Essence of Ninjutsu
Self-protection, endurance, and a benevolent heart. What Takamatsu Toshitsugu and Hatsumi Masaaki see as the core of ninjutsu, and why fighting technique alone is not enough.
- Chapter
- 8, Rules & Philosophy
- Sections
- 2
- Reading time
- 4 min
Takamatsu Toshitsugu
Self-protection and the avoidance of danger: according to Takamatsu Toshitsugu, that is what all martial arts and all military strategy come down to. In Hatsumi Masaaki’s book Essence of Ninjutsu, he explains why ninjutsu realizes this idea most completely. It protects the body, and it protects the mind as well.
For Takamatsu, the way of the ninja is a way of endurance and survival, a way that triumphs over everything that would destroy a person. Punches and cuts are the least of it, and outwitting the enemy does not reach the core either. Ninjutsu means attaining what you really need while making the world a better place.
The Right Motivation
The ninja’s skill is the art of winning. That is why the motivation a student brings to the start of training matters so much. Without the right state of mind, fighting techniques lead over time to destruction instead of personal growth.
Takamatsu sees nothing unusual in this. Anything useful in life does harm when pushed to extremes, and he gives four examples:
- Medicine exists to improve health and relieve suffering. Yet through the abuse of drugs and the dominance of doctors, individuals no longer have their own health in their hands.
- A nourishing, balanced diet keeps a person lively, strong, and healthy. Gross overeating or overdrinking, or taking in too many chemicals, is the surest way to poison the body.
- Governments exist to see that all parts of a society work together in harmony. When rulers are greedy, hungry for power, or lacking in wisdom, the result is pointless wars, disorder, and cultural and economic chaos.
- A religion grounded in trust born of experience, in a broad, searching mind, and in the tireless pursuit of universal understanding gives people inspiration and comfort. Once it loses that foundation, it turns dangerous: it deceives, controls, and burdens people by exploiting their faith and their fears.
The martial arts are no different. The art of self-protection is meant to create inner peace and security. Yet it is often practiced without a balanced personality, and then it drives lesser martial artists into a distorted world of endless conflict and competition that finally consumes them.
The Eyes of God
Whoever sincerely follows the essence of ninjutsu, free of selfish desires, discovers, in Takamatsu’s view, the ultimate secret of invulnerability: the “mind and eyes of God”
.
The fighter who wins is the one in harmony with the plan of the whole, who knows intuitively how fate will unfold. The ninja follows the providence of heaven and the incorruptible justice of nature, keeps a clear and pure heart, and trusts in the inevitable. This brings the understanding that guides the ninja in battle: when to conquer, and when to stay hidden from the enemy.
The cosmos is beautiful in its cool, impersonal wholeness. It holds everything we call good or evil, and the answers to every contradiction around us. By opening eyes and mind, the ninja can follow the subtle cycles and reasons of heaven, changing when change is needed and adapting again and again, until in the end nothing can take the ninja by surprise.
Hatsumi Masaaki
For Hatsumi Masaaki, the methods of physical and mental survival that made Japan’s ninja famous are the source of all Japanese martial arts. That is why ninpō 忍法, the higher order of ninjutsu, should be offered to the world as a guide for all martial arts.
Those who do not train fully and holistically in every aspect of the martial arts, Hatsumi says, will only come to know the limits of their muscle power. Enlightenment comes only to those who immerse themselves completely in the traditions of the martial arts and take them up as a way of life.
The Benevolent Heart
The practitioner faces danger, experiences the overwhelming power of fear, injury, and death, and learns how their own strengths and limits work. From this grows a strength and invincibility that make it possible to delight in flowers swaying in the wind, to value the love of others, and to be content with peace in society.
The mark of this enlightenment is jihi no kokoro 慈悲の心, the benevolent heart. It is stronger than love itself and embraces everything that serves universal justice and reveals the universal plan. The benevolent heart of ninpō is born from walking the line between life and death again and again, and it is the key to harmony and understanding between the two.
For many generations, the ninja philosophy of life lay forgotten in the shadows of the past. Now it is coming back, because, as Hatsumi sees it, a time has come once more that needs ninpō. His hope is that peace will prevail and humanity can grow to the next, higher level.
