We begin our lives in pieces. The fragments that become who we are are accumulated through experiences and triumphs, and eroded by failure and wrong lessons learned. Such is why the instruction of a child's virtue, the development of their mind in logic and empathy, and a regimen to perfect their physique must come together so that they can form the alloy of their idealized self.
To be anything less is to disgrace this gift of life you were given.
The same can be applied to how we seek to perfect our craft of war: beyond weapons, above weapons. We have our hands, our understanding, and our tongues to strike and break that which lies within, and our might to rend and ruin the whole without. But as said before: All things are of a final wholeness. So why cannot a word deliver a physical blow? Why cannot a style of violence be conveyed through rhetoric or base sophistry? Why cannot hypocrisy be identified and struck like an opening in someone's guard? And why cannot fists and feet carry the intent of enlightened understanding or compel shame in the shameless to unleash blows of emotional weight deeper than material harm?
They can, and they will, but only after you forge yourself into a proper whole, capable of bearing the burdens and blessings of the Final Way.
To reach this pinnacle, you must possess a style of expression, a style in kinesiology. The movement of violence, violence expressed by your body. You must understand the weakness and flaws of the mind, for consciousness is a theater of battle all to itself, and those who wield themselves poorly shall be wielded by their enemy in return.
Finally, one must possess the strength to fling forth their mind, their spirit, their strength and will. The Final Way is expressed through a myriad of patterns. It is an entombment, a craft, an art to this war.
At our foundation, we were meant to struggle and strive, and so we must have a vessel that strides beyond the limits of what this world has anchored us in. That mortal shell, that feeble flesh which rots and decays, is insufficient. The way you fight now must be of a purification, a higher order, a Platonic form.
Above mind, beyond strength, reforged of spirit, where the wound of words matches the wounds of bodies.
Perhaps you do not understand now. Perhaps the true meaning behind the Final Way is to be more than what a few words can convey. I tell you, seek perfection. Achieve dominance in the domains of the mind. Become a Psychic. Become a Gnostic of the Heart, a Psychologist who can strike and mend that which breaks within, and become a practitioner of any of the Martial Ways, and walk these paths in tandem until all three merge into one.
Once your spiritual forging completes, then you will understand. But then you are not at the end. You are at the beginning. And so, you may turn the following pages and continue your journey everlasting.
—Legend-Philosopher Melaia Kelhaus
www.royalroad.com
