The Spider Art of Deception

A Chapter by Sleiman Azizi

A short chapter from my recently Kindle published book.

The best of liars are the unquestioned masters of truth. As a true budoka is often seen as a mystery, he defies convention. A budoka works with truth, never against it. Liars, on the other hand, try to hide the truth. They become trapped by the webs they spin. A budoka relies on others to create the lies; he has no need to spin a web. He merely watches as the victims, rushing about to grab what they want, fall into their own. This is the secret of the ninja’s honesty; it lies in patience.

"Take your time. Enjoy yourself. Stop to take a look at the trees, the sky, the mountains. There’s no rush."

The ultimate technique is to win without fighting. More than a cliché it is the reality behind budo. Against an opponent who is prepared to wait, any chink in the budoka’s amour will be found out if he tries to compete. If you use strength, the stronger man will win. If you use your brains, the smarter man will win. If you use aggression, the more aggressive man will win. If you base your strategy on experience, the more experienced man will win. A budoka is a budoka because he embodies the martial adage of presenting weakness as strength. This is not a matter of pretending to be weak, but of being weak.

"Those who are strong must learn to lose that strength. If you do not, it will become harder and harder to remove it. Anything you put into it will be returned to you. Your own strength and skill will be what kills you."

The power of the ninja’s deceptive abilities has its foundation in not needing to be right. Comfortable with another’s ‘correctness’, the budoka can float freely without concern for position - wherever he finds himself is fine. Being prepared to be wrong is a powerful technique. With perceptive abilities, a real martial artist watches as others deceive themselves with their truths. Eternity has a greater grasp of truth than any one person. It is a courageous man indeed who can live his life without needing to be correct all of the time.

"You have to be able to live, even when everything else is fake."

© 2015 Sleiman Azizi

Author's Note

I'm intereste in how the layperson feels when they read these words.

My Review

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Reviews

Sleiman Azizi

The vast majority of martial arts books are either exclusive or based on fear-mongering.

In the first, you have to be a devotee of the art to even get past the first few paragraphs and in the second, you are admonished about the terribly dangerous world we live in and that without the book's insight you are in trouble.

I've tried to make this and my previous book accessible to the layperson. I've tried to make reading it subconsciously interesting. My hope is that any normal person, martial artist or not, will find that this book 'says something' but will not know just what that something is.

Posted 9 Years Ago

Rene Salinas

If I was to guess shown the text here and as the comments on the Author's note suggest how does it come across to me then I would say that this is an attempt concious or unconcious to develop the ideas found in Zen Buddhism. Especially then the idea that and here is were my relationship with the spiritual movement lays is the concept of not doing. I wish I knew the correct term in Japanese or Chinese or Indian but I don't think it matters. In this text then there seems to be an invitation to be aware how a master in this case of martial arts will flow spontaneously in response to the given circumstances. Not the thought of how much or the feeling of how little to react. Seemingly then often mistaken for passive rather than correct.

Thank You