What are the most important lessons you would share in your final moments? Today I’m breaking down lessons from Samurai master Miyamoto Musashi and why The Book of 5 Rings is renowned in martial arts, leadership, business, and politics. Listen in as I explore the history of Miyamoto Musashi and how early exposure to death and violence impacted his mindset toward combat. Learn why warriors can be seen as psychopaths, the importance of Zen meditation to Miyamoto Musashi’s journey, and how you can apply the Book of 5 Rings to your own life.
Episode Transcript
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Acta Non Verba is a show that’s raw and real, featuring hard-hitting interviews with people that live by the ethos of actions, not words. Marcus Aurelius Anderson is a TEDx speaker, best-selling author, veteran, and leadership and mindset coach. With this show, you get to join Marcus as he goes inside the minds and experiences of the world’s most successful warriors, leaders, entrepreneurs, and experts.
00:26
With each episode, you’re going to get the philosophies, concepts, tactics, and strategies these leaders use to turn adversity into victory. Live an extraordinary life based on actions, not words. Now here’s your host, Marcus Aurelius Anderson. It may seem difficult at first, but all things are difficult at first. If you wish to control your opponent, you must first control yourself. You must understand.
00:56
that there is more than one path to the top of the mountain. You can only fight the way that you practice. The only reason a warrior is alive is to fight, and the only reason a warrior fights is to win. Miyamoto Musashi, the book of five rings. I’m Marcus Aurelius Anderson, and this is another installment of Octonon Verba’s warrior wisdom. In this lesson, I’ll be discussing Miyamoto Musashi, the book of five rings.
01:26
why he fought with a wooden sword, and the 21 principles that he wrote from his deathbed. Before we discuss the Book of Five Rings, we need some context into the man that wrote it, Miumoto Musashi. As always, keep in mind that many of the stories about Musashi were mostly carried on as oral traditions. This means that some of their details may have varying degrees of accuracy. And while some exploits may be embellished to make him out to be more of a legend than a man, there is also a lot of truth to his legendary life.
01:56
Take these stories for what they are and apply Bruce Lee’s advice to absorb what is useful, discard what is useless, and research your own experiences. Miyamoto Musashi lived in Japan from 1584 to 1645. He was a swordsman, philosopher, calligrapher, and ronin. He was renowned throughout history through his stories of using double-bladed swordsmanship and an undefeated record of 61 duels, which is twice the number of any other swordsman in history.
02:25
Some of those duels were won with a wooden staff. Some were fought while using two swords. He was also fond of using a wooden sword called a boken in some of these duels. Now, why would somebody decide to use a wooden sword against another samurai that is armed with a razor sharp blade of cold steel? We’ll get to that later in the lesson. A Ronin during that period was a masterless samurai and that’s what Misashi was. He sought enlightenment through combat.
02:53
Musashi killed his first man in single combat at the age of 13. He was only a boy. There are many variations on this story, some saying that he caught the samurai off guard because Musashi’s uncle was pleading with the samurai to refuse the duel to spare his 13-year-old nephew’s life. Others say that the samurai that he faced was not particularly disciplined or even skilled with the sword, but regardless of which tale you listen to, it seems that Musashi used unorthodox fighting methods even back then.
03:22
Misashi quickly closed the distance, threw the samurai to the ground, and then beat him to death, crushing the samurai’s skull with his six-foot wooden staff. It wasn’t pretty, but victory in combat isn’t always beautiful to witness. This early exposure to life-or-death violence shaped Misashi’s mindset regarding combat. It doesn’t matter how you win, only that you win to live to fight another day.
03:49
Musashi understood well the power of psychology and how to use it to his advantage by getting into the minds of his opponents. The samurai at that time were very big on honor, appearances, codes of conduct. Musashi used this knowledge against his adversaries. For example, in another duel, Musashi arrived very late. Not ten minutes, not half an hour. I’m talking three hours late. He did this intentionally to unnerve and enrage his opponent. Being angered, Musashi was very angry.
04:17
allowed Musashi to read and anticipate the enemy’s movements much easier, and he beat his opponent with a wooden sword, crushing his skull like he did in his first duel. Now, as you can imagine, the son of that samurai wanted revenge, and Musashi accepted that duel as well. Only this time, because he had arrived so late previously, he changed his tactics entirely, and showed up three hours early to set up a position and do recon. The son that challenged Musashi at the time was only a boy, but he came armed.
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with a small army of retainers. Musashi however still had the upper hand. Seeing how outnumbered that he was, he just waited and waited and waited. After a few hours the party thought that Musashi was no longer going to appear. That’s when they relaxed and let their guard down. And that’s when Musashi sprung into action. He jumped within their midst, wielding two swords, killing the boy and cutting his way out of the melee using a sword in each hand.
05:15
Musashi fighting with two swords was unique at the time. It is said that the two-handed movements of temple drummers are the ones that may have inspired this method, although it could simply be that the technique was forced through Musashi’s combat experiences. Something else to consider was that Musashi learned how to use jute techniques taught to him by his father. The jute, it’s spelled J-U-T-T-E if you want to look it up, was often used in battle paired with a sword, and it looks similar to the clawed portion of another Japanese weapon called the Sai.
05:43
This was used to parry and trap the enemy’s weapon so that you could attack and strike them with your own at close proximity. Now this knowledge and experience would explain how Musashi knew to close the distance and get in tight to his opponent in that first duel at 13, neutralizing the sword and off-balancing the samurai, throwing him to the ground and ultimately killing him in disgrace in the mud. As you can see, Musashi lived an incredibly violent existence.
06:09
Some have romanticized his path while others have demonized him as a cold-blooded killer. The reality is that there are shades in both of these men. He was following what he thought was truly the warrior’s path, yet by today’s standard many would see him as a psychopath. But let’s unpack this a bit. Psychopaths are considered to be merciless, obsessed, ruthless, without fear or remorse. Now was Musashi merciless? Clearly. Was he obsessed with his art? Absolutely. Was he cunning and ruthless?
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without a doubt. Now, was he without fear or remorse? While those are attributes that a samurai aspires to, no human being can go through life without experiencing these emotions at some point. I’d also like to point out that Musashi was influenced by Buddhism, Shinto, Confucianism, and Taoism, which were very popular religions in the region in the 17th century. In fact, Musashi started practicing Zha-Zen, which is a seated form of Zen meditation in 1611 around the age of 27.
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So in Zen and other previously mentioned religions, these ideas regarding ethics, morality, fear, and remorse are often deconstructed and examined deeply. Something else to take into consideration, anyone that is the greatest of their profession, a goat as you would say, is similarly insane in their characteristics. In basketball, we think of Michael Jordan and that he was obsessed with winning. How he did not really care about his teammates liking him or not, didn’t care about a work-life balance whatsoever.
07:38
If you’re familiar with David Goggins, you know that his goal is always to challenge himself to push himself harder and farther, never letting his body stop his mind from achieving his goals. In 2005, during Goggins’ first ultramarathon, by the time his kidneys had failed around the mile 70 mark, Goggins had broken all the small bones in his feet and suffered dual stress fractures in his lower legs. And he still finished the 100-mile race. Are these examples healthy? Are they sane?
08:07
No, but those that are truly pushing the envelope don’t really care about long-term sustainability. They only care about achieving the goal which entails pushing themselves to their breaking point and beyond. Are they the acts of a psychopath? That depends on your definition. You can absolutely say that they were obsessed. For Musashi, all that I can say is that if you live by the sword and die by the sword, your actions, beliefs, and ethics will look crazy to a person whose life does not depend on how well they wield a weapon. Now on to the book of five rings.
08:37
The Book of Five Rings is a text on the way of the sword in the martial arts in general, written by Musashi around 1645. Many translations have been made, and this book has an audience well beyond just the martial art community because of its teachings on strategy, similar to the Art of War by Sun Tzu in that regard. The material has been used in leadership, business, negotiations, and politics to name just a few. While there are multiple spinoffs of the book, the Book of Five Rings of this, the Book of Five Rings of that, including the Book of Five Rings for Executives,
09:06
Unless you’ve done martial arts or practice with the weapon consistently, most of what is related in this book will sound esoteric and hollow at best, leaving some powerful lessons undiscovered. In this lesson today, I’m bringing this information to you from a place of a coach, a teacher, and a practitioner of the martial arts for over 35 years of experience. I will add context to this content to make it more useful to you the listener and reader and give insight that frankly I’ve never heard anybody else discuss before.
09:36
I’ve seen many who comment on this book because obviously they’ve never done martial arts before. Because the Book of Five Rings is so well known, this means there are many self-help gurus as well as other different kinds of coaches that have mentioned that they don’t agree with all the material in this book. You must remember looking back at this material 400 years after the fact from a place of warmth and safety in a country that is not embroiled in a war. This may make some of the material seem difficult to process, yet there is incredible wisdom to be learned if you can suspend your judgment.
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and simply look at it from an objective standpoint. So here’s some context. Before we begin, you have to prepare yourself and put yourself in the mind of a 17th century Japanese ronin who fights to the death semi-regularly. So a couple of quotes from this book that will always be needed to give you that context. One, generally speaking, the way of the warrior is resolute acceptance of death. And two, the only reason a warrior is alive is to fight, and the only reason a warrior fights is to win.
10:36
Musashi’s metric for winning was simple. Either you won or you died. If you won, your techniques and your tactics were right. If not, well, that was the last mistake that you would ever make. Musashi’s lessons come from this foundation. So he didn’t care about the semantics or about how somebody felt regarding his choice of language. He didn’t care about being politically correct or refining somebody’s delicate sensibilities when writing the book of five rings. What Musashi is writing about comes from hard earned wisdom.
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gathered from fighting to the death 61 times. He is not trying to create diversity or inclusion in the feel-good culture of a multi-billion dollar corporation. One last thing before we jump into the book. A quote often mentioned by Musashi is, you must research this thoroughly. He says this and variations of this many times. And he’s doing this because he’s saying that you must practice this stuff diligently, not just research it by reading about it. A very octanon verba, don’t you think?
11:34
book of five rings and by the way I’m using Victor Harris’s translation. The five books refer to the idea that there are different elements of battle just as there are different physical elements in life as described in Buddhism and Shinto. The five rings are earth, water, fire, wind, and the void. The first book earth also called ground by some. This first chapter serves as an introduction and metaphorical discussion of martial arts training and leadership.
12:02
This chapter teaches the strategy of being a warrior. It is the foundation of its existence. This is the groundwork, therefore the reference to ground. We saw she also discusses the ranges of combat and the weapons that are best suited for each environment. For example, how a long sword will be useful in the field or on a horseback, yet it’s not very practical to fight in a more confined space where a sword would be more effective. We saw she says, generally speaking, the way of the warrior is the resolute acceptance of death. And the kind of dynamic combat that he was engaged in
12:32
There was no time for unnecessary movement. In a fight, if you think that you’re one step behind, you’re not. You’re actually two or three. This was the direct mentality brought to this book in one of the five rings. His school was called the Ichi School and it used both a long sword and a short sword, one in each hand. Quote, if you hold a sword with both hands, it is difficult to wield it freely to the left or to the right. So my method is to carry a sword in each hand. You can wield the long sword. You can wield the short sword.
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The way of the Ichi school is the spirit of winning, whatever the weapon and whatever the size. We saw she believed that you could win with either sword. It was the way of victory that he stressed, not necessarily the importance of the distance or range or technique or weapon. Again, there are many paths to the top of the mountain. This book of Earth ends with nine basic principles, the ground upon which the samurai stands, so to speak. The nine principles are.
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- The way is in training. 3. Become acquainted with every art. 4. Know the way of all professions. 5. Distinguish gain and loss in worldly manners. 6. Develop intuitive judgment and understanding of everything. 7. Perceive those things that cannot be seen. 8. Pay attention even to trifles.
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And number nine, do nothing which is of no use. You will see these principles woven into every area of this book as we go along. The second book of five rings is the book of water. In many Eastern philosophies, you will hear references to water, how it can flow or how it can be gentle, how it can crash, how it can be a soft rain or a monsoon, how water is shapeless and formless, how it’s completely conforms to whatever container you put it in. If you put it in a cup, it becomes the cup, et cetera.
14:31
In this chapter, Musashi is talking about the fluidity of footwork and tactics in combat. Musashi also mentions how his intention is never to block and cut, it is never to parry and cut, it is simply to cut. When fighting, your intention is to cut the enemy by any means necessary. This shows the leading intention by which all of his duels were fought. To cut, to crush, to defeat the opponent. In other words, to live.
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He also mentions different kinds of cuts in this chapter based on this principle of fluidity. The first one that he talks about is the flowing water cut. When equally matched enemies fight and go into a stalemate, Musashi says that we must break this stalemate because it’s like stagnant water. Water will eventually find the cracks or weaknesses in any stone and it will break it apart from that place. Attack the enemy with the intentional strike while probing for an opening. Once you’ve found it, crash into it like a tsunami.
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Another cut that he talks about is called the continuous cut. This refers to when two swords crash into each other with powerful strikes. Now there is normally a natural springing energy that comes off of blades when they rebound from impact. It is during this ricochet that you can have this continuous cut into your enemy. This means to let the blade deflect, then redirect the energy back into the space that is created by such deflection. In one motion.
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When your sword springs away from theirs, Musashi says to use a continuous motion to slash their head, body, or legs. The last cut that he refers to is called the fire and stones cut. This refers to whenever two swords clash together again, only this time, instead of stopping the cut upon feeling resistance from the opponent’s sword, you keep cutting through with every fiber of your being. You don’t stop, you don’t quit, you continue to push on. Having this specific intention to follow through not only
16:26
has this idea of springing and deflection taken out of mind entirely, the intent of cutting is the only thing you think of. The idea is to execute this cut with a 100% commitment to overwhelm your adversary once and for all. It is a life or death commitment with this cut. The third book is called the Book of Fire. This refers to the heat of battle and discusses different types of rhythm and timing while in the fray.
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obstruct the vision of the enemy while keeping yours clear, taking the high ground to gain advantage as well as keeping the sun and wind to your back whenever possible to keep it from inhibiting your vision and potentially blinding your opponent momentarily. Here are a few more quotes directly from the Book of Five Rings. You must look down on the enemy and take up your attitude of a higher place. Musashi obviously is referring to the high ground here. Speed in the martial arts is not the true way. Concerning speed.
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We say that something is fast or slow depending on whether it hits the rhythm of things or not. When you and your opponent are fighting and nothing is going right nor is there progress, be of a mind to throw off your former intention and start entirely anew. Take on another rhythm. See your way to victory. You should change your mind on the spot and take to victory by using another tactic. There is rhythm in everything, but particularly in the martial arts. If you do not train in this rhythm, it is difficult.
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win. There is even rhythm in being empty. Observe the rhythms of their attacking order and go to meet the first of those that attack first. In a battle of the martial arts, victory is in knowing the rhythm of various opponents, in using a rhythm that your opponent will be unable to grasp, and in developing a rhythm of emptiness rather than one of wisdom. We see here that Musashi understands rhythm and that it is key.
18:19
This echoes much of what’s been said by other military tacticians, including Sun Tzu in the art of war. For me, Misashi’s words also bring to mind the five ways of attack taught by Bruce Lee and his tremendous martial art, Jikendo. For those of you that do not know the five ways of attack of Jikendo, they are, one, the single or simple direct attack, two, progressive indirect attack, three, attack by combination, four, attack by drawing, and five, attacking by hand mobilization.
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And to give you quick examples of each of these, so the single direct attack would be just like a single direct technique like one punch, one kick, one thrust. That’s it. There’s nothing else to it. You just attack directly and that’s it. The second one is a progressive indirect attack, meaning there’s a faint involved first. Maybe you faint low so you can attack the high line. Maybe you throw a high jab so that you can shoot in and do a double leg takedown. You’re using one thing to offset the opponent and then going with the other thing. So you’re
19:17
progressively attacking indirectly. The third is attacked by combination, which could be anything, a simple combination like jab, cross hook, and boxing. And the idea is maybe they parry the first blow, maybe they parry the second blow, maybe the third blow is the one that lands. Maybe the first blow sets up the second blow, et cetera. But by attacking in a combination, sort of a swarm kind of idea, this gives you more opportunities to potentially strike the target. The fourth one is attacked by drawing.
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This means you are drawing your opponent into you, bringing them close. And a simple way to do this is whenever they move forward, you move back. When they move forward, you move back. And now you’ve established sort of that rhythm, so to speak. When they move forward again, you faint that you’re moving back and now you attack forward. Now you thrust towards them. Attack by hand mobilization, the fifth one. That sounds a little bit esoteric, but it goes like this. In…
20:13
Bruce Lee’s martial art, the first art that he learned was Wing Chung. So you’re doing a lot of trapping. You’re pinning that opponent. You’re pinning the arms to their body. In Muay Thai or in Cambodian boxing, this would also be like a clinch. You’re immobilizing parts of their body so they can’t attack you, which incidentally is very similar to what Musashi was doing in his first attack when he was 13, he closed the distance, immobilized the samurai’s hands, threw him to the ground and then beat him to death. This is a great example of attack by hand immobilization.
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Now a few of these examples harken back to the Book of Water such as In One Timing and Abdomen Timing of Two, but honestly I think the G Condos Five Ways of Attack is easier to grasp and apply for the listener and reader. Bruce Lee has said famously to absorb what is useful, discard what is useless, and then add what is specifically your own. And as you can imagine, Lee borrowed whatever worked regardless of the martial arts origin. He was a martial atheist in that way. In fact,
21:10
Bruce Lee adopted these five ways of attack from another martial art that you may have heard of called fencing, as in Olympic fencing, as in using a sword, which brings us full circle to Musashi’s wisdom in fencing with a samurai sword in this book of five rings. Some of you may not know this, Bruce Lee was also a cha-cha champion in Hong Kong and saw a lot of similarities between dancing and fighting. To Bruce Lee, like Musashi, rhythm was of paramount importance.
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Another example of the ability to use syncopation or what Bruce Lee referred to as broken rhythm. This means establishing a rhythm in battle, then suddenly breaking that rhythm to strike the opponent between beats or on the downbeat to catch him off guard. This very much overlaps not only with what Musashi has written, but also echoes back to the book of water. Some of these cuts that we talked about specifically, the flowing water cut and the continuous cut, which are based on changing the angle of attack based on your adversaries energy, reactions and rhythms.
22:09
The fourth book is called The Book of Wind and is actually a pun since the Japanese character for wind can also mean style, which is what we’re talking about a martial arts style here, right? In Wind, Musashi discusses what he considers to be the shortcomings of other contemporary schools of sword fighting. Quote, the principles of my school is quite different. In other schools, techniques are displayed like merchandise adorned with colors and flowers so that they can be turned into a way of making a living, which is not the true way.
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In my school, no consideration is given to anything unreasonable. The heart of the matter is to use the power of the knowledge of the martial arts given to gain victory any way you can. Essentially Musashi is talking trash on other schools here. He’s basically saying, this is what they do. This is what we do. This is why we are better. And this sort of behavior was very common in a practice in that time, especially at that part of Japan. There was another notable samurai in Musashi’s time who renounced his life as a warrior to study Zen Buddhism.
23:09
His name was Suzuki Shosen. Tremendous story. There was a book written about him called death is his Kowan. He wrote a book called crush Christianity that you similar dogmatic verbiage and why we are better than they are. So we see this in philosophy, martial arts, and religion even today. What Masashi was saying is that he found certain inadequacies and other systems and he’s showing you why he fights the way that he does. But when you consider his record of being undefeated in 61 duels,
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He is absolutely qualified to have such opinions. The last book of the Five Rings is called The Void, and this book is much more abstract and nonspecific than the other four books. And we can see Musashi’s writing of this is heavily influenced by Zen and Taoism as they mention the idea of being still, being at peace yet prepared, of having a formless form, and having a very unclouded vision. One of the quotes from this part of it says,
24:07
You can know what does not exist. That is the void. People in this world look at things mistakenly and think that what they do not understand must be the void. This is not the true void. This is confusion. I know, it sounds like it doesn’t make a lot of sense, but just hear me out. What Musashi is describing is the feeling of turmoil and chaos experienced in the face of adversity and trying to become the eye of the storm. So
24:35
If you’ve ever felt nervous before going up to give a presentation or a speech on stage, you understand the emotions at work. Now multiply that emotion times 100 when you consider that Musashi is referring to this physical as well as emotional life or death situation in combat. Becoming centered and grounded while in this chaos is the emptiness of the void. Another quote that he says, in the void is virtue and no evil. Wisdom has existence. Principle has existence. The way has existence.
25:05
Spirit is nothingness. So emptiness and cultivating emptiness is a common theme in Zen Buddhism and meditation practice which was heavily influential in Musashi especially in his later years. And while this may sound vague, it’s the perfect description of a Japanese concept called Mushin. And it’s an idea that is found in multiple philosophies as well as martial arts. Mushin in Japanese translates to roughly mean no mind.
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martial artists, and artists. Muchen is achieved when a person’s mind is free from thoughts of fear, anger, anticipation, or ego during combat or even everyday life. The only way to understand and thrive in the void is to learn to control your emotions and maintain this soft focus while in combat. It means no distractions, no inhibitions, no hesitations. Remember the quote from earlier, generally speaking, the way of the warrior is the resolute acceptance of death.
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Only with this complete acceptance of death prior to battle can one stare into the void without fear. Only from this place of detachment can a warrior hope to perform to the best of his abilities. Again, this is where Musashi’s experience in combat speaks volumes on a subject that few understand. This ends the book of Five Rings. There’s one more duel about Musashi that I would like to talk about. It’s probably his most famous duel. It’s been told and emulated in comic books, anime, novels, and movies worldwide.
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The story and its variations go something like this, and again, take it with a grain of salt. The person that he was fighting, the duel was against a person named Kujiro. And some backstory on him, he was a young samurai that was talking a lot of smack about Musashi, even hanging up posters of Musashi all over Japan to challenge him. This was the classic example of a samurai that was young and brash, trying to make a name for himself. So on the day of the duel, Kujiro arrives to the correct time and location, and of course, Musashi is three hours late.
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Legend has it that Musashi had overslept. Kujirō sent out servants to retrieve Musashi, who ate breakfast first, took his time, was not rushed in the least. In some variants of this tale, he was being taken by boat to the island, to the duel, where Musashi picked up a crude oversized ore that was already broken and decided to turn it into a giant wooden sword. Upon his arrival, the enraged Kujirō,
27:29
It chides Musashi’s lateness and dramatically throws his scabbard into the sea as a sign that he was going to not stop and he was going to fight to the death. Musashi’s smartass response was that Kujirō clearly wasn’t very confident in himself if he thought that he would never get a chance to use such a fine scabbard again. The two circled one another. Kujirō leapt forward with his trademark overhead strike. Musashi too jumped and swung his sword with a loud shout. Then there was stillness.
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sliced by his opponent’s sword, but somehow only the headband was cut, not Musashi’s skull. Musashi’s strike, meanwhile, has struck true, pulverizing his opponent’s skull. Legendary indeed. Now, let’s examine this battle and Musashi’s mindset in combat. Why a Wooden Sword? I’ve heard some authors mention that Musashi used a wooden sword because he was soooo good that he thought it was the only honorable way to fight an adversary, to give them a fighting chance by using a wooden sword. Really?
28:28
Do you honestly believe that? After hearing everything that I’ve said or anything that you’ve read about Musashi, there is absolutely no way that I buy into the idea that he wanted to give any opponent an advantage, especially when he knew that they were going to be fighting to the death. But Musashi was cunning and calculated. Nothing that he did was by happenstance. It was all very intentional. So let’s think about it. What possible advantage could using this wooden sword give Musashi against the blade?
28:56
This is where knowing your opponent gives you a tremendous advantage. Musashi knew how other samurai thought, what they believed, and how they trained. He knew that they rarely trained with wooden swords and when they did, it was usually against another wooden sword in a controlled training environment. Few samurai had sparred or fought while wielding the steel blade against a wooden sword at the death. Now, in my martial art experience, I have trained with blades, live blades, sharpened blades, etc.
29:23
I’ve practiced cutting on wooden blocks and tree branches. Hitting a thick piece of wood for the first time with a metal sword can send violent vibrations through your hands, a shockwave all the way up your arm into your neck, even when you use the technique correctly. If you’ve ever split firewood with an axe or tried to cut something down with a machete, you understand what I’m referring to. A steel blade impacting heavy wood has a very different feel than swinging it against a live blade that allows the steel to bounce back. Wood is very dense.
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and it smothers the movement of a sword like a wet blanket smothers a fire. This makes the steel blade difficult to retrieve and sometimes even gets stuck in the wood. If you’ve never swung a sword against a piece of wood before, you don’t know what to expect. It doesn’t bounce back, it simply dies, and now you have a hard time retrieving and recovering from it. Remember, Musashi was all about rhythm and timing. Once that sword has taken a funny bounce and the samurai is trying to recover, Musashi has already anticipated this.
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and is swinging a huge chunk of wood at your head before you even realize what’s happening. Again, when you’re in a fight and you feel like you’re one step behind, you’re not, you’re actually two or three. In a life or death encounter like a duel, it can cost you your life. Also remember that Musashi liked to anger his opponents to get under their skin. He knew that the samurai class was very concerned about honor and the appearance of honor, and anything that resembled disrespect would anger them. This in and of itself is actually ironic when you consider that the humility of the samurai
30:50
has always been given lip service by the samurai Kodo Bushido and his eight virtues. Also understand that the samurai class, especially at that time, was very close knit. If you were a samurai, you were at the very top of this elite unit, right? He had killed 61 samurai in his lifetime, and that warrior class was very elite and very close. That means we saw she had killed samurai, their allies, their close friends, maybe even their brothers or their sons.
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But every samurai that challenged Musashi wanted to be the one that teach him a lesson to regain honor for the entire samurai community. Also Musashi was a ronin, a masterless samurai. To the other samurai who had a master that they served, being a ronin meant that you had no honor. So here it is. Here’s this guy, Musashi. He’s this rebel ronin with no honor, killing your close friends and allies in duel after
31:48
and then fights with a big wooden sword the next, he is completely disrespectful and fights in a very unorthodox manner, arriving three hours early or late depending on the day of the week. This was all done by design by Musashi. Also consider that Musashi had likely done his homework whenever he researched an opponent well beforehand. Many samurai were known for a certain style of attack or strike that they used often in combat. This is another form of attack by drawing.
32:15
If Musashi fought in a duel against another samurai that was calm, cool, and collected, there may be any number of angles that he would have to be concerned about, but that’s not Musashi’s style. He knew that if he could show up late to anger an adversary, to act as respectfully and arrogant as he approached, all the while eliciting the fight with a wooden sword instead of a blade because he didn’t respect the samurai enough to use a live blade, then that would likely send any opponent into a rage. So now…
32:44
Instead of having to worry about half a dozen different strikes or variations, Musashi easily drew them into one of only a couple of different attacks, all of which he was more than prepared to counter because he had led them down this path intentionally. If a samurai had never fought someone armed with a wooden sword before, their normal tendency would be to be aggressive, to lead, usually coming with an overhead strike or a diagonal cut across the body. And though he may appear behind in the battle,
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Musashi leapfrogs ahead violently when it matters the most. Musashi sets the trap, leaves them into it with this technique of attack by drawing, lets them fall, taking the blow to the head that will send them to their fate. In The Art of War, Sun Tzu says to keep your friends close and your enemies closer. For those of you that do not train with weapons, whether it be firearms, edge weapons, or blunt force weapons, they may not understand that the closer you are to an armed assailant, the better your chance of survival. Let me explain.
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Both the attacker with the weapon and the person defending themselves against the weapon usually fixate on the weapon itself, often without realizing that they have other weapons at their own disposal. Yes, the knife is deadly, but if I can neutralize that blade even only for a second, I can now headbutt. I can use finger jabs to the eyes or the soft tissue. I can use knees and elbows. I can push this person sideways. I can off balance them potentially. That I can even redirect that blade back to them, applying the return to center philosophy, if you will.
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This is very much what Musashi was doing. Imagine the psychological advantage that you would have when a person believes that they have a better weapon, greater strengths, and more honor than you, only to realize too late that they were wrong. This comes back to the idea again, when you think that you’re one step behind, you’re not, you’re actually two or three. The only thing more intoxicating than victory is the assumption of victory. So when Musashi’s opponent assumed that he would win, when he felt that blade actually making contact with what he thought was Musashi’s head,
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but it was only his headband. By the time he realized that it was not, the wooden sword was already crushing the life out of him.
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Musashi’s last words. Musashi died of natural causes at the age of 61. The de coto, or the way of walking alone, are the final words that he wrote one week prior to dying in his deathbed. The 21 principles of de coto are, one, accept everything just the way it is. Two, do not seek pleasure for its own sake. Three, do not, under any circumstances,
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depend on a partial feeling. 4. Think lightly of yourself and deeply of the world. 5. Be detached from desire your whole life long. 6. Do not regret what you have done. 7. Never be jealous. 8. Don’t let yourself be saddened by separation. 9. Resentment and complaint are appropriate neither for yourself or for others.
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- Do not let yourself be guided by the feelings of lust or love. 11. And all things have no preference. 12. Be indifferent to where you live. 13. Do not pursue the taste of good food. 14. Do not hold on to possessions that you no longer need. 15. Do not act following customary beliefs.
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Do not collect weapons or practice with weapons beyond what is useful. 17. Do not fear death. 18. Do not seek to possess either goods or fiefdoms in your old age. 19. Respect Buddha and the gods without counting on them to help you. 20. You may abandon your own body, but you must always preserve your honor. 21. Never stray from the way.
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Each of these principles sound very pragmatic and practical, very Musashi. Again, while simple, it will take a lifetime of practice to master these principles. Your after action items for this lesson. I know that there is a lot of material in this lesson. It’s very dense, but I try to give you a lot of powerful information. So I would recommend one listening to this lesson multiple times and then taking notes. Explore further the ideas that you’ve taken notes on that have made the most impact on you.
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and then see how you can apply them to every aspect of your life right now. Go read the book of five rings yourself. Again I use the Victor Harris translation. Also read and review the 21 principles of the Dakota, his last words. If you’re not familiar with Bruce Lee’s five ways of attack or from Jeet Kune Do in general, that’s a great place to learn more about Bruce Lee’s martial philosophy. And listen, even if you see Masashi as a psychopath, I asked you to do what I write about in my first book, The Gift of Adversity.
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I ask that you learn to absorb truth irrespective of source. Now, does this mean that you have to like and agree with everything that Musashi did or wrote about? Of course not. My next question to you is this. Isn’t there something that you could learn from the most famous Japanese swordsman in history about strategy, tactics, and concepts? Couldn’t you glean something of value from a 61 duel to the death? I’m sure there is.
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even if it’s nothing more than realizing that you do not want to emulate Musashi and his teachings. Regardless, there’s a lot of quality in this material. I highly recommend that you check it out. Final thoughts. The reason many are not committed to success and excellence in today’s day and age is because they’re standard for success and excellence, or lack thereof. For most of you listening, few of the decisions that you make are a matter of life or death. For Musashi, they absolutely were.
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Also consider that the death that he was facing was immediate and instantaneous. Truthfully, every decision that we make in our life really does have life or death ramifications, but the death that we think that we will face is far away from the here and now we think we have lots of time, but if you understand that every decision you make from the through that you eat, the actions that you take, they actually bring you closer to your goals or further away. There is no in between. This is the reality check that you need. If you’re within the sound of my voice right now, you must understand.
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Death is coming, death is winning. Do something with the time that you have left in your life. Finally, the quote that he mentions over and over in this book, you must train constantly. You must research this well. You must study hard. I couldn’t agree more. Thus endeth the lesson.
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Thank you for listening. If you enjoyed and learned something from this, I recommend going back to other Akshannam Vrba Warrior Wisdom episodes. I have lessons that discuss at length the Art of War by Sun Tzu, the War of Art and Put Your Ass Where Your Heart Wants to Be by Steven Pressfield, the book Thick-Faced Black Heart by Chen En-Chu, which is sort of a combination of Eastern philosophy mixed with Machiavellian pragmatism. They’re all free. They’re all available for download. Go check them out now. Please subscribe. And I would also appreciate if you would leave a review on iTunes or wherever you listen.
