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Yin and Yang
Military training is yang, extremely active. The time of impending battle is extreme yin, still and quiet.

When you are extremely calm on the verge of battle, even your facial expression does not change. You don’t fixate on the opponent; you don’t stare the opponent in the face. You don’t advance like crossing a narrow bridge but like walking down an open road.

One whose state of mind appears normal is a yin opponent. This is a superior technique, hard to oppose.

As for yang opponents, one displays rock-crushing force in his facial expression, a second embodies rage, a third tries to stare his opponent down, a fourth storms in and strikes with a loud cry, a fifth moves in and out forcefully. These are called yang opponents. The minds of yang opponents are moving, which makes them vulnerable. Nonetheless, a yin opponent may strategically become yang, so you always have to watch out.

Reality, Action, Groundwork
Groundwork means cultivating the techniques transmitted by your teacher to be able to maneuver freely, strengthen your body, and solidify your skills.

Action means knowing the underlying intent of the techniques transmitted by your teacher, mastering the principles of combat.

Reality refers to the state where you are single-minded and imperturbable after having successfully cultivated groundwork and action.

As an analogy, when a smith forges a sword, the preliminary forming of the blade is the groundwork, filing an edge on it is action, and the crossing of blades sharpened on a whetstone is reality.

One who has attained the reality, action, and groundwork is called a master.

The Physical Mind and the Basic Mind
Martial artists have a physical mind and a basic mind. The physical mind refers to knowing the principles of victory and knowing techniques but being unable to perform those techniques. The basic mind refers to mastery of the techniques and principles of victory and the ability to perform the techniques at will.

The reason the techniques that the physical mind knows do actually work is that the mind stirs. The reason the techniques known to the basic mind work is that the mind doesn’t stir.

The reason the mind stirring is called the physical mind is that when the mind is calm at a deep level it does not stir, but the mind becomes excitable when it floats uncontrolled, so when the mind is between the skin and flesh it is called the physical mind. The sense in which the mind unmoved is called the basic mind implies withdrawal of the mind from skin and flesh to settle it in the gut below the navel, unmoving-this is called the basic mind.

As an analogy, the basic mind is like eating delicious food, savoring its flavor, and swallowing it. The physical mind also eats, as it were, but the food stays in the mouth and doesn’t enter the stomach. When the mind lingers between skin and flesh and cannot be controlled, it becomes confused in emergencies. The basic mind, making both principle and technique its own, being
Single-minded and certain, opens an eye through the navel, so it Is not thrown into confusion in emergencies.

Practicing Swimming in a Dry Field
In contemporary bamboo-sword contests, even if one wins by one’s wits, there are a lot of martial artists who practice swimming in a dry field. What this means is that with swords made of bamboo covered with leather you don’t get hurt badly even if you’re struck or stabbed, so even a physical-minded martial artist may win by his wits. When it comes to a contest with real swords that can cause fatal wounds at a touch, it’s hard to get by with the wits of the physical mind. Contemporary cowardly physical-minded martial artists think they are masters if they in bamboo-sword contests with a little bit of theory. This is a big mistake. If you rest content with the small swordsmanship of bamboo-sword contests, you’ll get way out of line.

In any case, you should reflect on the principles of victory in combat with real swords and train yourself to be single-minded and undisturbed even when facing a powerful opponent.

Now at the present time there is no warfare going on, so there’s no trying out combat with real swords, and consequently there’s no way to know how strong or weak our minds will be, or how excited or calm, where real swords are used. Nevertheless, when you train your mind under ordinary circumstances, your mind will be calm and unafraid even with real swords.

Training the mind means, first of all, solidifying courage and getting rid of timidity. Second, it means self-sacrifice. There are traditions besides these, but they cannot be known without being taught by a technician with an imperturbable mind.

Solidifying courage means going out and spending nights in places such as mountain forests, graveyards, woods and rivers, places where apparitions appear. There are traditions about this; but even if you don’t know a tradition, it is worthwhile practicing. Confucius said that a noble man does not approach what is dangerous, so there may be people who think this practice goes against the Way. However, it is for escaping danger and for overcoming enemies, accomplishing great deeds, and sustaining steadfast loyalty, so it is not different from the Way of a noble man.

Anyway, though mental exercises can’t be perfected without a teacher’s instruction, since this writing explains the principles of mind, if you understand this writing well and always train your mind to be as is written here, this itself is mental training, so you should eventually attain an imperturbable mind.

Mental Posture
Although there are various postures in every school, such as upper, middle, and lower guard, posture is in the mind. When you are single-minded and sure as you face an opponent, that is posture.

Physical posture and sword position are of uncertain value; as you act on the moment, with nothing fixed, reacting to your opponent, the position of your sword is not to be relied upon.

Even if he builds an iron citadel and makes a secure fortress, if the commander’s mental posture is bad he won’t be able to hold it. When the mental posture is right, even without a secure castle there is no disorder.

Takeda Shingen held several provinces, but all of his life he used natural fastnesses for his citadel; because his mental posture was good he didn’t particularly need security in a castle. Yet not only did he maintain his holdings but all of the warlords in the land feared him. Such is mental posture.

Whatever form of posture or stance you adopt, your mind should be formless.