More on this book
Community
Kindle Notes & Highlights
The right shot at the right moment does not come because you do not let go of yourself. You do not wait for fulfilment, but brace yourself for failure. So long as that is so, you have no choice but to call forth some thing yourself that ought to happen independently of you, and so long as you call it forth your hand will not open in the right way ˙ like the hand of a child: it does not burst open like the skin of a ripe fruit.
How to think
"The right art ", cried the Master, ìs purposeless, aimless!
No purpose to right art
You must learn to wait properly. " " And how does one learn that? " " By letting go of yourself, leaving yourself and everything yours behind you so decisively that nothing more is left of you but a purposeless tension. " " So I must become purposeless˙on purpose? " I heard myself say. " No pupil has ever asked me that, so I don’t know the right answer. " " And when do we begin these new exercises? " " Wait until it is time.
It is this mastery of form that the Japanese method of instruction seeks to inculcate. Practice, repetition, and repetition of the repeated with ever increasing intensity are its distinctive features for long stretches of the way. At least this is true of all the traditional arts. Demonstration, example; intuition, imitation
Teaching do
The meditative repose in which he performs them gives him that vital loosening and equability of all his powers, that collectedness and presence of mind, without which no right work can be done.
The spider dances her web without knowing that there are flies who will get caught in it. The fly, dancing nonchalantly on a sunbeam, gets caught in the net without knowing what lies in store. But through both of them Ît ˜ dances, and inside and outside are united in this dance. So, too, the archer hits the target without having aimed˙more I cannot say. "
You must free yourself from the buffetings of pleasure and pain, and learn to rise above them in easy equanimity, to rejoice as though not you but another had shot well. This, too, you must practise unceasingly˙you cannot conceive how important it is. "
The reason, according to Takuan, is that the pupil cannot stop watching his opponent and his swordplay; that he is always thinking how he can best come at him, waiting for the moment when he is off his guard. In short, he relies all the time on his art and knowledge. By so doing, Takuan says, he loses his " presence of heart ": the decisive thrust always comes too late and he is unable to " turn his opponent’s sword against him ".
Why the beginner fails
