Cloud of Sparrows

The sages say happiness and sorrow are one. Is this because in finding the first, we also find the second?

I enter a time of much peril, and am more likely to fail and die than succeed and live.” “Those who succeed and those who fail are both destined to die.

When we let ourselves see only what we expect to see,” Genji said, “we view the contents of our own minds and miss what is truly before us.

Lack of fear is not the mark of courage. It is the mark of idiocy. Courage is knowing fear and overcoming it.

Never like anybody you can’t trust, Cruz said. You might think you’re a smart boy, you can like somebody and still keep your eyes open. But there’s something about liking that dismays your attention, I don’t know what it is. You allow yourself to like somebody you don’t trust, and one night soon enough, you’ll wake up to find an ax cleaved in the back of your skull, and you’ll have your own foolish liking to thank for it.

What will happen will happen, whether you know of it or not. Believe me, it is not always better to know." “Knowing must be better,” Shigeru said. “Then no one can take you by surprise.” “Someone will always take you by surprise, because no matter how much you know, you can never know everything.

How fragile life was, she thought, how unpredictable. We flatter ourselves, thinking we are actors on a stage, geniuses who write our own plays, extemporize our words, and shift major plot lines and the most subtle of nuances at our every whim. Perhaps wooden Bunraku puppets feel the same way. They do not notice the puppeteers who guide their every move.

You saved my life. You must let me thank you with a gift.” “I could just as well say you saved mine. Neither of us would have survived without the other.” “Then you owe me a gift as well. I will give you Apple Valley. What will you give me?

Crisis changes people,” Genji said, filling Heiko’s cup in turn. “If they are fortunate, crisis shows them what truly matters.

All true communication, even between two people speaking the same language, requires translation," Genji said. "In the end, our hearts must hear what cannot be spoken.

Words can damage. Silence can heal. Knowing when to speak and when not to speak is the wisdom of sages. Knowledge can hinder. Ignorance can liberate. Knowing when to know and when not to know is the wisdom of prophets. Unimpeded by words, silence, knowledge, or ignorance, a fluent blade cuts cleanly. This is the wisdom of warriors.

When we let ourselves see only what we expect to see," Genji said, "we view the contents of our own minds and miss what is truly before us.

The lack of fear is not the mark of courage. It is the mark of idiocy. Courage is knowing fear and overcoming it.

The samurai all practiced the disciplines of the Zen sect, a religion without preaching, indeed without any doctrine she could perceive, all serious and grim and silent. Was it a religion at all? She once asked Genji to explain it to her, and he just laughed. There is little to explain. I only play at it. I am too lazy to truly do it. What is done? He sat in the contortionist position called the lotus, with each foot on the opposite thigh, and closed his eyes. And what is it you are doing? It seems to me you are doing nothing at all. I am letting go, Genji said. Letting go? Letting go of what? First, bodily tension. Second, thoughts. Third, everything else. To what end? You are so much a person of the West, Genji said, always thinking of ends. The means are the end. You sit. You let go. And once you have let go, then what? Then you let go of letting go. I don’t understand. Genji smiled, uncrossed his legs, and said, Old Zengen would say that’s a good beginning.

She looked down and saw Genji on his warhorse, and it was he who was out of place, not herself. The incongruity of a samurai in her orchard made her laugh. Her own laughter brought her back. Coming back, she began to weep. “My home was in Apple Valley,” Emily said. “Another Apple Valley.” After a time, Genji said, “This place was yours before you ever saw it.

Some say there is no difference among the barbarians, that they are all the same offal-eating abominations. This is false. The Portuguese will trade guns for women. The Dutch demand gold. The English want treaties. From this, you should know that the Portuguese and the Dutch are easily understood, and the English are the most dangerous. Therefore, study the English carefully and ignore the others. SUZUME–NO–KUMO (1641)

Never-ending ambiguity is the essence of our understanding.

I know the meanings of fewer and fewer words with every breath. Soon the only sensible thing I will be able to say is nothing at all.

No one's being excludes every possibility.

Heiko never ceased to marvel at how easy it was to deflect men. All it took was a little show of silliness. They heard giggles, they saw smiles, they inhaled soft scents rising from the folks of silken cloth and they never noticed the hard glint in the eyes behind the girlishly fluttering lids.

Perhaps it wasn't so important to understand after all. Perhaps what was most important was to care.

Love tends to simplify the most complex and difficult of situations.

We live in a world of myriad conflicting loyalties. It is not purity, but the nature of the balance we achieve that displays our true character.

The katana has been the weapon of the samurai since time immemorial. Consider the inner meaning. Our blade is honed only on a single edge. Why? It is because with the dull edge against our flesh, the katana becomes our shield. This cannot happen with a two-edged sword, One day, in the midst of a melee, you may owe your life to the dull edge rather than the sharp one. Let this contrast remind you that attack and defense are one.

No sooner did Hide have this thought than he rejected it. He could no longer indulge in self-doubt. His lord had appointed him to this post. To doubt his ability to carry out his duties was to doubt his lord. Loyalty demanded that he believe in himself because the lord believed in him. When he experienced one of his many faults, he must not endeavor to correct himself, to become the man his lord saw within him. Such was his obligation. He stood. His posture straight and confident.

The discipline of war was a near neighbor to the abandon of love.

Fate is fate," Stark said. "It's there. It doesn't change. We just don't see it until we walk into it. Or it walks into us.

El conocimiento puede ser un freno. La ignorancia puede liberar. Saber cuándo saber y cuándo no saber es tan importante como un acero bien templado. Suzume-no-kumo, 1434

Shall we surrender?' he said mildly. 'I think we should. After all we outnumber him only fifteen to one, we have only muskets to oppose his bow, and we are surrounded. Or at least I think we are. How is it that one man can surround fifteen? Please clear up this mystery for me.

No todas las batallas se ganan avanzando. No todas las retiradas son derrotas. Avanzar es una estrategia. Retirarse es también una estrategia. Una retirada debe realizarse