----- Original Message -----
From: Silk Road School
it could be said that if we're trained to the correct
sensitivity, any of us can be capable of perceiving things that others, who
lack that training, may overlook.
Blessings and good faring, all.
Gereg
**** snipped to shreds for brevity****
Gereg,
I've followed this thread with no little amount of interest, and wondering
how I could chime in halfway sensibly, when I came across the part of your
message I didn't snip out. Still not sure if I can write in a sensible
manner, but I'll try.
If I recall correctly, you had early on in your writing alluded to 'the
artist's eye', and to perceptions that others might miss. Some people seem
to have an ability to perceive that is so sensitive as to appear
'supernatural', or 'mystic'. Artists, particularly those of Eastern arts,
including martial, are taught (or advised) to learn to put aside their own
ego and absorb their environment, especially in the beginning, of their
training. Later on they have learned, or should have learned, to
incorporate their ego into their perceptions 'properly', and 'become one'
with the world around them. Clumsily and said in clich� form, forgive me,
but that means to me that the person has become the same ego inside and out,
and is in a state of 'constant harmony' with their environment.... a place
in their existence where perception of and response to their environment is
so well ingrained that the individual appears to have some kind of 'power'.
It's not power; it is 'mushin'..... at rest, this concept is
'zanshin'............. but this you know already.
As a person who has knit, crocheted, embroidered, and sewn since she was 7
years old, the catalog of impressions my brain has stored about fabrics,
yarns, and threads is more than I can consciously recall. We in the
knitter's realm have a concept of yarn 'telling us what it wants to be'
such that we say the yarn 'speaks to us'. Other knitters I know scoff at us
about 'mysticism', and proceed to knit with yarn obviously unsuited to their
project and they are wailing and complaining about a 'troublesome project'.
They wonder at how others of us can 'make it look so easy'. I try to
describe the way I personally 'hear' my yarn or fabric is not in words per
se, but in a mind-full picture conjured by that store of impressions already
there. If the needle size is wrong for the yarn, it will appear to 'fight'
being knit.
Another person who paints, draws, or writes is tuned to a different store of
information, as are swordsmiths and all other artisans. Persons who
develop several avenues of pursuit get better at amalgamating information
and perceptions of those arts into a cohesiveness, a 'way' of responding to
their environment that to others can seem a bit unreal, but it is not. It
is simply being and staying aware and responsive to the cues given by one's
environment.
Health care providers, particularly nurses, also undergo a barrage of
sensory input that is beyond conscious recall, but some of them can take in
the appearance of a patient, and the summation of impressions that 'come up
on screen' 'tells' them that something is not going well. It's that 'gut'
feeling.
Soldiers also develop that catalog, unfortunately, with experience in
battle; Nathan can undoubtedly expound on this subject much better than I.
Some groundwork is certainly laid with intensive training.
What do my previous words have to do with swords that seem to 'speak'?
I think it has more to do with the person who is handling the sword, than it
does with the sword itself. I think it is that awareness, that catalog of
physical and visual impressions gathered over time, and the ability to allow
one's mind to create a meaningful picture.
Of course I have a lot more to say, also about the way a samurai may have
perceived his blade, but it mostly enters into the realm of psychology, so
I won't go there unless there is interest in further discussion. This is,
after all, a history list.
Off to work with me....
Lizzie
> Soldiers also develop that catalog, unfortunately,Ever try to think with 3 radio frequencies being
> with experience in
> battle; Nathan can undoubtedly expound on this
> subject much better than I.
> Some groundwork is certainly laid with intensive
> training.