Before Completion- Processing the way

Do, that is said with a long O sound. It is  the Japanese word for "the way"  which implies a journey.  Today I went back to my roots reading about Do.  It is a quirky little word, short and seemingly direct, that is until you dig.  Like chivalry, honor, duty and sacrifice is is a word that gets great deal of weight added to it.  Not all of which is actually part of the meaning.  Do is a self generated journey of development.

 

I find my self in need of a reminder of the nuances of Do.  Some will read this and see a desire to grow with martial prowess. Others will see growth with art.  I see a priest thrusting silver into Jon Valjon's hand, buying back his soul.  Do is a choice for living.  

 

It is a choice to be apart.  A choice for doing the hard things.  A choice for what matters to most not being what matters to you.  A statement of terms, boundaries and limits.  A choice to let go.

 

"People often run when it rains to avoid getting wet, then they pass under the eves of a house and receive the same soaking.  This is the sum and total of the way"  This quote is from the Hagakure, The book of falling leaves.  A book dictated by a late Tokugawa era dying Samurai / clerk.  I have contemplated it for years and I still feel it resonate even with my superficial understanding.

 

I need Do, I need the commitment and bones of it.  I have many difficult things coming that I have to meet with grace poise, and unrepentant force.  I think for my personal expression of my relationship with Do, "We have had quite enough of that, thank you very much." serves me well.  This time I am saying it to my self.

 

I marked my skin with a trigram from the I-Ching and the motto of Carravagio.  "Nec spe nec metu" The trigram's meaning is before completion. The latin translates as with out hope, with out fear.  Selected carefully as marker of my perpetual state of non commitment to myself.  My work ahead is that this will change as a personal code of conduct develops through Do and sets me free of my self generated bonds.  I care little for honor, I care absolutely about the well tended self.  I will live my way. I will not run in the rain as I do not care about the soaking.