Nabila Tabassum Chowdhury > Recent Status Updates

"Fixed formation is bad. Study this well."

"Whenever you parry, hit, spring, strike or touch the enemy’s cutting sword, you must cut the enemy in the same movement. It is essential to attain this. If you think only of hitting, springing, striking or touching the enemy, you will not be able actually to cut him."

"Fixedness means a dead hand. Pliability is a living hand."

"In strategy it is important to see distant things as if they were close and to take a distanced view of close things.'

"Perception is strong and sight week."

"Polish your wisdom: learn public justice, distinguish between good and evil, study the Ways of different arts one by one. When you cannot be deceived by men you will have realised the wisdom of strategy."

"With your spirit open and unconstricted, look at things from a high point of view."

"Be neither insufficiently spirited nor over spirited. An elevated spirit is weak and a low spirit is weak. Do not let the enemy see your spirit."

"Do not let your spirit be influenced by your body, or your body be influenced by your spirit."

"Both in fighting and in everyday life you should be determined though calm. Meet the situation without tenseness yet not recklessly, your spirit settled yet unbiased."

"Do not just read, memorise or imitate, but so that you realise the principle from within your own heart study hard to absorb these things into your body."

"If there is a Way involving the spirit of not being defeated, to help oneself and gain honour, it is the Way of strategy."

"Also by training you will be able to freely control your own body, conquer men with your body, and with sufficient training you will be able to beat ten men with your spirit. When you have reached this point, will it not mean that you are invincible?"

"1. Do not think dishonestly. 2. The Way is in training. 3. Become acquainted with every art. 4. Know the Ways of all professions. 5. Distinguish between gain and loss in worldly matters. 6. Develop intuitive judgement and understanding for everything. 7. Perceive those things which cannot be seen. 8. Pay attention even to trifles. 9. Do nothing which is of no use."

"You win battles with the timing in the Void born of the timing of cunning by knowing the enemies’ timing, and thus using a timing which the enemy does not expect."

"It is especially important to know the background timing, otherwise your strategy will become uncertain."

"In all skills and abilities there is timing."

"You should not copy others, but use weapons which you can handle properly. It is bad for commanders and troopers to have likes and dislikes. These are things you must learn thoroughly."

"You should not have a favourite weapon. To become over-familiar with one weapon is as much a fault as not knowing it sufficiently well."

"For this reason there are nowadays few traditional schools of archery. There is little use nowadays for this kind of skill."

"In short, the Way of the Ichi school is the spirit of winning, whatever the weapon and whatever its size."

"It will seem difficult at first, but everything is difficult at first."

"This is a truth: when you sacrifice your life, you must make fullest use of your weaponry. It is false not to do so, and to die with a weapon yet undrawn."

"When you appreciate the power of nature, knowing rhythm of any situation, you will be able to hit the enemy naturally and strike naturally."

"If you are following the true way and diverge a little, this will later become a large divergence. You must realise this."

"It is difficult to know yourself if you do not know others."

"The essence of this book is that you must train day and night in order to make quick decisions."

"What is big is easy to perceive: what is small is difficult to perceive."

"The principle of strategy is having one thing, to know ten thousand things."

"The spirit of defeating a man is the same for ten million men."