Essays From The Master

In the Silent Way balance is a core and something to be mindful of, while important to the way it should never limit one in life and should not make life a chore. For those of the Silent Way, and many other such paths, one of the greatest risks is a monomania that causes one to train and so on and forget other aspects of life. To focus on any one aspect to the point that the whole suffers is actually a drain on the thing that one is focusing on, a single aspect of life will not sustain the person with that life. This is why the Komuso Ryu of Nin Do has nine ways, which have martial and other applications, this is aimed at a whole life which may include things not of the ryu in order to be true to the ryu. On the other hand, if other things in one’s life draw one away from the Silent Way it is part of being true to one’s self to see that one does not loose what the Silent Way has added to one’s life to make those other things possible. If one finds balance limiting one this is a call to shed some things or add things that allow one to have the balance one needs for one’s chosen path. It must be kept in mind that the true way for a person will not come from outside but only from within as it is from within only that one can find harmony with the Kokoro which would allow one to make use of the outer in whatever form it takes. If one is always seeking balance one will miss life and that is not balance but a curse.

If things are of value one must make time for them and what one makes time for has value so that it is not a mystery as to what one values. For those of the Komuso Ryu of the Silent Way it would not be wrong to see matters not of the way or the school as part of the Yonin, day Ninjitsu, aspect of the path, if one is true to one’s self even if one must work outside the path one is still doing the work of the path, if one is true. In practical terms this points to how all of life must be a part of any path that is meant to be for life evoking the fact that the inner most ring of the Silent Way, in this case, is composed of understanding, benevolence, courage and wisdom which can be applied through or found through any path. The type of path one walks will color how these things manifest but if one is true to that path one will find a way to apply it to all of life. If all one can do is one’s chosen way so that one cannot ebb and flow in life then that way is not a tool for life but rather a way to avoid life. The better one lives life the better one is able to train and apply one’s skills which allows one to live life more effectively. It is an effective life that allows one to do one’s will and will not demand that one contend with the will of others and this is harmony free of the illusion of unity. Harmony allows each aspect of it to be what it is and work with the other aspects, on a personal level this means respecting that each thing has the right to be what it is and deal with the consequences of so being.

If one feels limited or that what should bring one balance is a chore this is a call to adjust how one walks the path or find a path that accurately reflects who and what one is as an individual i.e. a microcosm of the Heart of All Things. This is why the way of the moon in Komuso Nin Do is rightly placed at the center of the Silent Way and not at the end, a part of the way of the moon is Nin Do as a way of life. To know the way of the moon as one’s center is to realize that the light that the moon reflects comes from one’s self, one’s own being is the star or sun that the moon orbits around. If one can accept one’s self as the source, reflecting the Heart of All Things, then by being true to one’s self, in balance with all that is not one’s self, one is also being true to the path that one has chosen because that path is an accurate reflection of the person walking that path. Balance is not a trial or test, it is a proof that one is true and being true all that is not one’s self can be bent to one’s will.