It is held by many martial schools or ryu that the ninja and samurai each have 18 arts and the true way should teach both for a total of 36. This is true for those schools for which the methods of stealth or Ninjitsu are not the main focus and only one of many tactics...
To defend one’s self is a recognition of one’s value, the more effective one is the more life one can preserve including that of the attacker to be remanded to the state, in ideal circumstances. The method of defending life must meet both the level of threat as well as fit the circumstances one is...
The proof of any martial art is in the prevailing of the one that uses it over what would hinder them. Lineage, rank and so on mean nothing on the field of battle and if a system works for the one using it then it works. If we take this standard of proof then it...
The sage has said: “What is death but life unveiled? Without conceit and without self-deception.” In every path one is led to reflection, one has a choice as to which reflection one invests in. One has the choice of the mirror of truth that shows one one’s strengths and weaknesses or the choice of Orochi’s...
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...
Understand one’s desires and one will know what one is willing to do to obtain one’s goals. Know what one is willing to do and one will know what one is capable of. From desire arises the will and from the will, not the means or the circumstances, stems capability from which manifests result and...
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...
Often one comes to martial arts with some mission in mind, a cause of some sort in which one, knowingly or not, casts one’s self as a hero. It is equally true that no matter what one does as to one’s cause, one will be cast as a villain in the eyes of someone linked...
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...
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,...
