THE SWORD THAT GIVES LIFE, THE SWORD THAT TAKES LIFE...

 by Phillip Starr

In Japan, old-timers sometimes speak of “setsuninto”; killing swords. Finely wrought and yet cruel, their inmost essence was said to drive their owners mad. Other blades were just as cruelly beautiful but imbued with a spirit that inclined towards the good. They sang in their scabbards to warn of danger; they were bright, beautiful, miraculous things and, in the right hands, could become “katsujinken” (life-giving swords).

In real life, the sword that takes life is also the sword that gives life. What, exactly, does this mean? The world around us often seems chaotic, now serene and peaceful, now unspeakably ruthless and violent. Good and evil, life and death, ebb and flow. There are innumerable pitfalls (some more dangerous and better concealed than others), and although the fauna may appear to be very beautiful, some of it is thorny or poisonous. We like to think that we can exert some measure of control over all of this...life. But the truth is far different. It is the way of nature.

Try as we might, we cannot control it. Attempting to do so often seems to make things even more confusing, less desirable. Nonetheless, this is where we live and struggle to survive. The sword is a tool. Nothing more. Within the training hall, we see the world for what it is – perhaps with greater clarity -and we strive to take the chaos of violence and channel it; we struggle to forge ourselves into people who can bend violence for better purposes. It isn't easy to do this. You all know that. And it is this very struggle that plays a large part in the forging process.

There is no choosing of either peace or violence. Violence will always be with us. So we strive to use it as a tool to polish ourselves...for that which we perceive as good. The sword that takes life IS THE SAME as that which gives life. On the surface, it would appear to be a weapon if violence; a thing that takes life and spills blood. And it is. But it is that very thing that makes it a thing that we can use to forge ourselves into something better.

Just as the gentle hands that caress a lover's face and hold a precious baby are also capable of becoming as sharpened steel; emitting terribly destructive force. The “sword” needn't necessarily be made of steel.