Strengthen your Heart

As soon as you concern yourself with the “good” and “bad” of your fellows, you create an opening in your heart for maliciousness to enter.  Testing, competing with, and criticizing others weaken and defeat you.

-  Morihei Ueshiba

A Single Strike

Contemplate winning all your victories with only one strike….  The clear answer to all things is practice and more practice.

-  Miyamoto Musashi

Waiting in Strength

Those who are first on the battlefield and await their opponents are at ease;  those who are last on the battlefield and head into battle get worn out.

Therefore, good warriors cause others to come to them, and do not go to others.

-  Sun Tzu

Ebb and Flow

Each day of human life contains joy and anger, pain and pleasure, darkness and light, growth and decay.  Each moment is etched with nature’s grand design – do not try to deny or oppose the cosmic order of things.

- Morihei Ueshiba

Know your People

If you employ soldiers without sorting out the skilled and the unskilled, the brave and the timid, you are bringing defeat on yourself.

-  Sun Tzu

Respect of Elders

When you are listening to the stories of accomplished men and the like, you should listen with deep sincerity.  Within the tedious talk of old folks are their meritorious deeds.

- Yamamoto Tsunetomo

The Way of Strategy

There is no Way that can be approached and petitioned for immediate gratification.  The Universe does not work that way….  Each aspect of the craft must be examined over and over again without regard for time and energy spent, whether physically or mentally.  The “spirit of the thing” is what will guide a man to his own greatness.

-  Miyamoto Musashi