as calm and generous.

The term comes from Zen. A kumdo club text attributes to the Chinese Zen master Mazu (마조) the idea that the ordinary mind is itself the Way, a mind without contrivance, without right and wrong, and without grasping or rejecting. The same text says it is not merely "the usual mind" but a state that goes beyond being and non-being.