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Open ended questions provide room for analysis and then syntheses while closed sets perceptions to a singular point of view. The various terse classics like the art of war, the tao te ching and the I Ching are all open-ended, they allow each individual and each group the opportunity to decipher and perceive their contents in an open-ended way so that the times, the culture and the beliefs of that individual and group can use the wisdom of the teachings toward the moment and situation to discover a way.
The Go Rin No Sho along with the Art of War by Musashi and Lao Tzu are open-ended terse teachings that span far beyond mere war into the daily lives of conflict and violence of the individual, the tribe to socially driven things so that survival is possible. In order to see the value of such things beyond their value as historical documents to the present moment means one must see them not as their titles would indicate but what their actual meanings will provide to the now, the moment and the moments situations as we travel through life.
Look at it as if entering a conversation with the masters, you ask open ended questions to promote conversation and that exchange along with active listening is how we learn, how we grow and how we evolve. I am beginning to see it as a process of analysis and synthesis as taught through Boyd’s Cycle for winning and losing, i.e., his patters and discourse. A comprehensive open-ended form of teaching that allows the mind to be creative and to achieve new thought processes that go way outside the box.
It is like Boyd’s discourse where he provides his insight to how a closed system vs. an open system works with emphasis on how change is possible in one vs. the other. One allows for change from within while the other not. This warrants further study of the Boyd system and remember that his system was synthesized from his studies of those very same classical art of war, etc.
It then becomes necessary in such diverse systems such as martial arts to realize whether the system of study is an open-ended system allowing for discovery, change and synthesis or one that adheres strictly to a doctrine and belief that disallows any change or synthesis of the old as blasphemous making it a closed system. Even if you join a closed system, if you allow your mind to remain open-ended you still learn from that closed system and then you leave, you either find an open-ended system or create one so that you can gather like minded open-ended individuals who will provide insight and input to what you bring to the dojo and then work diligently to analysize and synthesize all parties contributions into a one wholehearted way that provides you with valid and efficient ways to a better path. In one example, karate as a fense system against conflict and violence.
Ask any successful professional or professional organization how they improve so that when applying their trade they achieve success in goals of their duties and you will find professionals who gather, discuss, analysize and then synthesize new processes, strategies and tactics toward success. One such professional organization is the United States Marine Corps who embraced this type of philosophy and called in maneuver warfare, etc. Even in recent news it was the Marines who were showing actions that embraced the newest requirements of the job to bring in the female gender into areas once thought exclusive to the male gender and they are going deep to change terminologies to further that goal in the minds and hearts of the Marines. Knowing the Marines, like many professionals throughout human history, they will make it work and it will be successful for they would not change the path unless their analysis provided proof positive that it would work.
Embrace the old, analysize it to find its modern value to the individual and dojo while embracing synthesis so that the old becomes the new and the new achieves status of traditional, classical and old when the generations that follow join the way. It is the way of humankind, it is the way of nature and it is the way of the universe.
If you are a marital artist, if you have studied and embraced the teachings of the Chinese masters as well as others of like mind and if you have tried to use such teachings in your dojo then know that Colonel Boyd, USAF retired, also studied and embraced not just those Asian classics but those classics of other nations, cultures and beliefs to create what has become our contribution to the, “Arts of War.”
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