ninja Weapons

“Weapons are expensive. A modern
fighter jet is very, very expensive.”

One of the most interesting parts of budo, the study of weapons, is also a study in desire, inhibition and spontaneous creativity. Weapons usually suggest to a person how they should be used. You see the sword; you recognize that it has a handle and a cutting edge. You pick it up by the handle and you desire to cut with the edge. Reasonably too, one sees that A leads to B leads to C... Ninja weapons defy this conventionality. Choke with the sword, cut his throat with a teacup, break bones with the rope, grab with the knife, paralyze with a ball point pen. Conventionality is not an aspect of the weapons themselves; it is an aspect of the user. Some weapons, like the shikomi (sword cane), do help us see how things are not always what they appear to be. You have go way beyond that understanding. You have to ignore all the conventional assumptions and embrace a totally unlimited, unconventional way of thinking. If you can do that, then any object becomes a ninja weapon." This is an example of the kihon happo, the infinite paths" of budo.

“It doesn't look like much, but that is why it is dangerous.”

There is something more. Like a particle of antimatter, ninja weapons only exist” for a few moments and then they disappear. They do not exist until you enter Kimon, the Demon's Gate. Kimon is the place where the enemy is vulnerable and you are safe. When you leave Kimon, the weapon ceases to exist. You cannot enter Kimon by using a technique. It just happens. This is why what we call ninja weapons are not used" per se. They simply enhance the possibilities of that terrible moment. The tiniest things become terrifying and devastating because they are not openly, intentionally or purposefully directed towards the enemy. They only pop into existence during that moment when the enemy is ultimately vulnerable to something tiny.

One might say that real budo is the art of witnessing an accident.

It is important to understand that what is considered a ninja weapon was not limited to the ninja. Anyone, from any country, culture or period in history who has survived, even by accident, has made use of ninja weapons. Survival knows no barriers. Consider that ninja weapons represent a state of mind. It may even be better to forget about the word "ninja even. Just stay alive.

Once the fight is over, you have to let go of fighting. To keep your sanity after a conflict, it is easier to lay down your weapons as if you were never holding any. We still have to live once we survive.

"I can change because I am not holding on to anything."

Dragon Stepping

Move with ignorance,
Total knowledge.

A man walked into a train station with a briefcase in one hand and a pencil in the other. The train would not arrive for quite some time and the man was feeling drowsy. So, he bought a cup of coffee and took a seat. He laid his briefcase across his lap and placed his coffee cup upon it. He used his pencil to stir the coffee. When he was done, he threw the coffee cup away and went to work.

When they cut Jonah from the belly's whale, they found in his tightly closed fist a few ounces of uneaten fish food.

“The ninja was the strongest because he wasn't limited by conventional ways of using weapons. He didn't just cut and slash in stylized patterns. He'd throw his sword, even if it was a long sword. He'd flip it into the opponent, whatever. You must keep this in mind. You never know what will happen.”

There was a Russian fighter pilot in WW2 who survived a dogfight by out-flying the German plane on his tail. He flew his fighter so fast and close to the ground that the German pilot clipped a tree and crashed in a ball of flame. When he was asked why he didn't just try to shoot down the German, he replied, “I forgot I had guns."

Hazy Shade of Wisdom

Confusion sets in
When the tiger roars,
In silence.

"You never know how bad things might get, so don't start shooting your gun until you have to. Use it in other ways as much as you can and save your bullets for emergencies."

“If you try to use a weapon, you will be no good.”

Hans Brinker was a little Dutch schoolboy. He did not carry tools for plugging dikes, he did not know when a leak would occur and he did not walk in a special way, anticipating a leak. He certainly did not condition his fingers in anticipation of disaster. He was simply taking cakes to a blind man. But at the precise moment of necessity, an eight-year old held back the enormous power of the ocean itself with a single finger and saved his country from devastation.

“Put your thumb inside the teacup when you smash it
on his face so that you can keep one of the pieces.
Then you can use it as a shuriken.”

A drunk, staggering through the street, trips over himself and he stumbles onto a mugging. As he falls, the wristband of his watch snaps, the watch flies off into the air and strikes the mugger in the eyes and temporarily blinds him. The muggers would-be victim falls over and his shoes slip off, which hit the mugger under the chin. As the mugger falls back, the drunk collapses on top of him, knocks the air out of his lungs and falls asleep on the now unconscious mugger. People pass by and throw coins at the display. One of the onlookers comments, "Now that is what I call busking!"

“Art is a lie that makes us realize the truth."
—Pablo Picasso

Creation

What is this thing
That has nothing to do
With you?

“There is life in the weapon. Through that,
you can live.”

Hell

Before Heaven,
Swords rise and fall,
At will.