Outside of Miyamoto Musashi, Takuan Soho (1573 - 1645 A.D.) remains in my mind the most approachable of the Japanese writers on martial arts. This is a remarkable statement as Soho was himself a Zen monk and not a martial artist, yet his best known works - The Annals of the Sword Taia, The Mysterious Record of Unmovable Wisdom, The Clear Sound of Jewels - make up the work known as The Unfettered Mind. Some writers that I have read from the Sengoku period and later are confusing and cloud their discussion of the practice of martial arts in phrases and techniques I cannot understand; Soho's works are clear and applicable (Yamaoka Tesshu, a former samurai and writer in the Meiji era, also falls into this second category).
How often, then, do I choose to follow The World rather that The Way?
The Way (Dao or Tao in Chinese, Do in Japanese 道)can mean many things. In Japanese culture many things have a "Way": The Way of Tea, The Way of Flower Arranging, The Way of the Sword). And of course in Western culture, "The Way" was the original referral to Christians. In all cases it suggests that there is a particular path to follow in the quest of reaching to the essence of the activity.
The perfect and flawless Iai technique is the one where the draw, the cut, and the sheathing happens in one extended motion. To reach that point, one must move beyond just the mechanical practice of understanding how to apply the technique and reach in to find the spirit of it. Once the spirit of anything is understood, one can apply it in any situation.
And yet, how often I find myself pulled from my own ways to the ways of the world.
The way of the world is broad. It demands little from us: no sacrifice, no thought, just a sort of bland acceptance of what is presented to us. In return, it grants a sort of blissful well being which is often just a fingernail's length deep: look to the way of the world in times of crisis or challenge and you will often find nothing but parroted phrases and wishful thinking that does not sustain us.
The Way demands more of us; in fact it demands all, although we do not always realize it at the time we set out on it. At some point in my journey in Iai, I made the conscious decision that I would dedicate myself to it instead of it and other martial art practices. A man can only master a few things, perhaps only one in his lifetime.
We must choose.
I write to those who - at least so far as I perceive of you through your comments here and other places - have already committed to a Way, in whatever form or fashion you practice it. I can only hope that I can achieve your levels of commitment.
For all of us, if we would follow The Way, we must turn our back on the world.
IMHO the world is glitz and glitter and shallow while The Way is solid and deep and spiritual. But then, what do I know?
ReplyDeleteNylon12, seems to me you know rather a great deal.
DeleteTrying to think of a particular "way" I have followed and I am hard pressed to name one. I suppose that makes me a follower of the world's way. Perhaps the one thing I am more knowledgeable than most of my peers is my love of reading non-fiction and increasing my knowledge.
ReplyDeleteEd, you are also an amazing woodworker. Carpentry is an example that Musashi uses in The Book of Five Rings, so it certainly counts in my book.
DeleteThere is a way that seems right to a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death. Solomon wrote that. Smartest man in the world, able to speak on any subject authoritatively. And yet, he was pulled into idolatry by his multiple wives. Wives that were little more than political alliances and distractions, tempters that pulled him away from devotion to The One True God to the most evil practices known, then or now.
ReplyDeleteSuch is the way of life: distractions, illusions, things that vie for our attention. You have to keep your eyes on the prize, run for the finish line. Put off every encumbrance. It has always been thus. The early olympians ran naked, totally unencumbered.
If it's important to you, you will focus on it. Maintaining that over a lifetime is something else again. I've been studying the Bible since I was eighteen with an eye to practical application in my life. And after forty two years, I'm appalled at how little I know and and how little I apply. My study hasn't been always the most intense, but I should be farther along than I am. The soul is willing, the flesh is weak. Who will deliver me from the body of this death? I know Who can and I trust He will.
STxAR, we do the best we can. I think part of our struggle is we have what we think is important and what is truly important. For most of us, we learn this too late. But no matter when we learn it, we can go forward from there.
Delete"Master's gone alone, up the mountain, cloud hidden, whereabouts unknown" Chia Tao, 777-841.
ReplyDeleteI have a deep and abiding fondness for the writings of Alan Watts. I read most of his books in college, and I'll need to dive back into them one day. Thank you TB for the morning meditation.
Greg - Thank you for the poem and the name of Alan Watts. I quit do not know him, but will definitely look him up.
Delete"We must choose." I wonder if we realize when we first make that choice, that it will require a day-by-day, sometimes moment-by-moment choosing (re-choosing?) as well. Not always an easy task, but once the Way is chosen and one's life dedicated to it, I think the journey is worth it.
ReplyDeleteIn it, but not of it.
ReplyDelete