Essays From The Master

The title of this paper comes from the first verse of the mantra that is central to the Komuso Ryu of Nin Do, it concerns the balance between the discipline and the way of life. Stealth as a discipline allows one to move freely as well as knowing when and how to be seen or not and when to speak or not. Illusion as a way of life refers to acknowledging the aspect of life and the world that is wholly subjective and thus a matter of perspective. Both of these concepts deal with approaches to the concept of Maya, one taking advantage of others being in the grip of the illusion and the other dealing with not being bound by the same trap. The mind being all deals with both of these issues as does the mudra of Rin by addressing the strength of the mind and the body, the strength of one influencing the other. If one can acknowledge what is subjective then the objective will become clear and the adept of the Silent Way can use the spaces between to move on the stage of the world and act without being bound up in the drama on the stage. This same understanding allows for acknowledging personal reality without having to negate the sense of the transpersonal objective reality. The test of the personal is whether or not adhering to it allows one to work in tandem with the transpersonal without resistance or not. One of the tests of the transpersonal is whether or not it has influence whether it is acknowledged or not i.e. such as gravity. It is a part of adhering to the Silent Way to balance and reconcile the discipline and the way of life into a personalized whole able to handle the transpersonal.

Avoiding the trap of Maya demands that one acknowledge the personal, the transpersonal and the space between them. If one is able to acknowledge these factors then one is able to manage one’s perspective, one’s perceptions and one’s expectations of the transpersonal which allows one to find ways of doing one’s will that others bound up in Maya will never be able to plan for or have an answer to. This understanding of stealth and illusion as well as discipline and way of life points back to the way of the fox and why it is the first way that is taught; it is taught first to have the student free themselves from the trap of Maya. An important aspect to the trap of Maya is the false idea that all is Maya because some things in the world are both objective and actual and while many things influence them from the subjective the objective things are still just that i.e. true. To acknowledge what is true allows one to allow the subjective and those that invest in it to go along as they will. By understanding discipline and the way of life one becomes able to deal with being lied about and the like because one knows what is true and has nothing to prove. The adept of the Silent Way learns to make use of lies and insults about one’s self making them a form of disguise, a blind from behind which one is able to work without being hindered. This active use of insults and the like against one’s self as an aid to one’s self is an example of the sub discipline of Saiminjitsu or the Way of the Mind Gate.

The Komuso Ryu of Nin Do’s understanding of Maya or the world as an illusion goes against that of the Buddha because the ryu acknowledges that some things are real. To know what is real is to be able to invest what one chooses with a measure of reality which points to the link between the concepts of ruling, measure, the realm and reality. By not accepting the concept of Maya from the Buddha and going more in line with the hands on approach to reality from Shugendo the adept of the Silent Way avoids the trap of Maya. If one makes the effort of being aware of what is and what is not such a person has the option of penetrating the illusions that others wrap themselves in or using the same against them as a weapon or as an armor against them. It is this sense of Maya that the nine cuts of Kuji Kiri does away with setting the individual free from the drama that taints life.