The Zen sword masters say, “If you have to draw your sword, you’ve already lost the battle.” If a situation that we’re responsible for has gone so far that the only way forward is by violent destruction, then we have made some blunder along the way. Once we have destroyed something it is more difficult to engage what is left. Anyone who thinks it’s their job to hack away at the world with their sword in the hope of waking people up and getting things moving dulls their blade and creates a culture of fear and resistance.

But there are more ways than one for us to use our sword. Both kindness and directness can also be extremely sharp. Before Nelson Mandela was elected president of South Africa, he invited the leader of white armed resistance, General Viljoen, to meet in his living room (see post Finding Allies at Work).  Mandela’s disarming hospitality and cordiality, the genuine kindness with which he served  his enemy tea, cut through the general’s initial resistance. Then in the course of the conversation, when the general said that he and his white followers had the power to stop the upcoming election by violence, Mandela replied, with great directness but without raising his voice, that they could not possibly hope to win. The black and coloured population would never give up their new freedoms, they would resort to guerrilla operations from the bush, and any white armed resistance would lead to decades of civil war. “Is that what you want, General, for your children and your grandchildren?” The general said no, and with that word, the possibility of civil war was defeated. Mandela had not drawn his sword, but he had pulled it an inch out of its sheath, showing the blade. It was enough.

The Aikido master Wendy Palmer talks about the two swords. There is the sharp sword, sharp enough to cut something away. And there is the sharpest sword, sharp enough to cut something into place. When we cut with kindness, intending to protect the enemy as well as ourselves, we cut into place a decency and clarity that has the power to overcome even the most entrenched obstacles. We cut into place the power of our shared human heart.