There is one transcending level, and this is the most excellent of all. That person is aware of the endlessness of entering deeply into a certain Way and never thinks of himself as having finished. . . Throughout your life advance daily, becoming more skillful than today. This is never ending.
from The Hagakure, Yamamoto Tsunetomo (William Scott Wilson, trans.), Kodansha America, Inc. (1983)
The entire point of this blog is improvement on the road I have chosen. By studying the stories, acts, and writings of noble warriors from the past, I hope to clarify my own thoughts about a life in harness and what it means for the rest of my life.
The Hagakure is especially instructive to someone in modern life. Tsunetomo wrote about a class of warriors who were all but forbidden to fight. One of his goals was to explain what it meant to hold the values of this culture’s cult of chivalry when there were no opportunities to put oneself to the test of the sword. We’ll return to his book often over time. What does it mean to hold a warrior’s values and live in peace?
Quills and Quintains 