The 24 Principles ⛩ Book of Five Rings | Summary 1/2

Musashi he's uh who wrote the book of five rings it's a famous Japanese Samurai do you know who he is why is good in no show so popular is it all hype or is there something deeper what follows is a thorough breakdown of every principle I see contained within the book I struggle to call this a summary as it's almost as long as the book itself maybe we can call it a meditation as that word does well with the algorithm now gurino show was written in 1645 in a land language and culture worlds apart from

my own in summarizing it some of my own worldview unavoidably comes through so if you're ever in doubt about the veracity of something go back and check the original to make your own mind up the translation I used was by Alexander Bennett that said I have genuinely tried not to distort the meaning it's easy to get carried away in such summaries and begin talking of crushing your business rivals or seeing Dave from sales driven before you and hearing the lamentation of his women but I have done my best to avoid this at times I do

offer some suggestions for how Musashi's words can be applied to the 21st century but hopefully when I do it's clear these are my own thoughts and not those of a 17th century Samurai you can take them or leave them Musashi structures his book in five Scrolls or rings represented by the elements earth water fire wind and ether very broadly these denote grounding adaptability combat perception and practicality and Transcendence my summary reorders the concepts from each of these Scrolls allowing those with strong connections to flow on from one another I've marked all Concepts and quotes with

an elemental marker to indicate their source with disclaimers and throat clearings out the way let's begin what follows are the principles of the Musashi's way 1. generality across disciplines having attained the essence of the way of combat strategy my practice the disciplines of many Arts without the need of a teacher in any of them while there are many Arts each with their own skills there is a broad way which is applicable to all mastering the broad principles associated with this way allows one to excel across the board to know one way in the broad sense

means you will find commonality in all of them therefore acquaint yourself with all Arts know the ways of all vocations I teach that the warrior must practice his craft in such a way that it is practical and functional in all things and at all times for this is the true way of combat strategy in addition good strategy is generally applicable on all scales large and small although the principles I outlay here are explained from the perspective of individual combat it is important that they be interpreted as equally pertinent to battles between armies of ten thousand

men in this sense the way Musashi teaches is not something confined to the training hole It encapsulates All Elements of Life all the time as such Mastery is a continuous practice you become what you continually do so to become masterful you must practice Mastery at all times not just during training you need to live it the mindset in the way of combat must be no different from one's normal State of Mind in the course of your daily life and when engaged in strategy there should be no change whatsoever in your outlook this means your mindset

focus and drive should be the same in everyday life as during training or combat with all martial art postures it is essential to maintain a combat posture in your everyday life and an everyday posture in combat one mindset for this is to view the universe itself as a constant sparring partner it tries to throw things in your path to disrupt you and Spark mental resistance this can happen at any time and at any place so you must constantly be on your guard against it but do not read into this that you should be agitated or

aggressive always maintain correct mental and physical posture on physical posture Masashi says the line of your head and nose should be straight with the chin protruding slightly the neck is upright with the nape tensed shoulders lowered back straight backside in and with the feeling that your whole body from the shoulders down is a solid entity push down from the back of your knee to the tips of your toes and thrust your abdomen slightly forward so that your lower back does not stoop modern research has demonstrated how conscious adjustments to physical posture can directly influence mental

well-being considering the sedentary life many of us now lead this feels very relevant on mental posture Masashi says your mind should be expensive and direct devoid of tension but not at all casual staying centered is a popular term in usage today it is echoed in Musashi's writings when he advocates for a balance between High Spirits and relaxation he cautions against being driven by emotional states but equally against relaxing to the point of lethargy keep your mind centered not leaning too much to one side swaying serenely and freely so that it does not come to a

standstill in moments of change both the high-spirited mind and the lethargic mind are signs of weakness Musashi's view is compatible with the stoic sense of acknowledging events for what they are and choosing how to react rather than being driven by emotion such behavior requires control over your spirit a warrior obviously needs Spirit but Musashi believed control over it was equally as important forger spirit that seeks Victory through the application of strategic wisdom he dedicates entire sections in a few of his books to discussing shouting as a form of intimidation however he also mentions it is

not something to be done at all times to shout at your opponent does not mean that you are yelling all the time the important point is that one Spirit should not be unbounded but rather marshaled and directed like any other Force there are times to present a Khan Spirit to draw an enemy in keep perfectly composed as you present him with a feign sign of weakness and times to explode to overwhelm them another way is to free your mind with the sole intention of routing the enemy from start to finish and win with a spirit

brimming with energy you must have both the strength of spirits to do this and the strength of mind to rein it in properly engaged Spirit alone can Crush an opponent before an engagement begins overwhelming the mentally and carrying them into submission beat them just by looking with your eyes with your spirit attuned to the way you will triumph over the enemy with your mind shout down the enemy's vitality what's more when an enemy falters it is important to crush their will to fight before you consider them beaten raise the enemy's Spirit by ripping it apart

so that he is defeated Beyond doubt take care to confirm this this can be accomplished by the use of a sword with the body or with the mind there is not only one way to achieve this if he is not pulverized his spirit will remain naturally aligned with this is the principle of belief in yourself seeing yourself as strong and capable of winning never contemplating defeat to crush is to see your opponent as weak and yourself as strong and smashing him to bits in large-scale strategy irrespective of their number the enemy will show their vulnerability

if they hesitate or are disoriented at this point crush the enemy from the top down overwhelm them with a burst of energy as if to push them back and obliterate them consider how this relates to modern sports science and practices of visualizing success to improve physical performance a recognition of the connection between mind and body is only something that has recently returned to Western thought Musashi goes on to point out that such a spirit is the only viable way to defeat multiple opponents it's not feasible to defeat them conventionally rather you should begin by attacking

the strongest on one side then as he is pushed back alternates to attacking the strongest on the other show no intention whatsoever of retreat and use an overwhelming Spirit to force them into submission when fighting alone against several opponents do not try to defeat each side when the enemy is pushed back in One Direction turn and attack the strongest opponent on the opposite side sensing the Cadence of your opponents move as if zigzagging your way down a path from left to right according to their reaction in a rhythm that suits you after determining the condition

of your enemies disappear among them and strike with no intention whatsoever of pulling back such a spirit requires not only absolute confidence in yourself but also an absolute commitment to any task once engaged commit with single-minded resolve to follow through to your mark and attack without deviating for example even if you have to deflect the whole world the flight of your sword must not diverge from its path purge yourself of fear this implies always holding the intention of success from a stoic perspective we are not always in control of outcomes but we are in control

of our intentions and surprise surprise intending to succeed makes us more likely to bizarrely it's easy to slip into the habits of never committing and almost planning to fail either due to low Spirits or just to avoid ridicule if you never try after all you can't be accused of failing unfortunately starting with the expectation of failure leads to weak non-committal action so do not set out to lose in the words of Masashi the way of my school is to win no matter what of course we're not in a life and death situation you do need

to temper this mentality with the degree of common sense not to mention morality but the notion of steadfastly holding the intention of success should not leave you this leads on to the importance Musashi placed on maintaining Focus do nothing which is of no use is an oft-repeated line associated with Masashi seen to epitomize his unwavering commitment to focus it is actually from his decodo however it does neatly represent a thread of the book of five rings avoiding everything which is of no use is likely an impossible Target to truly achieve but the point is to

stay vigilant against Wayward action knowing that even one such case can lead to a lifetime of bad habits what differentiates this way from others is the intrinsic risk that an error of judgment or a moment of confusion will plunge you into bad habits such areas of judgment can propagate and compound over time all the while you mistakenly believe you are being disciplined it's only after some time and when compared against the straight path that the true degree of the era becomes apparent Wayward spirit you may believe that you are practicing your discipline conscientiously and are

on the right path but you will deviate from the true way if your mind wanders departure from the truth becomes apparent when observed from the straight path ashi's approach was not to even contemplate Wayward action as an option to put all such considerations out of his mind when something is not an option it cannot tempt you think never to Veer from the way train unremittingly in the way the warrior must seek to put the way into practice each hour of every day without tiring or losing focus in Modern Life we have more opportunities than ever

for Wayward action having them around and attempting to resist them makes life more difficult than it need be it is easier to maintain Focus if you remove distractions entirely in doing so you no longer need to resist them delete social media throw away unhealthy food downgrade to a dumb phone put money in a locked savings account Etc such actions allow you to remain focused on what truly matters it does however require directness of intention and practicality over form the direct path is the soul of combat without the mind of direct path your swords will be

lifeless the principle of knowing your goal and heading directly towards it is fundamental to masashi's way it constitutes a large portion of his criticism of other schools and is decidedly summed up in the line take hold of your sword with the intention of cutting the enemy one might think this to be rather obvious what else would I head toward you might say than my goal but in practice it's easy to either lose sight of your goal or become fixated on the intermediate steps rather than their intended purpose for example in adopting a combat stance it

is easy to fixate on it and forget that it should only serve as an aid to your true purpose of cutting the enemy when assuming any of the stances do not dwell too much on what it is think only of cutting the enemy Musashi referred to this specific case as stance no stance the idea being that while stances existed and were important they were not where your focus should lie you must not focus your mind on assuming a particular fighting stance this is why I teach there are stances but there is no stance the concept

however extends to everything all stages of a sword fight are in service of cutting the enemy and obsession over any other part even the art of striking itself is distraction if you become obsessed with the act of parrying slapping striking sticking to or pressing your opponent's weapon the subsequent strike will lack vigor the principles of heading directly toward a goal and staying focused on it rather than its intermediate steps are clearly transferable to Modern Life you have only to replace adopting stances with clearing emails to see an example of it granted with a less morbid

end goal in fact one could make the case that since the general complexity of the systems and organizations we operate in today has increased it's both harder to maintain focus and easier to hide our lack of progress from ourselves and others when we don't generally any work which doesn't directly move us towards a goal can be thought of as busy work examples include emails to-do lists meetings research planning filing and tidying such things do occasionally need to get done but indulging in them amounts to procrastination as it usually means we're prioritizing comfortable but unimportant tasks

over hard but important ones it is illogical to dwell on small weak techniques as you prepare yourself to slay an enemy small techniques are particularly inappropriate when you are suited in armor in both combat and work we should instead prioritize function over form and do what works over what is correct or clever again this sounds simple but the mechanisms by which we undermine ourselves are numerous ego can mean we focus on form over function to try and look good an example of this would be pretentious emails and meetings reverence can mean we respect an art

too much to question the functionality of a form think martial arts or the following of any Guru and ignorance can sometimes mean we simply don't know the purpose of a form and so can only mimic it this last mechanism can be seen in creators mimicking the long intro styles of TV broadcasts without realizing such frivolities serve no purpose online once any of these practices become ingrained tradition and habit can mean they never get changed with the form of things like recurring meetings and TPS reports carrying on long after their function has entirely vanished it is

bad to inhibit yourself and settle on a set stance finally sometimes the sheer overwhelming complexity of a project can mean we just lose track of our purpose an example of this would be an entrepreneur concerning themselves with the form and accoutrements of starting a company rather than the product they're bringing to Market in all cases a form is established to serve a function but over time Focus shifts onto the form and the function becomes lost maintaining focus and remembering to question the function of things can counteract this ironically though questioning everything can be just as

paralyzing as questioning nothing so this very form of constant questioning must itself be tempered with practicality in mind Musashi's Mantra of take hold of your sword with the intention of considered before every major action could perhaps serve as a nice grounding method to do this with directness in mind Musashi offered his one Count Strike take him with a single Blow Off the Mark before he has time to contemplate drawing his sword change his stance or launch an attack this strike aims to end engagements before they begin it encapsulates the idea of directness and not over

complicating as well as the control over Spirits necessary to obscure one's intention the Striking Rhythm called one count itsubishi is to not let your will manifest in your body and mind and strike from the void the principle of immediate action can be extended to Modern Life with respect to our natural tendency to overwork Solutions and balloon projects out of proportion a famous entrepreneurial refrain from Peter Thiel goes if you have a 10-year plan of how to get somewhere you should ask why can't you do this in six months you could also consider the value of

channeling your spirit such that you strike and complete tasks without feeling the need to First announce your intentions to the world the principle of being judged by your actions rather than your words implied within the one Count Strike is the importance of not over complicating there are just five sword stances and mastering them is enough for success practicing these five techniques thoroughly each day and honing your skills in The Fray will lead to certain victory his point here is that while many stances exist they are all variations of the fundamental five and by grasping and

drilling these five you will gain victory by attentively studying these five exterior forms you will grasp your own sword pathway and will learn to deal with all manner of attacks thrown at you by the enemy appreciate that there are no other forms in the toll apart from these five be sure to drill yourself in them this principle of Simplicity can be applied to individual Arts such as sword fighting or extended to life in general whatever the level of detail the concept is there are usually a few fundamental forms from which more Advanced Techniques derive and

which if mastered alone will lead to success that being the case do not become distracted researching special techniques or forms when you're not a master of the fundamentals do not over complicate as an example in strength training the bench press deadlift squats shoulder press and pull-ups are sometimes referred to as the big five the number five is incidental but the point is the same a small core set of compound lifts can deliver most of the results necessary for progress and it's more important to dedicate time and effort to these than to researching secret techniques expanded

to life in general there are core Basics to get right to get life in order and drilling into obscure techniques or forms tends to be a distraction it is at once disheartening and liberating to recognize that at any time you have it within yourself to make progress and that you are not lacking knowledge of what to do but rather momentum in enacting it the core Basics are known to you it's the will to action that is the challenge broadly this idea Bears some similarity to the modern Pareto Principle however it's more to do with the

existence of Base forms upon which all other techniques are built rather than of the diminishing returns described in 80 20. associated with avoiding over complicating is the call to avoid developing teachings for their own sake Musashi's primary criticism of other schools was that they deviated from directness and created forms specializations and teachings in order to justify themselves commercially they create Myriad forms for sword work conveying the various stances as exterior and the way as interior teachings such schools have veered from the true path of strategy such inflation of techniques tends to occur as edifice is

built around teachings one starts out with the intention of studying combat but by taking on students one's aim morphs into running a school success then comes in increasing student numbers rather than perfecting the art today we might call this Mission drift or goal displacement of course it can also come about for purely commercial reasons as Musashi says teaching Myriad saw techniques is essentially exploiting the way as a commercial Venture by bamboozling novices with countless moves teachers make them believe that their Training Method is profound this approach to strategy should be rejected thinking there are assorted

ways to strike a man with a sword is indicative of a confused mind there are not so many ways to cut in the world real world combat tends to serve as a corrective mechanism for hot air practitioners rapidly discover what does not work when their lives depend upon it even if it's the very last thing they discover at the time Musashi wrote his treaties Japan had been experiencing a period of relative peace possibly this accounted for the rise in commercial schools he mentions as there were fewer corrective mechanisms to highlight their flaws other schools extol

the virtues of their colorful flowery techniques like produce pedals to make a living is this not a deviation from the true way an interesting parallel can be seen with the modern UFC prior to unrestricted combat there was much debate around which martial art was the best and even a certain mythical Aura surrounding many of the Eastern ones following the UFC the debate largely ceased what did and did not work had been tested and the spectrum of practical Styles collapsed in the words of Musashi they have no validity when viewed from the perspective of worldly truth

a secondary mechanism by which false teachings can arise can be found in modern psychology it's long been demonstrated that humans give emotional answers first then seek to justify themselves with logical rationalizations now consider the topic of where to place the Gaze during combat Musashi says certain schools maintain that the Gaze should be fixed on the enemy's sword others teach students to focus on the hands the face the enemy's feet and so on setting your Gaze on specific points will cause uncertainty and will adversely affect your strategy it's likely that after a lifetime of combat a

fighter learns to Intuit an opponent's behavior and predict his strikes but when asked to explain how he does so he'll rationalize a response such as always fix your Gaze on the enemy's sword this is in fact not how he does it but put on the spot it's the answer he provides which then gets rationalized passed on and taught as truth as Musashi says he has no need to fix his gaze as he can see what he is doing intuitively through lots of training likewise in the way of combat strategy the warrior learns through engaging with

different opponents to determine the weight of an enemy's mind with practice in the way you will come to see everything from reach to the speed of the sword generally speaking fixing the Gaze in strategy is to attach it to an enemy's mind this indicates the purpose is to gaze into an enemy's mind and thereby see his intentions but it speaks to a far more holistic manner of achieving it fixing the Gaze is not about staring at a particular point but about intuiting intention by staring into someone's mind in both large and small-scale strategy refrain from

fixing your gaze narrowly as an aside it's possible the younger Musashi fell into this trap himself in his 1604 treaties heidol kill he says direct your eyes on the enemy's face do not focus on anything else since the mind is projected in facial expressions there is no place more revealing than the face to fix one's gaze which seems to contradict his later teaching that fixing the Gaze on a point would adversely affect your strategy it's possible the 20 year old Masashi was repeating what he had been taught or perhaps he developed the teaching himself but

revised it later in life however this is just my conjecture the question of where to place the Gaze leads on to the differentiation between observing and perceiving Musashi differentiated looking in and looking at as two types of perception the two approaches for observing are the eyes of can looking in and Ken looking at perceive and know what cannot be seen with the eyes pay attention even to trivals elsewhere he mentions two layers of Mind as heart of perception and heart of intent collectively these differentiations appear to be a recognition that there are surface level observations

of material events and intuitive observations of reasons and intents the warrior must polish the two layers of his mind the heart of perception and the Heart of intent and sharpen his two powers of observation the gazes of can looking in and Ken looking at the art of intuiting what is occurring and seeing intention beneath events is naturally not something that can be taught through writing as such it is difficult to say more about the topic other than that Musashi felt it important enough to note the distinction in his words it's just something you need to

research well inability to comprehensively see the most fundamental matters will make it difficult to excel this leads to the point that the student is at the center of any progress there is a modern school of thought that says the teacher should take primary responsibility for the success of their students as an ideal for teachers to Aspire to this is admirable but from a stoic perspective it's also something outside of their control while they can Inspire support and motivate a student the final decision to act lies with the student in the words of Musashi the teacher

is the needle and the student the thread what's more even if you're in full-time education the majority of your time is still spent outside of school so the greater part of your opportunity for Progress lies in your own time it is difficult to write about such matters in detail read what I have outlined here and find ways to work it out for yourself however if a book simply tells you to go away and research things yourself what use is it while intuition cannot be taught areas where learning can be found can be pointed out and

the individual can then seek it there for themselves it's analogous to a map indicating where treasure is to be found or in Musashi's words what I have recorded will serve as markers for those dedicated to pursuing this way there is also a profound necessity for humility in any perceived progress with anything truly complex even years of practice do not guarantee a proper understanding Musashi offers himself as an example of this I have devoted myself to studying the discipline of combat strategy since I was young I remained undefeated in over 60 contests after turning 30 I

reminisced on past experiences and realized that my success could not be credited to a true Mastery of strategy thereafter I studied zealously from morning to night in a quest to discover the deepest principles I was about 50 when I realized the real meaning of the way of combat strategy this naturally leads to the concept of practice over Theory one thousand days of training to forge Ten Thousand Days of training to refine nearly all progress comes through practice and throughout the book Masashi ends passages with the line you must research this well reinforcing the point that

theory alone is only ever directional it can point the way but not Grant a full understanding it is impossible to grasp the five exterior forms through simply reading about them you must embody the movements by actual practice with swords personally I feel this holds true even for theoretical disciplines such as maths and physics many times reading a textbook I have felt I understood a topic only to be humbled when I tried to do the calculations at the end of the day it's only through real world practice that you come to practically understand things physical training

must also be done to the point that in pressing situations your conscious mind is no longer involved and your hands and body act by themselves Musashi refers to this as no thought no form today we would call it muscle memory your hands will also strike spontaneously with power speed and no warning this is the strike of no thought no form and is of the utmost importance it is encountered often so it must be learned well this leads to the idea that you must absorb not just memorize memorizing understanding and absorbing are three distinct levels of

learning Musashi emphasizes that principles should be absorbed such that they become a part of you not merely memorized or emulated they need to be embodied at all times simply reading these Scrolls will not lead you to a Mastery in the way of combat strategy even though the concept espoused here were written specially for you do not think it is a matter of Simply reading learning or emulating my instructions think of the principles as emanating from within your own heart and study hard to devise ways of embodying them at all times obviously this is easy to

State and hard to achieve as it is only achieved through continued practice however acknowledging the different levels of understanding exist is useful even if words are insufficient careful contemplation should heighten their intuitive understanding of the principles I am trying to convey now just as physical muscle memory can allow your hands to strike spontaneously mental muscle memory can allow your mind to strike spontaneously everyone has absorbed some level of this for different areas in their lives most of us do not consider dropping litter smoking indoors or cutting in line for example and yet such behaviors are

learned principles not inherent ones they make up our habits and our culture and could be thought of as mental muscle memory or actions you perform without mental consideration on a more conceptual level one may first learn then over time in body the action of not complaining or making excuses such Behavior starts out as a conscious effortful Choice based on an understanding of principles but over time becomes absorbed until such principles emanate from your heart Musashi of course is referring to internalizing principles of strategy and the way not simply good habits and World Views but the

concept Remains the Same just as muscle memory can control one's instinctive physical actions mental muscle memory can control one's instinctive mental behaviors that establishing such instinctive behavior requires deep absorption of the principles it's not enough to just rationally understand them in studying anything you should stay mindful of not becoming a one-trick pony you should not become overly reliant on any one weapon or technique the warrior should avoid harboring a preference for any given weapon Musashi pointed out that many schools promoted themselves based on their specialization with a single weapon the longsword school or the short

sword school for example but he believed you should use the weapon that makes most sense not have a bias toward a particular one if you rely on the short sword you become accustomed to blocking rather than seeking to win and if you favor the long sword then you rely on keeping your distance with no understanding of the deeper principles of strategy they seek to win from a safer distance with a longer weapon this is indicative of a weak mind and is why I see their strategies as being feeble Musashi made frequent comparisons between generals and

master Carpenters to continue the analogy imagine competing schools of carpentry proclaiming themselves the school of the wood plain or the school of the claw hammer and favoring one tool over another such a situation would be farcical and perhaps conveys Musashi's frustration with martial arts schools doing the same so voluntarily mix things up from time to time and stay curious if you have somehow found yourself in a situation where one technique keeps bringing you success remember it won't always work eventually conditions will change or your opposition will adapt train hard now so you're not found lacking

when that occurs when you are in a place where only a short sword is permitted preference for a long sword will be your undoing as it is a cop-out in strategic ability today there are numerous online niches that can be exploited and in doing so it can feel as if you've stumbled across a secret technique for success but such niches are also prone to Vanishing overnight as technology moves on all the world catches up so keep this principle in mind with respect to combat a special one-trick pony case to keep in mind is do not

rely on speed too much of something is just as bad as not enough with a fast opponent feign an attack with your body and mind and strike your opponent down after he responds considered theoretically speed is always beneficial but Musashi only ever spoke practically and in practice he said it was overrated over relying on anything is a risk and just like with over-reliance on long or short swords there are times when speed can work against you specifically Masashi mentioned swampy environments tiring you out a large-scale combat being chaotic or times when cutting too fast can

simply cause the cuts to fail if you try to cut quickly with a sword the speed will prevent it from cutting in the case of large-scale strategy as well the thought of rushing things is hazardous speed disrupting technique is not limited to sword fighting and the principle is nicely demonstrated in a famous video of Michael J white and Kimbo Slice Kimbo easily Dodges Michael's fast strikes but is left dumbstruck at being hit by the slow ones in the video Michael says see the idea is I'm not going straight I'm not telegraphing switching the focus to

speed disrupts both these things and the strike is dodged while this seems counter-intuitive it is a demonstration of real world effects over Theory interestingly appoint Seneca often made about life was that we have plenty of time provided we use it wisely the consistent theme being there is no need to rush provided you are acting in a direct purposeful manner we are not given a short life but we make it short and we are not ill supplied but wasteful of it the objection may arise what if I maintain good technique and still increase speed and this

leads on to a fascinating if esoteric point about rhythm speed in combat is Irrelevant in the real way in all such things what is referred to as fast means that the intervals are out of sync with the Rhythm and as we'll see in part two maintaining rhythm is Paramount to find out why click here