Board Thread:Episode Discussion/@comment-27234079-20200111162942/@comment-35434444-20200116161554

"While living, but like a dead man, throughly dead. Then, do as you will, whatever you do will be right."

There was a famous Zen book called Zen and The Art of Archery that discussed an archer so good with the bow that he could hit the target in pitch darkness.

Later Zen monks commented that this work was incomplete for a new talent had since arisen who was so good at archery, he couldn't hit the target in broad daylight.

I won't spoil the story by explaining why the monks had such an unusual opinion.

I bring this up because it discusses the basic problem of self consciousness that comes about as a result of the dismemberment of man's innate nature as allegorized by the departure of the gods. We compare good and bad, worry about which way life might turn, and get trapped oscillating from one extreme to the other.

I know a friend who, after I raised some criticism with him on his writing, explained to me how what he was really doing, though it indeed had faults, was still good work.

He had missed completely what I was trying to show him.

A man who makes a defence his work, in any way whatsoever, even if his case is really very strong, still betrays that he is fundamentally afraid of error and can therefore be put off balance.

What I was trying to show him was that he doesn't need any such artifice. He should be able to say, "I am a bad writer" without a hint of shame. Because someone who loves writing doesn't have to do it to impress anyone. He does it for his own sake. Bad writing is just as enjoyable for him as good writing. Skill and prestige is simply not an object to him and his work take on an unaffected innner vitality. Any attempt to defend one's work form criticism is at best redundant and at worse immature; a sophisticated way of not having to take criticism at all.

A writer who isn't afraid of being bad isn't afraid of judgement. He is like a man "thoroughly dead."He can neither be swayed nor embarrassed. If he takes critique, he takes it without resentment. If he doesn't take critique he makes no excuse.

"Above is the sword making you tremble. But go straight ahead, and there is the land of bliss."

What this means for RWBY is that if the people of Remnant can die to themselves in this way, it opens the door for co-existence (or some other form of resolution) with the grimm, that being a basic pre-requisite for co-existence with the gods, the grimm really being an extension of our own unconscious nature.