Category: Wisdom

Awareness of Death

There was once a dervish who embarked upon a sea journey.  As the other passengers in the ship came aboard one by one, they saw him and – as is the custom – asked him for a piece of advice.  What he advised was: ‘Try to be aware of death, until you know what death is.’  Few of the travelers felt particularly attracted to this admonition.

While at sea a terrible storm blew up.  The crew and the passengers alike fell upon their knees, imploring God to save the ship.  They alternately screamed in terror, gave themselves up for lost, hoped wildly for deliverance.  The dervish sat quietly, reflective, not reacting.

Eventually the buffeting stopped, the sea and sky were calm, and the passengers remembered how serene the dervish had been throughout the episode.  One of them asked him: ‘ Did you not realize that during this frightful tempest that there was nothing more solid than a plank between us all and death?’

‘Oh, yes, indeed,’ answered the dervish. ‘I knew that it is like that at sea.  I also realize, however, that in living day to day there is even less between us and death.  In that moment of dread you were aware of death because you thought it was immanent.  Will you hold that awareness as you live this day?

Musashi’s Nine Principles of Strategy

Musashi1.  Do not think dishonestly
2.  The way is in the training
3.  Become acquainted with every art.
4.  Know the ways of all professions.
5.  Distinguish between gain and loss in worldly matters.
6.  Develop intuitive judgement and understanding for everything.
7.  Perceive those things which cannot be seen.
8. Pay attention even to trifles.
9. Do nothing which is of no use.

— Miyamoto Musashi
The Book of Five Rings

Timing in Strategy

MusashiThere is timing in everything.  Timing in strategy cannot be mastered without a great deal of practice.

Timing is important in dancing and pipe and string music, for they are in rhythm only if timing is good.  Timing and rhythm are also involved in the military arts, shooting bows and guns, and riding horses.  In all skills and abilities there is timing.

There is also timing in the Void.

There is timing in the whole life of the warrior, in his thriving and declining, in his harmony and discord.  Similarly, there is timing in the Ways of the merchant, in the rise and fall of capital.  All things entail rising and falling timing.  You must be able to discern this.  In strategy there are various timing considerations.  From the outset you must know the applicable timing and the inapplicable timing. and from among the large and small things and the fast and slow timings find the relevant timing, first seeing the distance timing and the background timing.  This is the main thing in strategy.  It is especially important to know the background timing, otherwise your strategy will become uncertain.

You will win battles with the timing in the Void born of the timing of cunning by knowing the enemies’ timing, and thus using a timing which the enemy does not expect.

–Miyamoto Musashi
The Book of Five Rings

I wish to express my gratitude to my teacher of many years in the Art of Aikido, Bobby Ishibashi, who explained to me the most important aspects of relating with an attacker:  distance and blending.     — HNS

The Five Sutras of the Aquarian Age

1.  Recognize that the other person is you.

2.  There is a way through every block.

3.  When the time is on you, start, and the pressure will be off.

4. Understand through compassion or you will misunderstand the times.

5.  Vibrate the Cosmos. Cosmos shall clear the path.

— Siri Singh Sahib Ji
In the Name of the Cosmos

You Didn’t Build That

Nasrudin (during his age, there was no car) has been looking for a parking place for twenty minutes already. He turns around, he waits, he drives a bit further, but finds nothing.

He has an important business meeting and he’s going to be late, but nothing, no parking space. Filled with despair he raises his eyes up to the sky and says:

“My God, if you get me a parking space in five minutes, I promise to you that I’ll eat kosher (halal) food for the rest of my life…”

And suddenly – O miracle! – right next to him a car drives away leaving an ideal parking spot.

So Nasrudin turns his eyes to the sky and says: “God, stop searching, I found one!”

Nasrudin Tells a Lie

One day Nasrudin and his friends decided to play a joke on the people in a village. So Nasrudin drew a crowd, and lied to them about a gold mine in a certain place. When everybody ran to get their hands on the gold, Nasruddin started running with them. When asked by his friends why he was following them, he said “So many people believed it, that I think it may be true!”