Yes here is the part of the blog where I analyze a certain thing and give my own personal opinion on it using my own life experiences, knowledge, yadda yadda yadda. The way I see the world I think is quite different then society's preconceived norms. I tend to gravitate towards thoughts and opinions that relate to me and discard anything that doesn't. I tend to categorize stories in to my own individual way of thinking either using experience, clarity for my brain, or just straight up intuition. This doesn't mean that my thoughts on a topic is set in stone. If it fits for me it fits for me, it doesn't necessary have to be politically "correct". This means I may re-edit some initial paragraphs if I gain more knowledge of a topic or just come up with different thoughts.
As of now I am giving my first on passages that pop out to me from books. I've got e-books downloaded exclusively and for free off the lovely thing that we call the internet. These books that I am currently starting to read or as follows: Hagakure: The Book of the Samurai, Tao Te Ching, & The Book of Five Rings. Of course I'll pull from more resources as I see fit, but this is a good place to start.
Today's entry will be pdf pg 4 on Hagakure and the quote is as follows:
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 and can also see the insufficiencies of others. In a higher level he has pride concerning his own ability, rejoices in praise from others, and laments 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 the most excellent of all. This person is aware of the endlessness of entering deeply into a certain Way arid never thinks of himself as having finished. He truly knows his own insufficiencies and 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 neverending.
Okay I was basically just skimming through this one and it caught my psyche for whatever reason lets analyze. So throughout one persons life there is an endless persuit of knowledge and one has to study learning many different life lessons and experiences throughout. As you go throughout life you might have excellent skills in a certain area and think you might know it all. But as the rest of the paragraphs describes there is never a state of being perfect at something. You must be humble because there is always someone out there that has more experience. Also, with the Master Yagyu quote perhaps that is a way of saying as an individual you know yourself more than you could ever know somebody else. So basically I think its a quote of having self-growth of yourself compared to all of the fallacies of another person. We can never walk in someone elses shoes. Have the strength to walk in your own
