Furuya Sensei posted this to his Daily Message on December 15, 2003.
Everyone is talking about the samurai and their mindsets these days so here is a story to illustrate the samurai spirit.
Once, a feudal lord and his retainers were hunting and he shot a large wild boar with his bow and arrow. As they approached their newly fallen prey, the boar suddenly got up and charged the lord. Everyone was surprised and jumped out of the way of the rampaging boar, but the lord's best retainer instantly drew his sword and cut the board down with a single cut.
The only comment to this story was that the lord said that he did not see anything because he was wiping the dust away from his eyes. What this means is that the lord was so ashamed of his retainers that they were surprised by the sudden attack of the boar and that they could only think to save their own lives, so the lord pretended not to see such shameful behavior. What this also means is that this one lone samurai had already determined in his mind to always be there to save his lord so he could act instantly without any thought at all.
For the samurai warrior, often there is no time to deliberate and think what is good or bad or what shall I do, this or that. This kind of deliberation and consideration of profit and loss is called akinai konjo (商い根性) or the "business mind" or the "calculating mind.” The samurai thinks about their actions and sets their minds so that at a moment's notice they don’t need to think because they already know what to do.
Of course, our world today is much more complex and it is important to make the right decision in everything that we do. Yet, like the samurai, some things about life and death, we should think about deeply and resolve the important questions in our heads before so that we can always be free of them and act at a moment's notice.
Aikido people do not fight nor compete, we should determine this strongly in our heads so that when the time comes, in a moment, without thinking, we do not resort to fighting. There would be no question about it because we have already thought about this question deeply and seriously and resolved ourselves beforehand. In this way, like the samurai, our minds would be set free to act instantaneously at a moment’s notice.