The Trackless Road

Having seen the behaviour of fencers at competitions, arrogant and modest, fierce, angry and confident, I decided to see what a samurai thought of such behaviours. I personally dislike arrogance, anger and misplaced agression, as they often lead to bad fencing and bad habits for younger fencers. I consulted Yamamoto's book on The Way of the Samurai, and this is what he says:

At the lowest level of skill and ability, one thinks of himself and others as poor. He thinks this because he has mastered only a little. Needless to say, a person at this level is not at all useful. At the middle level , one is still useless, but he can at least understand that he and others have mastered only a little. At a high level, since a person has made something his own, he is proud of his accomplishment. And he is also glad of the praise of others. He grieves over the shortcomings of others. This kind of person is at least useful. At a higher level, one pretens to know nothing, yet others understand that he holds an upper hand. The majority of people cannot get beyond this level. Beyond this higher level, there is one further step: the level of the trackless road. If you travel deeper into the trackless road, infinite secrets will finally appear. Then you can never see the end of your mastery. Then you realise how lacking you are. You only have to go ahead with your intention of mastery in mind You go forward without pride and without humility

I don't need to explain this as it speaks for itself.