Essays From The Master

In the same way than any sort of boast is a gift to the enemy it is equally deadly to confuse understanding with empathy or even worst agreement. To give perspective let us consider the moon and the serpent, each is a symbol of transformation but one shows actual renewal, the serpent, and the other is a matter of perception. Actual or not, a matter of perception or not, both the serpent and the moon can be used to mark time and to that degree also observe the ebb and flow of nature. Besides change and time both the serpent and the moon can be seen as symbols of stealth or secrecy balanced against the visible being made visible, the full moon versus new, or the venom of the serpent being used to cure its effects. The water reflects the moon, the serpent moves through the water, does the serpent change the moon? The moon does effect the water, its ebb and flow, and the water does influence the serpent so that through the water the moon does effect or change the serpent. If one grasps the difference and overlap between actual and perceived influence or effect then one can look at outcomes and see benefit or not for those involved and set aside issues of philosophy such as good or evil or right or wrong in terms of thinking or language. If a person feeds a hungry child and asks nothing of the child does it matter what the thinking or manner of speech the person that gives the food has? If the child is fed it is will seek the one that feeds it and the example of the person that feeds the child will draw the child to understand the person that feeds it to keep being fed.

Is the one feeding the child, asking nothing of the giver of the food, a good person or bad? To feed the hungry would seem good but the fostering of dependence can be bad, when is charity a form of grooming and what is one being groomed for has a lot to do with whether or not it is of benefit or not yet benefit or not, the hungry seeks to eat. A child given candy is being fed but what the child is being fed is worse than not eating if that is all the child is given, in the same way it is good to help those between jobs, if one can, but one should not help so much that the person being helped loses the drive to work; this is not help but control. A child given healthy food that does not taste good will be healthy and fed but will not be happy, the child may not see the benefit but the benefit is objective whether it is perceived by the child or not. If the child is fed both good tasting and healthy food and yet not allowed to do the things a child needs to do isn’t the good of the food limited by what it demands of the one that receives it? Perception and understanding expectation can give one clarity but these understood by others can be manipulated into being a trap. If one knows what is expected in a situation one has the option of going with that and so creating confidence or going against it and creating confusion, both confidence and confusion in others can be tools if one elects to use them as such. If one expects a behavior, makes it clear and rewards it that will grow or the one can promise that behavior and manipulate the one that expects it.

If one knows how to be unknown, and move freely, one can make one’s self known. If one can weave illusion and influence expectation one can see through illusion and negate that influence. This is why the Komuso Ryu of Nin Do includes in its primary mantra: “Stealth our discipline, illusion our way of life.” If one grasps one’s own perception one can work to expand its range and guard against it being distorted, if one understands one’s own expectations one can guard against being manipulated through them. In combat or not the more insight one has and the better one can plan, the better one can plan the easier it will be to adjust when the plan fails to take one or more things into account.