Kusunoki Masashige (1294-1336) came to a Zen monastery at Hyogo when he was about to meet the overwhelming army of Ashikaga Takauji ( 1305-1358) at the Minatogawa, and asked the master,
"When a man is at the parting of the ways between life and death, how should he behave ?"
Answered the master ,
"Cut off your dualism, and let the one sword stand serenely by itself against the sky!"1
This absolute "one sword" is neither the sword of life nor the sword of death, it is the sword from which this world of dualities issues and in which they all have their being, it is the Vairocana Buddha himself. You take hold of him, and you know how to behave where ways part.