The Haiku Diary

Day four: The Way of Peace

The Way of Peace

Love thy enemy

Surround him with your ki

Become harmony

There are different ways to live in Peace. You can train and develop your strength, so no one will attack you. This is taxing, as you need to remain always the stronger. Or you can accept and open your arms. This, however, does not mean that you are not strong and can’t defend yourself.

I am not talking here about religious belief of offering your other cheek as the Bible would ask you to do. No, I am talking about a strength that come from the confidence you have in your capacities to defend and attack.

The strongest are the ones who broadcast it the less. The less conspicuous ones can be the more dangerous. Nature gives more or less strength, brute strength, and more subtle sometimes. But when relying on your muscles, it always happens a time in one’s life when this is not enough anymore.  

Musashi lived by his sword, but he knew there was something else. One day he was practicing zazen with master Takuan. Then a snake came by. Musashi ki was so impressive that the snake recoiled, almost ready to attack, but he then decided to flee. When he went close to the zazen monk, he looked at him and felt no danger. He went his way, his path across the monk’s knees[1].

Musashi’s power helped avoid a conflict, but Takuan’s harmony with Nature removed even the possibility of the idea of any conflict. A singular man once said: “You are mistaken if you think that budo means to have opponents and enemies and to be strong and fell them. There are neither opponents nor enemies for true budo. True budo is to be one with the universe; that is, to be united with the Center or the universe.”[2]

O Sensei wanted his art to teach harmony and peace. “If all you think about is winning, you will in fact lose everything. Know that both you and your opponents are treading the same path. Envelop adversaries with love, entrust yourself to the natural flow of things, unify ki, body and mind, and efface the boundary between self and other. This opens unlimited possibilities.”[3]

There are indeed a lot of possibilities in keeping open and hopeful, not just staying on the defensive side and waiting for the bad to come… But it is always easier to say than to do. An goal worth trying to reaching to.

[1] There are multiple pages referring to the story of Musashi, Takuan and the snake. The following page is one of them, recounting the encounter: http://underthemoonshadow.blogspot.com/2010/09/takuan-musashi-and-snake.html

[2]Quote from Morihei Ueshiba (1883 – 1969), also known as O Sensei, founder of the Japanese martial art of Aikido.

[3] Idem.