The Comanche Warrior, The Samurai & the Continental Soldier by Mark Hatmaker

 

We will begin our visit with three Warrior cultures in reverse order and get a glimpse into a single attribute valued by all Warrior cultures, everywhere.

All three of our chosen Warrior stand-ins valued the attribute but each had a different way of reaching/developing the valued ability.

Our reverse order allows us to ascend the ladder of effectiveness/efficiency, that is, to develop an appreciation for the attribute and to see how each culture sought to deliberately develop and hone the razor-sharpening of it.

Only one of the methods allows, to my eye, a concrete fast track to development, but the sojourn with each Warrior culture acts as a bolster to this preferred method.

The Continental Soldier: Coup D’Oeil

Coup D’Oeil is the French correlate of our attribute. It translates literally to “stroke of the eye.”

It refers to the ability to sum and assess tactical situations with a mere glance or glimpse.

Its most famous iteration comes from the lips of Napoleon: “There is a gift of being able to see at a glance the possibilities offered by the terrain…One can call it the coup d’oeil and it is inborn in great generals.”

Continental military minds from de Folard to Hart, from von Clausewitz to Montgomery all felt that the supreme tacticians possessed coup d’oeil.

All also felt to varying degrees, with Napoleon, that it was a skill that was somewhat inborn, but it could be developed a bit by scrupulous study of terrain, battle topography, and an intimate familiarity with how table-top classroom tactics seldom translate to real-world contingencies.

So, we have a highly valued trait, this “stroke of the eye” assessment ability that is, to the continental view, “You either got it, or ya don’t.”

The Samurai: The Inscrutable Sword

Samurai battle philosophy/science also valued coup d’oeil but in this warrior culture the skill translates generally to the concept of the inscrutable sword.

An inscrutable sword is an opponent, tactic, intention that cannot be read prior to action. An inscrutable sword is not detected or predicted forward by a “stroke of the eye.”

An inscrutable sword is just as problematic to a military mind as the paper tactician who mistakes the paper map for the field, where a simple fact of widening contour lines can spell life or death for maneuvering.

In samurai thought the elite warrior wishes to move from seeing an inscrutable sword to a revealed sword, a sword that’s intentions can be read via all: eyes, foot positioning, degree of bend in the elbow, which fingers have blanched white due to grip choice on the sword hilt, etc.

The novice warrior does not even think to inventory such minutia.

The wannabe warrior spends so much time in “trying” to take it all in, the moment for action is gone—perhaps resulting in one’s own death.

The elite warrior takes it all-in, again, coupd’oeil.

Same concept as the continental soldier but here the Samurai offers an insight into how to develop the skill.

“Where the mind goes, the body goes; the body follows the mind.”

This simple phrase from Yagyu Munenori’s samurai classic The Book of Family Traditions offers us a bit of insight to this method.

“Where the mind goes, the body goes; the body follows the mind,” is often interpreted as “Our opponent will betray his intentions via his mind; if we read his body well, we shall find our opportunity.”

There is a wee bit of truth in that, but it forgets that the world of combat is full of feints, fakes, re-directs, obfuscations.

To Munenori “Where the mind goes, the body goes; the body follows the mind,” refers to Our Own Mind, Our Own Body—Not that of the Opponent.

Our skill in coup d’oeil increases because we place all intent in the attention with ZERO distraction or abstraction.

No inward cogitation.

Munenori goes on to express the difference between a novice seeing and a Warrior SEEING.

“The reflection of the moon on the water is an instantaneous phenomenon. Even though it is way out in space, the moon casts its reflection in water the instant clouds disappear. The reflection doesn't descend from the sky in a gradual way, but is cast at once, before you can blink an eye. This is a simile for the way things reflect in people's minds as immediately as the moon reflects in a body of water.”

The Warrior’s training is directed towards the killing of all distractions, assumptions, tactical planning etc.

These are the “clouds” referred to in the text. We must see at the “stroke of an eye.”

The samurai obviously sees coup d’oeil as a skill that can be developed more than the continental soldier.

The method of training is a twin track of hours of martial training and a like number of hours of non-ornamental zazen. [Samurai Zen is distinctly a different animal from the Zen popularized by Suzuki and others.]

If such a skill is to be developed, time must be spent.

The samurai give us hope but, still the prescribed method is a bit esoteric and calls for time.

But then again, all things do.

The Question to Ask: Is There a Simpler Way?

Which brings us to…

The Comanche Warrior: Tabe Nanika

Tabe Nanika translates to “Hears the Sunrise.”

It is an exquisitely lovely phrase—poetically redolent that belies its Warrior origins.

When one thinks of a sunrise, we typically envision [literally] with the visual mode. We think colors, and brightening, and angled shadows.

Tabe Nanika reminds us that each sunrise is accompanied by sound as well. The gradual music box of bird song as each species chimes in with its own voice at different times according to how that species reads sunlight distribution and temperature.

Though it refers to a visual element with an auditory component, Tabe Nanika is also meant to embody all the senses. We are called to smell the sunrise as dew on a sunrise may awaken the scent of petrichor in the soil as it moistens and warms. We may taste the dry tang of pollen as flowers awaken their “eyes” from a night of slumber.

We may feel the stirring of our arm hairs as the warming sun begins the tidal atmospheric waves of air that tell our day.

To the Comanche Warrior, coup d’oeil is not a gift of “Ya got it or ya don’t.”

It is also not a sit in meditation and ponder and hope it will manifest itself when you need it.

No, Tabe Nanika is an active skill that can be relatively easy to acquire via daily practice—this daily practice termed Suakhet’u is pragmatic and concrete.

It is not achieved via inward journeys—it is all outward sensory awakening that asks the Warrior in a gentle Suakhet’u Session to see, hear, smell, touch, taste, feel all.

It asks the Warrior to hear the sunrise and then rise from Suakhet’u and bring that mere 8-minutes of Sensorium Opening practice forward into the day.

Coup d’oeil is easily achievable.

We can remove “clouds” from our minds with no need of similes or metaphors.

We can simply follow an efficient and effective Warrior discipline and acquire what so many Warriors valued and vaunted.

For more information on The Suakhet’u Program.

Resources for Livin’ the Warrior Life, Not Just Readin’ About It

The Black Box Warehouse

The Rough ‘n’ Tumble Raconteur Podcast