Self-Development Through Asking "Why?"
The Enlightened Warrior's 'Keys to Success' Through the Power
of Our Thoughts, Words, and Deeds
In the philosophical teachings of the Ninja Warrior's
Mikkyo esoteric mind-science that forms the foundation
for the Warrior Concepts Life Mastery Program taught to my
students and clients, there are three areas of focus that allow
the Ninja Warrior, or anyone who understands these principles,
to act with enlightened clarity and always achieve his or her
goals. Each of these so-called '3-Keys of Success' can be
focused on in and of itself, but the real 'magic' results when
the three are brought together and aligned with the Ninja's
vision.
The 3 Keys are collectively known in Japanese as the
Sanmitsu or '3 Secrets.' Not at all 'secret' in the
conventional sense as being kept away from others or hidden, the
sanmitsu are seen as 'secret' because they have to be
'discovered' by the student to have any benefit. The three are
the "thoughts," "speech," and "actions" of the Ninja
practitioner. They are seen as both the necessary elements to
bring about success, and the means by which we can
change and affect our world. In this article, I'd like to focus
on the 3rd Key, the 'secret' of the power of our
actions. And, like a well-maintained vehicle that gets
us where we want to go, our actions are the direct manifestation
of our thoughts and intention in the outside world around us.
As seen on the Kongo-kai mandala of Universal Enlightenment, our
actions are associated with the 'wind' realm of
All-Accomplishing Wisdom and the concept of skillful means. Our
actions have the potential to change our world and our
experience of it. Students studying within the upper training
modules before advancing into the Black Belt Mastery Stages are
constantly reminded of the truth of the power of their actions
during their class opening and closing as they recite the Ninja
Master's Admonition of Sh'kin Haramits' Daikomyo!
The lesson of this phrase is that 'every moment - every
action - holds the potential of being just that thing that will
produce the happiness, understanding and power that we have been
seeking.' It means that "no-thing doesn't matter" -
everything deserves our attention.
Of course, merely running around 'doing stuff' is not at all
what we're talking about here. Most of us can remember a time
when we did a lot but accomplished very little. For most of us,
we need only think back over the past few days. The key or
'secret' here is not in the activity itself but in the focus or
direction that requires a particular action. The truth is that
unfocused, undirected action is nothing but idle
'wheel-spinning.' It accomplishes nothing toward the
accomplishment of goals and more towards creating even more of
the feelings of exhaustion, exasperation and distraction that
regularly plague our days.
To harness the power of our deeds and actions, we must first
take the time to focus on what it is that we would like to
accomplish. We must ask the important questions that will allow
us to discipline ourselves to acting with purpose and not
impulse. Questions like: "What do we want our life to be like
and about?" and "What is important and what needs to be
illuminated?" will help to answer the primary question of "why?"
Why are we doing these things? What, if anything, are we working
toward, or is this just another distraction or another attempt
to avoid the unpleasant? The following is a list of "why"
questions that can be used to determine whether an action is
worth doing in the scheme of things:
- Why am I doing this?
- Why is that important?
- Why is that important? (This is not a duplication but a
clarification of the last answer!)
- Why do I give in to avoid unpleasant responses from others
even when I don't think this is beneficial or productive?
- Why don't I act when I know it is the right thing to do or
is something that must be done to produce the results I need?
- Why do I fill my days with activities that do not contribute
to the accomplishment of goals, conditions and results that I
say and believe are important?
- Why do I choose inactivity (laziness and procrastination)
when there are things that should be done to bring me closer to
accomplishing my goals?
This is a partial list and I'm sure that you can, and have
thought (and possibly asked yourself) of many others like them.
The point here is not to discuss acting out of the mindset that
says, "when you're unsure of what to do, do something." But, to
maintain a constant focus on the purpose for acting. In fact, if
you were to refer to your life purpose process and the lists you
created to establish the "why" for acting, you will see the
difference. Remember, anything done that is in alignment with
our life purpose is what the Ninja - the Enlightened Warrior
engaging with his or her world - sees as an Enlightened Action.
And, anything that does not contribute to our life purpose - to
creating the life we want to be living - is a distraction.
Period.