This article is contributed by COMMU忍(NIN)CATION.

In our previous columns, we explained that ninja were more like secret agents than combatants, that they used disguises to gather information, and that their ultimate goal was to protect their precious families and communities.

In this article, we will discuss the secret of how ninja avoided conflict and always carried out their duties, even at the risk of their own lives.

The Importance of Returning Home Alive

The most important thing for ninja was to return alive at all costs.

Let's imagine that you are ninja who has been detected in the middle of your mission. There are different ways this could play out.

Case1: You fight your opponent and win

➡  The defeated opponent will have a grudge against you and will try to get back at you. A negative loop occurs from there.

Case2: You fight the opponent and lose

➡  If your ninja identity is revealed, it immediately triggers a war. When ninja realized that there was no way out, the ninja would have his own face disfigured beyond recognition before he was caught. Additionally, ninja remained silent under torture.

Case3: You buy time with ninjutsu and escape

➡  For ninja, survival is the highest priority over pride or the results of their missions. As long as ninja remains alive, they could challenge again until they achieve the missions.

Avoiding combat whenever possible and returning home alive was an absolute requirement to fulfill the mission.

The secret to turning a strong mindset into action

It would have taken more than ordinary mental strength for ninja to carry out the seemingly contradictory task of being prepared to die under harsh conditions but also ensuring that they return home alive.　

Now, let’s get back to the main topic.

The secret to transforming this strong mindset into practical action can be explained through two activities ninja conducted.

The first is a ritual-like technique called kuji-goshinhou (nine-character self-defense), in which nine characters “Rin・Pyo・To・Sha・Kai・Jin・Retsu・Zai・Zen” are chanted — like an incantation — while hands are formed into a gesture.

This prepared their minds and hearts for the mission with the strong belief that the gods and Buddha were protecting them. This method was practiced not only by ninja but also by samurai during the age of provincial wars. This behavior seems to be similar to some routines that athletes follow before a game.

The second is meditation, which ninja practiced morning and evening.

You might be familiar with the benefits of meditation, as it has been reevaluated in modern times. Also, the ninja’s breathing method used during meditation has been proven effective through recent studies. There were two typical ninja breathing techniques: one for walking long distances and the other for calming the body and mind to facilitate introspection. The latter breathing technique was used during meditation.

No matter how well-trained experts are, if they are under too much tension, they will not be able to endure the stress and their performance will decline due to physical and mental drain. At a time when science and medicine were not yet in place, ninja used breathing techniques, meditation, and the nine-character self-defense technique to prepare and encourage themselves to carry out their duties.

Of course, in addition to this, they were careful about the food they regularly consumed and made full use of their knowledge of health, pharmacology, and interpersonal psychology.

Meaning of the Chinese character "忍”

I would like to conclude this series by telling you something.

Let's break down the Chinese character for "nin" in ninja.

The character for "nin" comes from the "blade(刃)" on top of the "heart(心)",

1) Always disciplined himself by placing a blade on his shifting heart.

2) He disciplined his reckless behavior by placing a blade in his own heart that could hurt others.

3) Expressing an unmoving and steadfast heart that does not move even when confronted with a blade, and so on.

Furthermore, ninja always kept the righteous(正) mindset(心) that they should never perform their duties for personal greed.

Although the ninja can appear and disappear at will and use deceptive techniques, the true purpose of their actions is to secure a "peaceful" life.

Even though times have changed, it is the same as what we want.

If you are interested in learning more about ninja

That's all for now, how were the ninja articles of this three-part series?　 There is a reason we tell you about Ninja in this way. This is because we believe that "learning the new from the old" will help everyone to live better in the present without losing sight of what is important even in today's unstable society.

We hope that through this article you have become interested in the existence of ninja and their way of life.

If you would like to learn more about ninja wisdom, please refer to the following seminars. Please feel free to contact us if you are interested!

We look forward to seeing you again soon!