Essays From The Master

The four great enemies of the seeker on the Path of the Silent Way

The student of the Silent Way in order to be a Ninja must defeat and harness four inner demons Fear, Anger, Hate and greed as well as their other forms Overconfidence, Naiveté, false humility and self denial. These inner foes are the only real enemies for the seeker to defeat; all others are phantom forms of these. When the ninja is attacked his foe is in the mind of that target. The first forms of the four enemies are reactionary; they rise in response to the actions or perceived actions of others. The second forms of the four are active in nature; they are states of being. The two states of the four great enemies can be related to the yin and yang of Chi and to the four basic elements of nature. Once understood the four enemies are revealed to be eight in number relating to air, water, fire, earth, wood, metal, jewel and matter and thus the eight trigrams of the I-Ching as understood by the Komuso Ryu.

There are two types of fear one that is based on actual threat to the self which is healthy and useful, an ally to the ninja and a second that is based on threats to the ego which is not healthy and only useful in others. Anger is often confused with aggression which can be healthy if channeled but anger is an aggressive response to a threat to the ego. Anger gives the illusion of greater speed and force when in fact the opposite is true. Anger is aggression tied to an emotional response which makes the muscles tighten thus giving the illusion of strength while showing one’s actual response. Anger also releases toxins in the body which is why anger held in is the source of things like cancer especially in men. Hate is anger toward one’s self for a fear projected unto a distorted idea of some object. Few realize that hatred for all the fury it is thought to have is actually self loathing and hence us a source of weakness not strength. If hatred can be overcome it can become the path to strength but only in the sense that all power is an answer to weakness and beauty is the unique features of an individual quickened by personal power. Greed is an attempt to fill an inner lack with an outer stimulus or object and the thing about feeding that lack is that it only grows that lack.

The first four forms of the enemies are in a sense answered by the second set of four in that the second four masks the first. In order to mask or deny fear the mind will often make the self overconfident with the purpose of making the self to risks to affirm the inflated confidence of that self. Naïveté is the willful ignoring of information and stimuli that would force one to deal with objective reality which will include things one does not like. False humility is the denial of the reality of one’s passions be they positive or negative such as the individual claiming to be tolerant while wishes to exclude others. Self denial is the forgoing of a needed thing in order to gain attention and assert control while seeming to be in a passive stance. Fear and overconfidence comprise ego, Anger and naiveté comprise hypocrisy, and hate and false humility comprise shallowness while greed and self denial comprise self importance showing the true faces of the four enemies of the path. The enemies of the path are not defeated rather the adept learns how to avoid them as one would an attack by understanding the drives the enemies represent. These enemies when understood serve as weapons to be used upon one’s foes. On an energic level these enemies represent embodiments of Chi that have gone stagnant causing the Ki also to be tainted with the eighth form of Chi being the baseline Chi of the individual represented by the heaven trigram.

The antidote to fear is knowledge because if one knows a thing in reality it is harder for the mind to distort a thing into something to be feared. The antidote to anger is laughter as it relives the tension and releases chemicals in the body that negate the toxins caused by anger. The antidote to hate is experience as to experience what one hates proves the distorted view of the object of said hate to be false. Once the falsity of hate is known one is pointed back toward one’s self and the inner weakness that is being projected onto others which when known can be dealt with. The antidote to greed is creativity as to create is to fill the emptiness that is the source of greed; to create is to reveal the resources one has within. One could see these four antidotes as defensive in nature as the enemies they defeat are reactionary. The antidotes of these enemies act on those possessed by them like poison though they can lead a victim of one of the four to freedom from them.

The antidote to overconfidence is self discipline which includes being honest about one’s victories and one’s limitations, taking pleasure in what one has won is a part of self discipline. The antidote to naïveté is patience and clarity, taking the time to learn what one does not know and having courage enough to see the world objectively. The antidote to false humility is valid pride based on actions in keeping with one’s ideals balanced by self awareness as to one’s genuine needs. The antidote to self denial is accepting the limit of one’s sphere of influence while also respecting the limits of other’s responsibilities to another person. Where the first four antidotes could be seen as defensive the second four could be seen as offensive as they address the root causes of these enemies and empower the one that uses these antidotes. The second set of antidotes like the first set focuses on the self because all weakness and the answer to weakness are rooted in one’s self rather than on others. It is no other person’s job to balance these weaknesses for any other individual though one can make an individual aware of them.

On a ceremonial or symbolic level the eight enemies are demons that attack the Chi of an individual, the first four attacking the Po and the second four attacking the Hun. On the same ceremonial or symbolic level the eight antidotes are eight Tengu i.e. eight slayers of vanity that guard the Po and Hun of the individual’s Chi. By confronting these “demons” and harnessing them alongside one’s guardians an individual gains greater control over one’s life path and health. The understanding gained from such exploration of one’s self when applied to others is a part of Saiminjitsu or the “way of the mind gate” and on a ceremonial level give the adept servitors to call on. In combat on a tactical level the knowledge of the enemies and their antidotes serve as both offense and defense. Just as the eight enemies attack Chi and distort health on a mental, emotional and physical level so does actively cultivating the antidotes promote health and build personal power leading to the union of the Po and Hun to form the Shen. It is because Yin and Yang are in flux so is the Chi born of them making the maintaining of the Shen a lifelong and life prolonging pursuit. The inner or individual Chi must contend with stagnate forms of Chi in the world the balancing of which being a method of developing one’s Ki or personal power.