TO MASTER MORE THAN THE WAYS OF WAR
For millennia, the true focus of the art has been the expansion of the intellect, and the ninja believe that creativity is an essential path to this end.
With this in mind, Gyokku ninja create paintings and write stories and poetry, as well as writing and enacting plays, and composing music. Clan members pursue different interests – calligraphy, sculpture, metal working and many other arts; as well as many sciences. The arts of the ninja are indeed almost universal.
It has been observed that mastery of even a non-violent art such as sumi-e, or painting, can improve a warrior's mastery of the sword. Conversely, a consummate swordsman will find, if he should apply himself to it, that mastery in painting comes to him more easily than to other men. All arts are one; skills overlap, and mastery of one art makes mastery of all others that much easier. And this is exponential.
Indeed, somehow, pursuing the arts is also a consummate exercise for the intellect, especially if one, as many Gyokku warriors do, combines a visual art such as sculpture with a literary art, such as composing poetry or writing.
The more arts that you know, the easier the mastery of the next ones becomes.
Indeed, it is quite true...
'A MAN WHO HAS ATTAINED MASTERY OF AN ART REVEALS IT IN HIS EVERY ACTION.'
Every human being is – to an extent – a product of the culture they grew up in. Today, the modern world has become very homogenized. People follow a very narrow track between life and death.
They are born, they are educated, to a lesser or a greater degree, they adopt some profession that enables them to earn or spend ‘money’, they find a mate, they have – or do not have – children. They then begin to acquire the vast range of illnesses and ailments that modern society has collected, and then they die.
We are an ancient people who stand beyond the primitive motivations of materialism and the primitive passions. We have attained a higher plane of thought and motivation – ours is a world where a person’s life is spent in the pursuit of knowledge, and in understanding ourselves, the world around us, and the universe itself.
The ninja lives a life of infinite growth. He or she is a being that the crude motivations of the modern world cannot touch, for the simple reason that each ninja possesses an understanding beyond that of modern civilization.
You may have noticed the works of art in photographs and videos of the Clan. Each of those creations, from a beautiful piece of furniture, to a bronze sculpture, to an exquisite sword, has been created by the hands of ninja. What you have seen is but a small fraction of the creative capability of the Clan, which is not limited to art, but also embraces literature and advanced science.
We are a people who embrace and defend freedom, in the highest sense of the world.
The word ‘freedom’ to a ninja, means infinitely more than ‘political freedom’ – it means the freedom to be ONESELF, and the freedom to reach one’s highest potential.
Finally, the ninja is a protector – of children, first of all, for children are the core of tomorrow. If we do not protect the happiness of our children today, we directly damage all our tomorrows.
If you have read the preceding pages, you will have gained much insight into the methods of the Gyokku ninja ichizoku today.
Let us now look back into the past, and examine the...
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