Short interview with Rza during his past book tour. Interview
You consider Dr. Dre a master like yourself, what do two masters have to learn from one another?
Two masters always have something to learn. It’s like the master of the sword and the master of the spear. There is always something to learn. His approach will add on to me and mine will add on to him. You must realize first that you know nothing, but that you are a master. You couldn’t be unless you understood that fact. The 13th letter in the alphabet is “m” and it stands for master. Thirteen is one and three. The number one is knowledge and three is understanding. Now two is wisdom. You must pass through wisdom before you reach understanding. You can do something, but if I can’t see it, then I won’t understand it. As master you do not need to see, you know what 13 means and you understand. Dre and I could be in the same room for an hour and not say a single thing and nod our heads and understand what the other meant. That’s called mind-to-mind heart-to-heart.What does 36 and the death of O.D.B. when he was 36 mean to you?
Thirty six is a very important number. It comes from the 108 pressure points on the body. Thirty six of those points are fatal. Between each point is 10 degrees. Thirty six times ten is 360 like the degrees of a perfect circle, you see what I am saying? Even our calendar and our year has 360 days. A circle is the perfect symbol of the universe. Mathematically, it puts a limitation on the number. To get to the next number, you have to add one, or knowledge. Then you will have 37. Seven is perfection. Three is understanding, because you could know it and still not give a fuck. You would not know your true purpose. Three and six bring you to nine, which is born. It means you’re bringing it to existence for the rest of the world. The limit is your limit. My brother, who I love dearly, did not understand the equality. He did not understand the limitations of what he was doing physically to himself. You understand? It didn’t have to be like that, that was not predestined. He has been born into a different existence. Now how do we look at that? Ironically, his oldest son is 16. O.D.B. once said, “Stay up at night / Don’t sleep on your moon.” The moon is your woman, so don’t sleep on the moon. In one line, he explained the whole science of it. He used to stay up six days in a row. Many people emulate him across the hip-hop community in all ways.
