Miyamoto Musashi
A new translation by Thomas Cleary including Family Traditions on the Art of War by Yagyu Munenori
• Miyamoto Musashi wrote the Book Of 5 Rings in 1643 AD.
• He wrote instructions on how a Samurai warrior should fight
• At age 13 he killed his first man and his last at age 29
• The 5 rings include earth, water, fire, wind, and emptiness
• Shin-ken sho-bu means to do something in deadly earnest
• Japan not united as a country until 1868 with the Meiji restoration.
• Jimmu Tenno was the first emperor of Japan. Jimmu means divine warrior
• Musashi never bathed, shaved, combed his hair, married, made a home, or had children
• He said keep calm in the midst of violent chaos
• Fought 60 sword duels and never lost one
• He said unless you understand others you can not understand yourself
• All of the sciences of warriors are called Martial Arts
• You should not have a particular fondness for any particular weapon or anything else for that matter
• Do not let others see into your mind
• Fixation is the way to death while fluidity is the way to life
• When an opponent attacks you let him do anything he wants as long as it is useless but prevent hem from doing anything useful
• Put yourself in your opponents position to see from his point of view
• Some people are pretentious talkers, with fancy maneuvers, with hands that may look good to people but there is no warrior heart.
• Some martial arts schools become theatrical while dressing up and showing off to make a living commercializing martial arts and therefore not the true way
• To cut someone down you can’t do this by twisting and twirling. These are useless things
• In my martial arts, there is no change in footwork. It’s just like walking along a road as normal
• In martial arts, speed is not the true way. When people speed rashly it is essential for you to do the reverse and remain calm and quiet and not be drawn in by them.
• The mind should be in passive mode. Control your mind and keep it passive while inducing your opponent to take the initiative.
• When you strike a blow do not let your mind dally on it. Strike again and again.
• “Hearing the sound of wind and water” means being calm and quiet while keeping an aggressive mood.
• Movement is “Yang” “Stillness is “Yin”
• It is sickness to be obsessed with anything, including getting rid of sickness. Tune the mind to get rid of such afflictions.
• Sickness means “attachment”. Attachment is despised in Buddhism
• When you are not consciously mindful, you will succeed every time. Not being consciously mindful however, does not mean being totally mindless but rather means a normal mind.
• Let your mind be free to go wherever it will.
• If you dwell on seriousness your mind is like a leashed cat
• To deliberately hold back spontaneous blinking indicates a much more disturbed mind than does blinking
• Perceiving with the eyes is called seeing, perceiving with the mind is called observation
• A hasty attack is an exceptionally bad thing
• Buddhism is a mater of realizing the emptiness of the mind
• To act independently outside the rules is called personifying great potential and great function
• Potential means to be thinking attentively to everything
• There are many things in martial arts that are in accord with Buddhism and correspond to Zen. There is a repudiation of attachment and avoid lingering on anything. Not lingering is called quintessential
• The normal mind not upset by anything is good for everything
• The normal mind keeps nothing in the heart but lightly relinquishes the past so that the heart is empty and therefore is the normal mind. Normal in the Zen sense means a “pristine” state not warped by affliction and environmental influence.
A recent History Channel documentary on Musashi provided some additional information:
• He died at age 62 of stomach cancer
• He was buried standing up which was the tradition at the time for Samurai warriors
• In WWII a Japanese battle ship was named after him
• He is the only person in Japan to have a railway station named after him
• He meditated during the course of writing the book of 5 rings before his death
• He was abused by his father and ran away from home at age 8
• Went to Kyoto and killed two brothers in a duel who ran a sword fighting school
• "Shinto" means way of the gods
• He said respect gods and Buddha but only rely on yourself
More notes and comments are in process of being posted..............................
