The secret of the shakuhachi

What is playing this flute about? What does make it so mysterious, so simple and yet so complex?
For me the playing the flute is the mystery. The flutes themselves can be so different and still be a shakuhachi, from a masterfull jiari to a quick made, but all natural jinashi... The learning of this flute can be seen as a joy -or frustration- in itself. One could try to reach goals, get really good, but it is just as sound to play your level, without need for that goal, to me this instrument is so non-goal like. Much unlike I have experienced with western instruments. This probalby has to do with the specific culture it originates from. But even in that there is no 'right' way, there are many ways, many visions. From the experimental to the very traditional. I love it! (from day one). The shakuhachi indeed found me, instead of the other way round and probably: there is no secret of the shakuhachi, the shakuhachi is the 'secret'.