Ninja Hobos / NINJAHOBOS

Timing in Strategy

There is timing in everything. Timing in strategy cannot be mastered
without a great deal of practice. Timing is important in dancing and pipe or string music, for they are in rhythm only if timing is good. Timing and rhythm are also involved in the military arts, shooting bows and guns, and riding horses.

In all skills and abilities there is timing. There is also timing in the Void. There is timing in the whole life of the warrior, in his thriving and declining, in his harmony and discord. Similarly, there is timing in the Way of the merchant, in the rise and fall of capital. All things entail rising and falling timing.

You must be able to discern this. In strategy there are various timing considerations. From the outset you must know the applicable timing and the inapplicable timing, and from among the large and small things and the fast and slow timings find the relevant timing, first seeing the distance timing and the background timing.

This is the main thing in strategy. It is especially important to know the background timing, otherwise your strategy will become uncertain. You win battles with the timing in the Void born of the timing of cunning by knowing the enemies’ timing, and thus using a timing which the enemy does not expect.

You must train sufficiently to appreciate this. If you practice day and night in strategy, your spirit will naturally broaden. Thus is large scale strategy and the strategy of hand to hand combat propagated in the world.

This is the way for men who want to learn strategy:

1. Do not think dishonestly.
2. The Way is in training.
3. Become acquainted with every art.
4. Know the Ways of all professions.
5. Distinguish between gain and loss in worldly matters.
6. Develop intuitive judgement and understanding for everything.
7. Perceive those things which cannot be seen.
8. Pay attention even to trifles.
9. Do nothing which is of no use.

It is important to start by setting these broad principles in your heart, and train in the Way of Strategy. If you do not look at things on a large scale it will be difficult for you to master strategy. If you learn and attain this strategy you will never lose even to twenty or thirty enemies. More than anything to start with you must set your heart on strategy and earnestly stick to the Way. You will come to be able to actually beat men in fights, and to be able to win with your eye. Also by training you will be able to freely control your own body, conquer men with your body, and with sufficient training you will be able to beat ten men with your spirit.

When you have reached this point, will it not mean that you are invincible?

The ninja also known as Shinobi had a set of rules which defined the way they operated and helped maintain their high stature and position in the feudal Japanese system. The code of conduct was important in helping the warriors keep their cool and not endanger the mission unnecessarily. The most important thing was for the Shinobi to be instrumental in achieving glory for their village or country. Everything else came after that.

Some of the rules are:

1. A shinobi must put their mission first. Nothing else could be prioritized than the mission. Family and personal gratification came second to the glory of successful mission.

2. Never shed tears. The ninja ideal was to achieve the emotionless and show of any emotion was considered a major weakness.

3. Commander’s instructions were to be followed to the latter. For every successful mission, there must be a leader to keep everyone else in check. Once a leader issued instructions, it wasn’t in the best interests of the ninja to defy them.

4. Seeing hidden meanings with hidden meanings is a must for the ninja. Have you ever watched the inception? It can give you a glimpse of how a ninja was supposed to think and pay attention so they don’t miss any clues. One has to remember that ninja operations involved high levels of secrecy and thus a sort of code language had to be developed. Any ninja worth his skills wouldn’t miss a clue that leads to another clue.

5. Ninjas must prepare before they have to. Just like the scouts, a ninja had to be always prepared. Attacks can happen anytime and being ready for the worst can help save your skin.

6. Warriors must never show a weakness. Just like the second rule where warriors never shed tears, any show of weakness was frowned upon. Ninjas were to work on making themselves emotionless as it made them more effective warriors.

While these rules were important to any student who wanted to become accomplished in nunjitsu, they were not infallible. Ninjas were still human and expelling all their emotions might be the Shinobi ideal, possible but not achievable to many.

These warriors were also to know that these rules could bend to fit the occasion. For example a female ninja could use her emotions to manipulate men and fool them to their own destruction.

The last rule that made you a true ninja was this: never giving up!