My father was a warrior by profession and by deed. He fought in World War II, Korea and fought twice in the jungles of Viet Nam. He was not a very religious man but he was especially spiritual. In this regard he aligned more with the code of Bushido, the code of honor developed among the samurai, the military warriors of Japan. During World War II while fighting in the Pacific theater my father came by a katana, a samurai sword. As a boy, I remember him showing me the sword and explaining the significance that it had for the soldier who owned it. He told me that these swords were passed down from father to son as a symbol of the moral principles that support the spiritual warrior in war and during peace. He showed me the handle and told me that under the sharkskin wrapping was written the family history. He showed me the blade that I was not allowed to touch, and explained that the Japanese sword makers were the best in the world when this sword was made, almost 250 years ago.
My father said that the blade was imbibed with spiritual strength that both fed and was nurtured by the owner of the sword. Legend taught the spiritual power of a katana could be demonstrated by placing the blade in the path of a leaf as it flowed downstream. If the leaf hit the sword and wrapped around the blade the sword was spiritually weak. If the leaf was cut in half by the katana the sword was strong in the spirit of Bushido. However, if the floating leaf approached the sword and then flowed effortlessly around the blade without touching it, this was the sword of supreme spiritual power. Twelve years after the atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima my family moved to Yokohama, Japan. We had many Japanese friends and learned to love and respect the people and culture of Japan. During the three years we lived with the Japanese my father tried to find the family who owned the katana. Neither my father nor our Japanese friends were successful. Years later, before my father died he passed the sword on to me.
There have been great injustices performed on every strata of human life. War has been ever present. Country against country, clan against clan but in the end it is now, as it has always been, one person against another. Warring between countries is an illusion. A country cannot go to war, only its people can. We continue to expend copious amounts of rhetoric aimed at abolishing war. Documents of peace are written, as if the paper has the power. We shake our head at the evening news and wonder why people can’t just get along and then shake our fist at a slow-moving driver on our way home to subjugate our spouse and children. The world is a violent place primarily because we have lost awareness of the soft side of humanity. Ego has replaced Eufeeling. We have lost our Self in the frantic milieu of other Self-searchers. The world is a violent place because we all too easily see others as the cause of our pain—pain generated by our own unobserved Self. My father, and every other man, woman and child who has ever been at war, had to confront this issue and come to some sort of conditional peace to make sense of their lives. Some have been more successful than others but almost all fail to resolve the issue of war on the personal level. The answer is in the blade and the leaf. We can vanquish our enemies or yield to their aggression. It really doesn’t matter. Until we generate our own personal power of Self, until we embrace Eufeeling with open arms, anything more involved than drawing our next breath will generate only more violence.
Bernd says:
I read the story already in one of your books. It’s so beautiful. Due to first experiences in pure awareness as a student I came in contact to japanese culture, travelled through Japan. Very inspiring!! Thank you
Robert Han Bishop says:
Frank – Beautiful posting about war and peace. I once had an authentic japanese sword, but when a psychic told me it had killed, I no longer wanted it in my home and passed it on to another. Both my son and I have been students of the japanese martial arts, and my son is a master-teacher of Iaido – Here is a link to a brief video of him (Sensei Chorus John Bishop) performing a katana (japanese sword) kata at http://youtu.be/Wz1SsEGue_M
Roy says:
As a long term practitioner of Iaido/Iaijutsu (Japanese Sword Arts), I found this blog entry to be particularly relevant to my own experience. To live with, and from, an energy that gently guides the “leaf” around me…this is indeed the essence of an enlightened life. Thank you.
Frank Kinslow says:
You are so right Chiharu… World peace can only be had through individual peace. The deepest individual peace one can experience is to be aware of Eufeeling while living your day to day life. If you are still living in Japan join me this September, 2013, in our QE workshop in Tokyo. We always have great fun. Don’t forget to introduce yourself to me…
Chiharu says:
Hi,I’m a Japanese woman who has just found pure awareness by your book. I’m always looking forward to reading your messages here.My boyfriend is from America and now we are living together and loving each other truly. I appreciate about it and think this means that we have peace between America and Japan.Sometimes we talk about the war, and everytime my heart hurts. Sometimes I cried and got strong anger. And then he said,” We can’t do anything about the past, but we still can live and love in this moment.” I stopped crying and agreed with him. And today I could be free more from my emotion by reading your message. Now many people are gradually finding ourself,eufeeling. I’ll keep looking inside of myself and seek for the eternal peace with other people who live together in this world. Thank you for letting me notice about that. Thank you.
Cal says:
Whoops! I meant late, not last.
Cal says:
I instantly thought of Donovan singing Buffy Sainte-Marie’s “Universal Soldier” in the last ’60s.