Living Between the Lines

"If it can be written down, then it's no good
in a fight. Real budo starts where words end."

A budo master will teach what the scrolls do not reveal. How can he not? He IS the scroll. Words are just words. Real budo only exists in between the written forms, between that which is static. Budo is formlessness and constant change.

Do the scrolls contain all of the ancient secrets? Perhaps they do contain some hidden mystery, but if they do, then how they are read will depend upon the quality of the reader. Taking things at face value can be dangerous. If budo were the art of avoiding the dangerous, then accepting the scrolls as being the final, definitive truth would be suicide. You cannot learn budo by reading ancient scrolls! The scrolls are incomplete, vague and contain intentional mistakes. Imagine how far from the truth a translated version must be!

The scrolls—or anything written about budo—could be considered as a kind of screening mechanism. They separate the wheat from the chaff. Those that latch onto the meanings of the words become trapped. They can no longer move forward. Those who can step away from them continue on. With this in mind, budo words are like signposts; you don't get to your destination by staring at a sign, you have to keep moving.

"Don't be trapped by what you think you know
about budo. The words in the scrolls are also traps.”

It is natural to think that budo could be understood through the forms it takes. The written word is one such form. Physical performance is another. But budo is beyond the forms it takes. Budo is art and any art that is definable is dead. Art is life. It is an act of creation. Art is selfless and at the same time, infinitely personal. The supreme challenge in the art or budo is that you have to become a blank canvas and allow the opponent to paint a bloody self-portrait.

"People see a Picasso and they don't understand it, but they
know instinctively that it is special. Real budo is like this.”

To allow the opponent to be the brush with which you are painted; to allow yourself to be the clay that is molded by the opponent is a terribly difficult thing to accept.

“It is important to be able to see the abstract.
You need to cultivate 'large eyes’ for this.
In time, you will learn to see what I see."

What good is a static form in a living world? You have to learn to live in between the dead forms. The waza (techniques) are like gravestones. You read them and learn from their mistakes, you don't use them to build a house.

When the grandmaster teaches, it is very rare that any of the recognizable techniques are seen. He is always moving in a way that cannot be understood. Some people on the outside perceive this as deception, but they deceive themselves! Others see what they imagine they ought to see. They create their own definitions of budo.

"You must be an artist to see these things."

Survival of the body—survival of the heart—requires us to avoid any rigid form and to deny inevitability. If you look for the grandmasters forms, you will see nothing. If you look for his nothingness, you will see his form. This is art! Don't mistake these words for a riddle. This is literal truth.

"You will never become an artist if you are
unable to see these things."

To live in an upright manner, to have a strong sense of morality and ethics, these are all wonderful things but the good do not always prosper and the bad often emerge victorious. It is important to understand the reality of lies and deceit. In a sense, budo is one kind of lie. And yet from this lie, beautiful truths are often born.

"You can't be fixated on any one thing.
In the Aesop fable of the ant and the grasshopper,
the grasshopper starves because he didn't work
like the ant In reality, the ant could have
simply shared his food. There are no rules that
dictate what we can and cannot do.
This is how you negotiate infinity."

This Art

Where does it exist,
Except as a secret
In your heart?

Which part of the dough does the pizza man hold? Where is the handle? What is the diameter? How thick is the crust? It's not possible for me to make a pizza without this information.

"We must not think about what we will do,
only react properly to what happens.”

Listening Fundamentals

What needs to be heard,
Is never spoken.

Apparently, two brilliant scientists have discovered what love is. They measured the biological responses of married people and discovered identical patterns in their biological responses. They also did a cost-benefit analysis of people who were in love and discovered an economic advantage over those who were not in love. Finally, the big question has been answered! We know everything about love now.

mysteries

Gates closed,
In an open field.

"You must have the guts to throw away your techniques
and move into the third dimension. I cannot teach
you this; I only wish to share the feeling.”

The only time art suffers is when you try to copy what you did before.

Earth has eight separate moons. It is a scientific fact. Today there is one moon and tomorrow there will be a different moon and so on, until the first moon reappears. Each one has a different shape and a different name. Every day, there is a new and totally different moon. You must learn them all or you will never know what day it is.

“Don't move like a martial artist."

Secret message

Floating bottle,
You needn't arrive
At any shore.

"I often play with words, like Budo becomes Mudo
('the way of fighting becomes 'the way of nothing').
You must be able to change like this with
your actual movement.”

I can give you a map to the best fishing spot on Earth. I can show you the exact spot where to drop your hook into the water. I'll put it all down on paper. How can you possibly imagine that you might not catch a fish?

There were three ancient monks sitting outside an ancient temple, praying for enlightenment. They had been sitting there for many years, decades, in fact, of devotion. One day a young man approached the three ancient monks and asked them if they had yet received enlightenment. "No, it only happens in the brief moment before you die,” said the oldest monk and the other two nodded in agreement. "Well, did you ever try going inside the temple?” the young man asked. "Oh, no, no," the oldest monk said, "no unenlightened person may enter."

under the Blade

When nothing is left
Consider faith,
And the revelation.

“Budo can never be written down. "Budo can never
be stolen. "Budo can only be transmitted from teacher
to student, man to man.”

Knowing how much training goes into a ballerinas skills, how every step must be perfect, how her arms and legs must move in the exact ways handed down through the generations, how even her fingertips must be under tight control, it seems amazing that they can walk through a parking lot and drive home.

Secret Knowledge

This is for you,
Magic is for the rest.

There is currently a trend towards 3D television technology. Many people are becoming excited by this new technology and the realism it promises. I wonder though, if any of these people notice the difference between what they see in the mirror every morning and what stands before it.

"To read between the lines was easier than
to follow the text."—Henry James

The Irong of necessity

Everything
Becomes nothing,
In time.

"No man is an expert because knowledge
is not static. The truth changes every day.”

There was an up-and-coming racecar driver who used to sit in wrecked vehicles at various parts of the racetrack for hours on end. He claimed that it was good preparation for a possible accident when racing. When asked "Do you think this will save you in an accident at 100 miles an hour?” he would frown and sit in the wrecked cars even longer.

"Budo is feeling. If anybody says that the only way to
understand budo is by studying form, he is mistaken.”
“The only difference between me and
a madman is that I am not mad."—Salvador Dali

"You've become skillful
You won't get better like that
Try and have some fun.”

Every year, the Tax Collector made his way unannounced to the Kings Court in order to present the King and his Lords a summary or how much tax he had collected for the realm. And every year, during this presentation, the King and his Lords were absent while the Tax Collector pontificated on how much money he had collected. The Realm was very grateful for the Tax Collector's services—especially the Tax Collector.

"We must use the unknown spaces to survive.
In space, I move only myself and
in doing so, I move you.”