Essays From The Master

The path is perfection because it partakes in a reality of ideals and absolutes. The path does not concern the paths of others or the strengths or weaknesses of those on its or others paths. The path, in the ideal, does not mind circumstance because it has an answer as to what will, or should, arise on the path. It is in the individual and the life of the individual on the path that the path is tested and proven, or not, in the case of that individual. A path untried is always perfect because it is a potential and potential never fails, it that way it is like a dream. Like a dream, an untried path only becomes more perfect and harder to obtain the more it is built up without being tested by application. A path tried can reveal flaws in both the path and the one on that path but trying the path allows one to amend both the path and themselves on the path. The issue, of any path, is the risk in applying it and seeing it perfection fail but in that failing the path is amended, made stronger, as are all on that path. It is because the reality, or not, of a path is between the path and the one that walks that path that not two on any path experience the path in the same way even from the same source or teacher. The moon reflects the sun, in the same way the individual, being a shadow with substance, reflects the path and in this way the individual and the path cease to exist by becoming one, a new totality that is unlike either was in the beginning.

It is the experience of the one on that path that brings out the perfection of said path as a reflection of the one on that path. It is the reflection of the one on the path that purges the path and the one on that path of flaws, if that reflection is genuine, which raises the value of the path and the example of the one on that path that draws others to that path. Nin Do, the Silent Way, has many levels of meaning in the Komuso Ryu, besides the Silent Way, among them is the way to endure, the way to prevail, the way to win or the way of patience in the face of adversity. In none of those readings of the term is the way said to be soft, easy or a pleasure, it is a way with a goal that can be understood in various terms and that way can lead to much but that way must be walked to be of use to the one that claims that path. So long as any path remains in the ideal it will always disappoint because no one in life can embody the ideal, the difference between the ideal and the real is having to or to have dealt with circumstance and consequence. The crescent or reflected moon is the symbol of the Komuso Ryu of the Silent Way which points to the individual as the star which the moon reflects the light of; this shows that a true path is always pointing to the one on that path as the answer to issues that arise on the path. If the individual is the star that the path, as the moon, reflects then the path is best achieved by being true to one’s self expressed through what one has learned on the path.

If the path is perfect and walking the path is the process of perfecting and the path is a mirror for the one on the path then the process of perfecting is self-realization and likewise self-acknowledgement. Realizing what one knows and is and acknowledging them is not the same because one is an insight and the other is an action, whether in the outer or the inner world; it should be noted that both senses of the world have a mundane and esoteric aspect. The inner sense of the world and all that goes with it is also the personal so that the outer is the transpersonal while the two interact through the path. It is a part of the walking of the path, the process of perfection, to shatter the phantasm of the ideal and how it makes the way unattainable so that one will accept that walking the path is enough. Walking the path is enough because the path is complete and the path is complete because it reflects the one walking the path. To walk the path is to cultivate understanding, benevolence, courage and wisdom by which the illusion of death is overcome.