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Four Attacks
The four attacks are the direct attack, the counterattack, the changed attack, and the strategic attack.

In our school, a direct attack means when you face off with an opponent you strike him before he strikes you. A counterattack is when you deflect your opponent’s attack and follow up by striking. It’s called counterattack because you counter your opponent’s sword blow.

A changed attack is when you have attacked with a direct strike, your opponent counterattacks you, and you strike from a different angle. A strategic attack is a tactical strike at an opponent.

A direct attack may work even without expertise, but a counterattack won’t work without a considerable degree of skill and mental calm. Strategic attack is a maneuver of the resourceful.

The reason a direct attack may work even without expertise is that while victory and defeat depend on the level of training, the ease of using direct attack is that you strike first regardless of the opponent. Counterattack requires you to apply the technique on seeing the opponent’s striking sword, so you can’t do it if you’re inexperienced. As for a changed attack, since you launch it after you fail to land a blow and your opponent counterattacks, you can’t do it successfully until you’ve attained mastery.

Five Technicians
In our school the term five technicians means there are five types of martial artists, the aggressive, the clever, the technical, the calm, and the masterful.

The aggressive are those who come at opponents ferociously with overwhelming force, their minds so intent as to blast through rock.The clever mainly use their wits to strike opponents strategically. The technical are those who concentrate on winning by means of the techniques their teachers have passed on, plus the techniques they have worked out themselves. The calm concentrate on watching for an opening in an opponent’s defense to strike. The masterful overcome people with the subtlety of the imperturbable mind.

Being aggressive means excessive yang, facing opponents with stone-shattering force. Warfare focuses on yin. Yang is moving, yin is still. Stillness should be the focus in warfare. When yang, the mind moves; when your mind moves, you cannot win.

The clever figure out opponents strategically with their wits because they are ignorant of the principles of victory and the techniques of winning. There are these clever ones even among the inexperienced, and also among the highly skilled, but not among the masterful.

The technical are so called because they try to win with technique. The technical are better in a way than the aggressive and the clever, because the techniques taught in the various schools are all techniques for winning. To employ the techniques taught by your teacher is the basic idea of training; using techniques you’ve devised yourself on top of that is knowledge.

Of course, it is hard to win by virtue of technique while you’re still inexperienced. So to think the techniques transmitted by a teacher are useless is a sign of insufficient training. There are a lot of people who abandon techniques transmitted by teachers to rely on their wits, but as long as you are adequately trained, the techniques transmitted by a teacher are usable. These technicians can ultimately become highly skilled and even attain mastery.

Those who watch for opponents’ openings to strike are called calm because they are technicians who have arrived at the state where the mind is quiet. To gain victory on seeing an opening in an opponent is for the skilled, impossible when inexperienced. With experience, a technician can become calm.

People who win by the subtlety of the imperturbable mind are called masterful because they have reached the ultimate attainment. A master is a technician with an imperturbable mind.

One who attains calm can become a master. While the aggressive and the clever cannot reach the state of mastery, if they realize this principle, the aggressive reform their excess and the clever realize that wits don’t reach the principle of technique, so they shift their focus to technique and calmness. Then they can eventually reach the state of the supreme way.

As for the strategic attack of the clever, it’s all right to strike strategically on occasion while concentrating on technique and calmness, but when technique and calmness are in order, you realize you don’t need strategic attack and don’t rely on it.

The excess of the aggressive is the beginning of the loss of life. One should be wary of this. But even aggressiveness is a different matter if the aggressiveness is strategic while the inner mind is still and silent. This is something done by the highly skilled among the clever.

Outward Courage and Inner Courage
There is outward courage and there is inner courage.

Outward courage shows bravery in the exterior appearance, and in face of combat manifests the force to smash even iron and stone, In addition, one like this is normally vigorous and inclined to forcefulness, and has no regard for people, A man with the heart to tear even a wild beast apart, who appears to the eye of the ordinary person as a brave man, exemplifies outward courage,

Inner courage is courage that is not displayed outwardly but kept in the inner heart Unlike outward courage, this does not make the face stern and solemn and is not an inclination to forcefulness or a manner of speech, It refers to courage with a gentle face but a strong root,

Outward courage is like aggressiveness, while inner courage is like calmness, or mastery, Of course, when you reach the state of mastery, you are both outwardly and inwardly courageous,

The strength of outward courage is like fire; the strength of inner courage is like water, Fire is forceful yet weak, while water is yielding yet so powerful nothing can oppose it. One with outward courage, like fire, has a weakness; one with inner courage, like water, is extremely powerful,

The courage of the common man, and the courage of bloodlust, refer to outward courage. Inner courage is close to great courage. The courage of humanity and justice is the courage of the noble man, courage that comes from the Way.

The saying that “there is inevitably peril for the bold” refers to outward courage; there is misfortune for the outwardly bold that one must take care to prevent, If you are brave but you are not cognizant of humanity and justice, you will be antisocial, do harm to others, and bring injury on yourself,

Confucius said, “If a noble has courage but no justice, he becomes a rebel, If a commoner has courage but no justice, he becomes a robber,” So courage ought to be rooted in justice, those of unfailing bravery who are humane and just are few.

Confucius also said, ‘The humane invariably are courageous, but the courageous are not necessarily humane,” So it seems that the brave who are humane are few.

Adepts and Masters
An adept, one who is highly skilled, is one who has attained calm. A master, one who has arrived, is one who has attained mastery.

A technician at the stage of mental calm, thoroughly versed in technique and principle, is called an adept. There are also the highly skilled among the aggressive and the clever, but because of their ignorance of technique and principle they cannot be called adepts.

Technicians at the stage where the mind is imperturbable, thoroughly versed in technique and principle/are called masters. So-called experts are masters.

Subtlety
Subtlety is something found in masters, Beyond any rationalization, it cannot be written down or expressed in words.

For example, when Miyamoto Musashi was in warrior trainon his way to Owari he happened to pass by Yagyu Hyogo, Musashi stopped and looked back at him, Hyogo also stopped, and they looked at each other, Musashi said, “l’ve finally gotten to see a living man! You must be Hyogo, aren’t you?” Hyogo said, “Aren’t you Musasht?” Then Hyogo brought Musashi home with him, Musashi stayed at Hyogo’s house for a long time, merrily drinking wine and playing chess, the two never testing each other’s swordsmanship.

This sort of thing is subtlety without rationalization, mind-to-mind communication, Even if you asked Musashi what it meant to “see a living man,” Musashi could hardly explain it in words, This sort of thing is called subtlety.

Also, the fact that they never tested their swordsmanship was because they were both masters and each knew the other had no opening, no vulnerability to attack. This can be known without a contest, by behavior and speech.