Mastery

Fear is often given to the wrong thing.

Men fear the assassin who appears from the shadows. They fear the sword that flashes before their eyes, the arrow that finds its mark, and the enemy who strikes without warning.

But these are only the things that can be seen.

Fear not the blade that strikes once. Fear the hand that has practiced a thousand strikes.

For a single strike may be luck. A hundred may be skill. But a thousand strikes are discipline.

The greatest warrior is not necessarily the strongest, nor the fastest, nor the most fearless. He is the one who has spent countless hours preparing for the moment when preparation is all that remains.

A blade does not become sharp because it wishes to be sharp. It is sharpened through repetition. So too must the mind and body be honed.

Every mistake is a lesson.
Every defeat is a teacher.
Every failure is another strike upon the stone.

Do not despise repetition because it is boring. The assassin who practices the same movement a thousand times may appear foolish to the one who practices it ten. Yet when the moment comes, the first assassin moves without thought, while the second is still deciding what to do.

Mastery is what remains when thought gives way to instinct.

Yet discipline is not the absence of fear.

Fear is natural. Even the bravest man feels it. Courage is not the destruction of fear, but the ability to act despite it. An assassin who claims to feel no fear may simply be too foolish to recognize danger.

Know your fear. Study it. Understand it.

For what you understand, you can prepare for.

And what you prepare for, you need not fear as greatly.

Do not seek victory merely because you wish to prove yourself stronger than another. Seek mastery over yourself. The greatest opponent an assassin will ever face is not the man standing across from him, but the weakness within himself: impatience, arrogance, doubt, laziness, and anger.

A thousand strikes will teach the hand to move.

A thousand failures will teach the mind to endure.

And a thousand moments of discipline will forge a warrior who does not need to boast of his strength.

Let others fear the blade.
Let the wise fear the hand that has mastered it.

For the blade is only a weapon.

The true weapon is the one who wields it.

Written by Zack_Rukh