Ikebana experts [who practice the formal Japanese art of flower arrangement] speak of achieving a state where they discern the actual characteristics of the blossoms they'll be arranging. They merge with nature, so that the particular (the arranger) unites with the universal (nature). Martial artists also speak of becoming one with their opponent and even the universe itself. The ultimate aesthetic running through every Japanese Way is a naturalness in which the difference between the individual and the universe softens into oneness.

H. E. Davey, Living the Japanese Arts & Ways