* In Yui Shosetsu’s military instructions, “The Way of the Three Ultimates,” there is a passage on the character of karma. He received an oral teaching of about eighteen chapters concerning the Greater Bravery and the Lesser Bravery. He neither wrote them down nor committed them to memory but rather forgot them completely. Then, in facing real situations, he acted on impulse and the things that he had learned became wisdom of his own. This is the character of karma.
* The basic meaning of etiquette is to be quick at both the beginning and end and tranquil in the middle.
* The Buddhist priest Ryozan wrote down some generalities concerning Takanobu’s battles. A certain priest saw this and criticized him, saying, “It is inappropriate for a priest to write about a military commander. No matter how successful his writing style may be, since he is not acquainted with military things, he is liable to be mistaken in understanding a famous general’s mind. It is irreverent to pass on misconceptions concerning a famous general to later generations.”
* A certain person said, “In the Saint’s mausoleum there is a poem that goes:
If in one’s heart
He follows the path of sincerity,
Though he does not pray
Will not the gods protect him?
What is this path of sincerity?”
A man answered him by saying, ”You seem to like poetry. I will answer you with a poem.
As everything in this world is but a shame,
Death is the only sincerity.
It is said that becoming as a dead man in one’s daily living is the following of the path of sincerity.”
* This is among the sayings of the priest Banker. “Not to borrow the strength of another, nor to rely on one’s own strength; to cut off past and future thoughts, and not to live within the everyday mind… then the Great Way is right before one’s eyes.”
