Matters of Life and Death: Essays In Budo

In middle age, with no experience in the martial arts, the author began training in Japanese swordsmanship. This was not a search for security, confidence or health; a romantic fantasy is more likely. What he found in the ensuing decades went far beyond all expectations. The Way handed down across the centuries is not subject to popular consensus or notions of what is reasonable. If one aspires - and that word refers to breathing - to training in Budô, one gives up rights, including the right to an ego. This does not mean Ego will not have something to say about it; each moment, Ego appears anew, in the familiar guise of "myself." This is normal. When crossing swords, however, we soon discover that normal is worse than useless. The challenge is only whether to engage fully with life, or be driven by previous behavioral patterns. There is no ultimate victory here: the previous moment has no bearing on the present. We are alive, or not, moment by moment, until there are no more moments.