Swordsmanship,+Soul+of+the+Wielder

=Soul of the Wielder= (Return to Swordsmanship) Over the ages and especially with the Samurai the greatest swordsmen have seen the sword as an embodiment of the man's soul. A channel for his energy, a part of his body. Philosophers can see the impact of this statement in many areas.


 * Mastery-Self Mastery**

Because an art is half your skill and half your own creative.... soul, we cannot help but change as we get closer to mastering a fine art. Many traveling monks in Japan were masterful martial and weapon artists despite the fact that they almost never used these skills outside of practice. Why? Because the path to mastering such a fine art is not an outward road, but an inward one. As we master the precision, the elegance, the physical challenges, the timing, and even the motives of this fine craft, We find we are not mastering the sword in our hands.... but the hands on our sword. We are mastering ourselves through swordsmanship. As you grow more precise with your sword you often learn to be precise in everything you do. As you learn balance it follows you out of the training rooms. As you learn when to strike with a sword you learn when to use a sharp word and when to refrain. As you come to value the fragility of life, you begin to realize what a gift it is. Perhaps in these modern days we may never recieve the chance or need to draw a blade. Perhaps there will not even be a need for a sword. However the self mastery gained is well-worth the study and time spent. And that is why swordsmanship is a core part of the Jedi way.


 * Conflict**

Conflict has always been a part of life. Though Jedi seek peace we must accept that conflict will come. Many kinds of conflict exist. The most glorified and deadly of which is the conflict of souls. Often these conflicts make the best stories because they mirror our own inner conflict. The battle between the darkness within and the light. Jedi are the guardians and the makers of the light. Pure representatives and champions of the light within all of us. The most epic stories are those that deal with this inner light facing darkness.

Good examples are: The battle of fates in episode I 'the phantom menace', The conflict between Obi-Wan and anakin in episode III 'Revenge of the sith', And the battle between mace windu and sidious or between Yoda and sidious also in episode III.

These clashes have involved everything. A full-out battle of Good-versus-Evil with only one victor triumphant. Each side representing something beyond even themselves. These battles were conducted with lightsabers. Which are symbolic of the soul.

If you allow yourself to freely think you will realize that inside of us all there is a battle raging between the light and darkness. As we struggle to be our best as our darker nature pulls at us. The discapline of the sword is also symbolic of the discapline of the soul. And both are symbols of the Jedi.


 * The Lightsaber**

The lightsaber is a "more elegant, civilized weapon for a more civilized age" as Obi-Wan reflected. It is capable of cutting nearly any substance with near effortless ease, it can deflect or disrupt most projectile and energy weapons, and it is compact, useful, energy efficient, and solely the domain of force-users. Indeed one may think of this weapon as clearly superior to most if not all weapons in the star wars universe and in our own universe as it stands.

This preconception is wrong however. The lightsaber is not the superior weapon. A nuclear weapon can be fired with the press of a button. A child can do it. A lightsaber requires skill, discapline, and much training. Even then it is possibly a very dangerous ally since it can destroy it's wielder with one mistaken movement. What is superior about a lightsaber is less than a quarter what it can do, and many, many times more what it's wielder can do.

The 'soul' or 'spirit' or heart of the person holding the lightsaber is the greatest weapon. We should not forget that.

When we train our swords we are only training ourselves. The sword goes back to being inanimate steel when put down. The swordsman is what becomes the greater.

(Return to Swordsmanship)