Essays From The Master

In the history of Japan there was a flourishing culture embodied in the idea of Bushido with that of Nin Do interacting and coexisting along with that of Bushido. The ideals and the power that evolved from Bushido for all of its flaws made Japan a power strong enough to endure the intrusion of the west and the malicious invasion of the Church of Rome. The power that Japan gathered through the force of Bushido tempered and checked by the influence of Nin Do allowed Japan to become comfortable with the harmony that its power maintained. Japan went on this way until what became known as the Meji Era in which an emperor that benefited from the harmony created by the ancient ways grew tired or bored with the work involved in keeping those ancient ways that preserved his way of life. The emperor invited the west into his lands and sought to break up the culture that gave the ruler his power. In this culture war, a struggle over what would be the prevailing paradigm, there many battles culminating in one great battle that saw the breaking of the Samurai though the ninja persisted and continue to persist. Later because the ideals of Bushido were lost and the ninja were driven underground a false Bushido evolved and led to Japan siding with the Nazis in World War II. Ways no matter how glorious in form or power are only as valuable as they are kept active and vital; this was shown in the film the Last Samurai.

Now America in less than 3 centuries has built up the knowledge and power enough to grow still in what its influence provides becoming comfortable and expectant. This comfort makes open the idea of progress for the sake of progress because the nation is coasting on its past and gambling its future on ideas that have never worked with people assuming that they will be able to make work what no one else has been able to. One can only cost so long until the force that one was using runs out of the needed strength to resist inertia. Where Japan had Bushido and it was tempered by Nin Do America still has the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. As we have said many times civilization is a myth and only cultures are real but they only remain vital and able to secure the people as long as said cultures are held to. No culture is without flaws and no people are without faults in how they enact the culture which can result in horrors on a grand scale. The fact that cultures have and can produce horrors is a reason to be mindful and build what works best in the given culture as a guard against those elements that can go bad in said culture.

Where the Samurai failed and fell and the ninja endured and endure America can see its choices. What allowed the ninja to endure was their ability to maintain themselves while at the same time growing and changing with the circumstances. It is this core balanced by flexibility that is the meaning of the teaching in the Komuso Ryu that states: “I have no principles; I make being adaptable in all circumstances my principles.” Ultimately no one can control what others do only influence circumstances and adjust what one does. Many Americans speak of past or perceived past visions or versions of America but do not invoke those virtues save in words only and do not live them save in rare examples that are looked down upon by the masses. It matters not what vision of ideal you profess, what matters is the ideal that you show in what you do. Rome and Japan rose and fell because the people in those cultures coasted on what those before them had done. Is America to be no different than Japan or Rome? Is America to become largely and archetype as much of Bushido is now and the ninja would be save for the actions of a few that held to and passed on the Silent Way while allowing it to bloom and evolve with time and circumstance?

It is not enough to speak or even teach the things that we believe in, what matters is what we live and the results that we create in the world. As a child I thought power meant all and it is important, later I came to see knowledge as greater than power. As an adult I have come to seek truth in all things, in myself most of all. Truth is not the same as the facts because facts can be arranged to compose any reality one wills, truth is the vision of the facts that one is invested in that causes one and those around one’s self to grow. What makes a nation, a culture, a people strong or weak is what they invest in and prize, what you prize most is the thing you feed most and that is the treasure of them that feeds said things they prize. The way of a people or a person is as strong and as fragile as a tea cup and it is better to see its value in the use and preservation of that cup then to lock it away or see it lost and in time shattered on the shores of time or under the sands of history. Nations, cultures and peoples only have so many chances to decide what they prize and build the strength needed to preserve that. Individuals however have every moment they exist to decide what they value and take steps to preserve it. I will no longer fight the culture wars that attempt to draw me and all similar to me, instead I will live the truth as I know it and let my example stand and create what ripples it will. Many claim my form of the Silent Way is fake, though it is effective, or not historical, though it can be traced to the tenth century AD, for all that what matters is what I and other students of the Komuso school of the Silent Way get out of the path that school represents. My own culture war is over because I have won and I win by living as I will rather than being fearful of the future. The truth or cup that I value I will preserve but I will not lock it away instead I will use it and see that it is not lost and pass it on when I can.