As the beginner knows nothing about either his body posture or the positioning of his sword, neither does his mind stop anywhere within him... If a man strikes at him with the sword, he simply meets the attack without anything in mind... As he studies various things and is taught the diverse ways of how to take a stance, the manner of grasping his sword and where to put his mind, his mind stops in many places... Now if he wants to strike at an opponent, he is extraordinarily discomforted... Later, as days pass and time piles up, in accordance with his practice, neither the postures of his body nor the ways of grasping the sword are weighed in his mind... His mind simply becomes as it was in the beginning when he knew nothing and had yet to be taught anything at all... In this one sees the sense of the beginning being the same as the end, as when one counts from one to ten, and the first and last numbers become adjacent... ~ Zen master Takuan Soho (the similarities of inexperience and mastery, “The Unfettered Mind”)
