The Tao of Wu

by The RZA

That’s just one hood lesson: Your allies can arrive as enemies, blessings as a curse.

It was as plain as day, and has been for a million years. But some things aren’t visible until you’re truly ready to see them.

Sifu, which means “teacher.”

Zhang Sanfeng came to the mountain to meditate and find God and eventually founded the Wu-Tang.

Our crew had lots of meanings for the words Wu-Tang—“Witty, Unpredictable Talent and Natural Game,” “We Usually Take Another Nigga’s Garments”—in China, I learned another, the original one: “Man who is deserving of God.”

Krishna said that you can study all day, pray all day, chant all day, but you’ll get to Heaven faster if you hang with wise men.

Open your mind, body, and soul to God’s voice in whatever vessel that bears it. Let it pull you into the world. ISLAND A PARABLE OF SOLITUDE

Universal African Fighting Style.

I advise everyone to find an island in this life. Find a place where this culture can’t take energy from you, sap your will and originality. Since anything physical can be mental, that island can be your home. Turn off the electromagnetic waves being forced upon you, the countless invisible forces coming at you all the time.

Find an island; turn inward; discover your true strength. THE ART OF LISTENING

A man thinks seven times before he speaks. It’s harder to make the glass than break the glass.

Jewels. And even today, the Jewels are the precepts I advocate most. The Jewels are as follows: Knowledge, Wisdom, Understanding, Freedom, Justice, Equality, Food, Clothing, Shelter, Love, Peace, and Happiness.

First a man gets Knowledge, which is knowledge of self.

Then he gets Wisdom, which is the reflection of that knowledge.

Then he gets Understanding, which is the power t...

With Understanding he sees that he has Freedom—that he has freed his dome from ignorance—wh...

Now, those are all things that build a man’s character. And after you attain them, you’re able to strive for Food, Clothing, and Shelter—which also have both physical and mental meanings. Obviously, food is nourishment, shelter is a home, and clothing is protection. But mental food is food from the tree of life—wisdom, science, history, food for your mind. Mental clothing is how you carry yourself—the way you walk, the way you move and speak. If you have clothed yourself in righteousness, even the bummiest clothing has dignity. And mental shelter is the mind’s protection from the evil atmosphere—the lies and corruption of the outside world. So if you have these three jewels, your home is like a king’s even if you’re living in a shack.

That’s poverty in this country—something that makes you small, shrinks your horizon, clouds your vision.

With the idea of the Jewels, I got a sense that even if my body was in hell, my mind wasn’t.

Happiness is something you get from yourself. If you’re completely satisfied with yourself, nobody can take it away from you.

But in Africa, I saw these people living on dirt. They had nothing but food, clothing, and shelter—and a love of themselves. And so they had happiness, the Twelfth Jewel. It’s within all of us. Western culture just makes it harder to find.

Meng-tzu wrote, “Truth out of season bears no fruit.” To me, that means two things. One: There’s a time and place for every kind of knowledge to flourish. Two: The personal characteristics of great messengers are usually irrelevant.

Be open to the echoes of wisdom. Its truth will reveal itself in time. FEAR

“Fear is a state of nervousness only fit for children. Men should not fear. The only thing man should fear is God. To fear anything other than God is to

offend God.” I carry that to this day: Enlightened men do not fear.

The most important thing is to realize that the problem is on the board, it’s not with you. I ask people what piece they are on the chessboard. And some people say “I’m the king” or “I’m the knight.” And then they ask me what piece I am, and I say, “I’m no piece. I take the position of God.” Even if the king gets checkmated it doesn’t stop me. It’s the king that got checkmated, not me. You could call it a Zen approach to chess. And it also works in life.

I think most of my approach to life has been like that, to find order in chaos, to be in the middle of a bunch of things happening at the same time, but find focus.

In the end, the best strategy, the best tactic you can have in chess is the same one you should use in life: Never give up. Never let them count you out.