Essays From The Master

True versus false pride: the treasure of the dragon
In my youth I was enthralled by the concept of the ninja, the idea of an assassin that used both occultic and martial skills able to come and go at will. The concept of the samurai never appealed to me because of the idea of face and the fact that the samurai does not belong to himself but rather his lord. In my eyes, unlike the media, the ninja is not inherently evil making the “good” ninja a rare rogue element. In my eyes the ninja is one with a set of skills that could be applied any way one wills and so the actions of the ninja make it “good” or “evil” not the knowledge of the skills that are used. An assassin in the right place at the right time could take out a tyrant and prevent loss of freedom and war making that assassin “good” while the same skills can be used to take out a wife for cash making the assassin “evil” in the eyes of many. To me the options of a ninja represent an ideal of freedom that is not had by many and it was those options that I sought. I was not backed in my quest to be a ninja because it was unrealistic, I have a handicap and so on but I found a way, I trained, found guidance through Grand Master Ashida Kim, I gained what I sought. After years of study and application I became one of the practitioners of the Silent Way, a ninja.
A part of my path into the ranks of the ninja involved going beyond what I was taught leading me to the Vagabond system or Yin Sin Shu and Black Tiger Claw or Fu Jow Pai all of which lead me to the lore of the Komuso Ryu. A vital element in my path to the Komuso Ryu was becoming a member of the American branch of the Black Dragon Fighting Society under Grand Master Ashida Kim. This fact of my life was recently reaffirmed before the patriarchs of that august sect, reminding me of my responsibilities as a teacher and of the need that I embody what I teach as to the way and stand for in my own philosophy. I am all I sought to be and am proud to be a black dragon, but is that pride good or bad, true or false? Being a black dragon in name and paper work is one thing and to have pride in that alone would be folly but living up to all being a black dragon means is something worth having pride in because in essence it means being true to myself as I have defined myself to be which includes being someone that others can turn to and rely on. Members of the Black Dragon Fighting Society or Kokuryukai are not typical martial artists we stand out in that we are willing and able to be ruthless in our pursuit of our goals.
Black Dragons are warriors many of which are blessed to be in the armed forces or otherwise serve their nation of origin. Black Dragons strive to be a positive force wherever we find ourselves making our communities better. I am a black dragon and proud of that fact but that pride is balanced by my understanding of the price I pay for being a black dragon. Black dragons are outlaws in the eyes of many much like many motorcycle clubs marking the society as being that of being 1%. The price for being one percent in this sense is that we must all back each other, being all for one and one for all. To face one of us is to face all of us and yet through being so we are encouraged to express ourselves and be proud of what we do. What each black dragon does adds to or takes away from the society. I take pride in what I have done but take more pride in what I am doing now this is the treasure of the dragon, the black dragon.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, October 10th, 2012 at 7:40 pm 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.