The Principle of Vulnerability in The Five Rings refers to those specific situations, external and internal, where your integrity is at risk. Virtually all situations involving trolls (See Help Basics - Trolls) when you are unseasoned or unprepared present the principle. Situations where your vanity and grandiosity get the better of you are all examples of vulnerability. But the normal risky situation, i.e., car racing or mountain climbing, may or may not present problems of vulnerability in the sense used here depending on the experience and wisdom of the player. Conversely the legions of trivia that lay waste to so many lives also do not pose real problems of vulnerability. Rather it is our obsession over trivia -- and the forces that lie behind the obsession--that are the source of vulnerability.
It is not necessarily bad to be vulnerable. In fact, the greater our vulnerability, the more vulnerable we can become. This corollary is clearly expressed in both Old and New Testaments. Jesus is fully conscious of his weakness, his vulnerability. When Satan tempts him with the riches and glory of the world, Jesus replies, "Get thee behind me Satan." And yet Jesus knows deeply his connection to God and permits his physical body to be sacrificed. The notion of the transcendence of integrity over changes in physical fortune is beautifully expressed in the Book of Job, "And though, after my skin, worms destroy this body yet in my flesh shall I see God."
Nothing attenuated or adorned -- simple objective reality.
But naivete is not the same thing as accepting our vulnerability. Chamberlain, Prime Minister of England, at the beginning of World War II was not acting with integrity when, misjudging Hitler, he returned to England to declare, "Peace in our time." Chamberlain in his naivete (vanity and arrogance) was simply unconscious.
An acute sense of true vulnerability is one important aspect of seeing the world as it is--nothing attenuated or adorned, simple objective reality. Try the following exercise.
Conscious Vulnerability: Five times this week you accurately picked up the signs of your vulnerability and what action you decided to take in response.
UnConscious Vulnerability: Five times this week you failed to perceive your vulnerability and only discovered it after you found yourself in a predicament.
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