Essays From The Master

Knowing that the “truth” will set you free is not enough

Every student of the Komuso Ryu learns the school’s mantra whose first verse is “Stealth our discipline; illusion our way of life”, this refers to more than the tactics of war via stealth. Philosophically to use stealth and make illusion a way of living life one must know what exists both as to what one can use to conceal one’s self as well as from who or what one should conceal one’s self from. In both cases of what to use and what to hide from the ninja must first know what is, he must know the truth. Knowing the truth is not a matter of what one is told from some outside source rather truth is what the individual decides truth is. Facts which some see as objective truth can be perceived to mean many things so truth is not simply a matter of collecting facts, the truth said facts equal are up to the interpreter of those facts to decide.

One meaning of the term Ninja is “in stealth” to be so as has been said one must have first defined the truth of what is, only by knowing what is can one distort the perception of others as to reality i.e. create illusion. As we are told by so much pop media what the “facts” are and what they mean the Komuso ninja’s mantra becomes a very practical tool for the individual. The whole world is at war, it’s a war between those who seek to live as individuals and those who seek to live as parts of a whole and this war is fought under a great many social, political and religious guises. If an individual respects his own traditions and customs he should not have any trouble with those of others or them with his. Likewise no individual should have to validate those of others nor should any expect others to validate any other than there own. Respect or toleration of others is just that, it is not killing those that disagree with us. It is not making room for each and every thing or not allowing any.

When we allow media to create sets of them and us groups such as right-wing, left-wing or anything of that sort we allow government to manipulate us through the push and pull of those factions as expressed by the media. It is for every individual to sort through the “facts” for themselves and likewise the truth resulting from those facts then to move on and back those that agree with what truths they have arrived at. If each individual acts upon what truths they hold through the power they have as individuals with those whose truths they agree with then those of “the powers that be” who would divide the individuals by casting us in groups will have no openings to work with.

As individuals we have power and access to more by working within the system and making said system work as it is meant to we can not entrust others to make the system work every individual must see that it does. When we allow any system to be tended by others or our selves to be grouped and viewed as a group we become slaves to those who control and define those groups. If we want freedom we must pay the price of being in charge, of being responsible for ourselves. If we can not pay the price we must accept that we are as others say we are and fall in line. We have the world, the leaders and so on that we are willing to accept. Knowing the truth will set us free if the truth is that which we have defined for ourselves any other “truth” is a means of control. A being that is free has no excuses. If we blame others we are the slaves of those we blame.

This entry was posted on Thursday, January 28th, 2010 at 8:49 am and is filed under Stories. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.