Excerpt from the forthcoming book:
"These days, the sword has become a romantic curiosity of a lost age, forgotten even (or perhaps especially) by those who loudly claim to teach and practice the skills of the sword. The sword is an object of confusion and distraction, alternately worshipped by the ignorant, and dismissed by the learned. Even those who consider themselves Masters of the Sword are now confused, basing their teachings on illusions and incomplete transmissions. Despite their assertions, it has become obvious that the other Schools now hold rigidly to dead forms, empty of fire and life; calcifying and turning inward rather than growing towards the sun. As anyone who has seriously inquired into things unquestionably knows, Change is the only aspect of this world that is to be relied upon. As those of us who follow the martial Way have learned, if we change faster or better than our opponents, we prevail without question. The Way itself is Change, and nothing else. Why then should our Swords and Minds be forced to express themselves with rigid, unchanging methods? The ten thousand things are impermanent; how much more so our methods and techniques? We must abandon thoughts of clinging to forms and techniques; rather we must allow circumstance to stimulate natural and spontaneous expressions of our Mind through the Sword. It is with this thought in mind that the Piercing Cloud Method is presented in this manual."
"These days, the sword has become a romantic curiosity of a lost age, forgotten even (or perhaps especially) by those who loudly claim to teach and practice the skills of the sword. The sword is an object of confusion and distraction, alternately worshipped by the ignorant, and dismissed by the learned. Even those who consider themselves Masters of the Sword are now confused, basing their teachings on illusions and incomplete transmissions. Despite their assertions, it has become obvious that the other Schools now hold rigidly to dead forms, empty of fire and life; calcifying and turning inward rather than growing towards the sun. As anyone who has seriously inquired into things unquestionably knows, Change is the only aspect of this world that is to be relied upon. As those of us who follow the martial Way have learned, if we change faster or better than our opponents, we prevail without question. The Way itself is Change, and nothing else. Why then should our Swords and Minds be forced to express themselves with rigid, unchanging methods? The ten thousand things are impermanent; how much more so our methods and techniques? We must abandon thoughts of clinging to forms and techniques; rather we must allow circumstance to stimulate natural and spontaneous expressions of our Mind through the Sword. It is with this thought in mind that the Piercing Cloud Method is presented in this manual."
from The Manual of the Piercing Cloud Method by Jason Deatherage.