You must accept the fact that there is no help but self-help. I cannot tell you how to gain freedom since freedom exists within you.
The intangible represents the real power of the universe. It is the seed of the tangible.
We are told that talent creates opportunity, yet it is desire that creates talent.
The martial arts are ultimately self-knowledge. A punch or a kick is not to knock the hell out of the guy in front, but to knock the hell out of your ego, your fear, or your hang-ups.
In combat, spontaneity rules; rote performance of technique perishes.
To tell the truth, I could beat anybody in the world.
Any technique, however worthy and desirable, becomes a disease when the mind is obsessed with it.
Even today, I dare not say that I have reached a state of achievement. I’m still learning, for learning is boundless.
To me, the extraordinary aspect of martial arts lies in its simplicity. The easy way is also the right way, and martial arts is nothing at all special; the closer to the true way of martial arts, the less wastage of expression there is.
A self-willed man obeys a different law, the one law I, too, hold absolutely sacred the human law in himself, his own individual will.
When one has reached maturity in the art, one will have a formless form. It is like ice dissolving in water. When one has no form, one can be all forms; when one has no style, he can fit in with any style.
Once I slow down because I think I have reached my peak, then my skills will go nowhere but down.
To know oneself is to study oneself in action with another person.
Put ‘going the extra mile’ to work as part of one’s daily habit.
Defeat is a state of mind; no one is ever defeated until defeat has been accepted as a reality.
He who wants to succeed should learn how to fight, to strive and to suffer. You can acquire a lot in life, if you are prepared to give up a lot to get it.
If I should die tomorrow, I will have no regrets. I did what I wanted to do. You can’t expect more from life.
Zen is not “attained” by mirror-wiping mediation, but by “self-forgetfulness in the existential ‘present’ of life here and now.” We do not “come”, we “are.” Don’t strive to become, but be.
It’s not what you give, it’s the way you give it.
Never waste energy on worries or negative thoughts; all problems are brought into existence – drop them.