8 - The Kosho Mind
Kosho Chronicles Issue #8
To the Reader
You already know everything. That is the problem. You have studied, you have trained, you have built a framework of understanding, and now you filter everything through it. Whatever fits, you accept. Whatever does not, you reject. And you call that knowledge.
Mitose had a word for this. He called it prejudice. Not the kind people argue about on the news. The kind that lives inside your thinking, shaping every piece of information before you even have a chance to understand it.
The Teaching
In the manuscript, Mitose wrote something that took me years to understand. He said, "You will understand nothing if you look for differences. When you seek wisdom, look at the similarities. Ignore the nitpickers. It is not wisdom they seek. Rather, they seek to attract attention away from wisdom into themselves, by creating artificial arguments and disharmony."
The Kosho mind is one that is free from prejudice and opinion. That is the standard. Not technical skill. Not rank. Not how many years you have trained. The standard is whether you can receive information without your ego editing it before it arrives.
Everything we do in combat, Mitose taught, is based upon allowing your opponent to dwell on his prejudice, to build up his momentum and direct it toward that prejudice. Then you counteract the opponent in a place where he has no understanding. This is true on the training floor. It is also true in every conversation, every negotiation, every decision you have ever made while convinced you were right.
