The pursuit of skill

[Biloxi23]

A certain swordsman in his declining years said the following: "In one's life, there are levels in the pursuit of study. In the lowest level, a person studies but nothing comes of it, and he feels that both he and others are unskillful. At this point he is worthless. In the middle level he is still useless but is aware of his own insufficiencies andcan also see the insufficiencies of others. In a higher level he has pride concerning his own ability, rejoices in praise from others, and lments the lack of ability in his fellows. This man has worth. In the highest level a man has the look of knowing nothing. These are the levels in general. But there is one transcending level, and this is teh most excellent of all. This person is aware of teh endlessness of entering deeply into a certain Way and never thinks of himself as having finished He truly knows his own insufficiencies and he never in his whole life thinks that he has succeeded. He has no thoughts of pride, but with self-abasement knows the Way to the end. It is said that Master Yagyu once remarked 'I do not know the way to defeat others, but the way to defeat myself."

Throughout your life advance daily, becoming More skillful than yesterday, more skillful than today. this is never ending.

from the First Chapter, "HAKAGURE"

YAMAMOTO TSUNETOMO

[benos]

Good stuff!

I bought that book after seeing in the movie Ghost Dog.

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